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How is yogurt made and what are active cultures? Find out in this experiment how good bacteria can make plain old milk into a yummy treat!
While looking at a package of dry yeast it is hard to believe it is alive. But add the right ingredients and presto, the mixture becomes a bubbly, oozing, mess of life! What are the right ingredients? Do this experiment and figure it out for yourself!
Do you wash your hands? You should—it's the best way to prevent the spread of germs. But germs can be tricky; they find nooks and crannies to hide in, so it takes good hand-washing technique to get rid of them. In this science project, you'll investigate which parts of the hand are the most difficult to wash germs off of.
Germs are everywhere! We try and clean our home with disinfectants, but do we really get rid of all the germs? Find out with this "hands-on" experiment.
Did you ever wonder how yeast makes bread dough rise? This project will show you what yeast does to make this happen. You'll also investigate the conditions yeast needs to grow.
This project uses liquid cultures and agar plates to investigate the effects of different concentrations of a food preservative on microbial growth.
Crown gall is a plant disease caused by the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This project uses tomato plants to investigate whether garlic extract can prevent crown gall infection.
Have you heard that garlic powder is supposed to inhibit the growth of bacteria? Which do you think would make a better disinfectant: a solution of garlic powder or a solution of bleach? This project shows you a straightforward way to compare the effectiveness of different disinfectants (or other antimicrobial agents), by measuring zones of inhibition on a culture plate.
Microbes are everywhere in our environment, but for the most part they escape our notice. This project shows you how to safely culture and study common bacteria from your everyday surroundings.
There's nothing quite like the smell of fresh-baked bread to make your mouth water! As any baker can tell you, you can't bake bread without yeast. This project makes clever use of bread dough to measure yeast reproduction three different ways, and investigates how well yeast grow with sugar substitutes as a food source. Pass the butter, please!
Have you ever wondered where acne comes from and how you can treat it? One major cause of acne is the colonization and infection of clogged pores with the bacteria P. acnes. In this science project, you'll test different acne medications and treatments to determine their effectiveness at killing P. acnes.
Ultraviolet light can damage DNA molecules. If a cell's DNA repair mechanisms can't keep up with the damage, mutations are the result. As harmful mutations accumulate, the cell eventually dies. How much ultraviolet light is too much for a bacterial cell?
This is a project that illustrates the process of natural selection in action. You'll need access to a laboratory for working with the bacterial cultures used in this project.
This is a straightforward project on glucose metabolism in yeast. You'll grow yeast under aerobic and anaerobic conditions and measure carbon dioxide output to assess metabolic efficiency.
Here's a practical project that sheds light on safe practices in the kitchen.
Additional Project Ideas
Note: The following project ideas are abbreviated, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk.
Disinfectants are products that kill harmful bacteria that inhabit surfaces. Disinfectants can be in household and personal cleaning products. Which products work best? Compare different household cleaning products, like bleach or Lysol, to see which ones kill the most bacteria. Compare different brands of antibacterial hand soap or dish soap to...
Antibiotics work by destabilizing the metabolism or cellular structure of bacteria, preventing growth, and causing bacteria to die. Some strains of bacteria have mutated and found a way to resist the actions of antibiotics. These are called resistant strains because they resist the actions of available antibiotic treatments. There are many...
The overuse of antibiotics have raised concern by health officials because of the rise of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. How can we avoid the use of antibiotics? Are there other natural sources of antimicrobial compounds? Many plant products (like coffee, tea, herbs and spices) have been shown to contain compounds that act as...
Did you know that a scientific study has shown that chewing Big Red Gum reduces mouth microbes? (ScienceDaily contributors, 2004) The cinnamon oil in the gum is a natural defense against mouth bacteria that cause tooth decay and bad breath. Conduct an experiment to compare products with cinnamon essence in gum, candy, toothpaste, and mouthwash to...
Resources
Many of the experiments in this area involve collecting, growing, and studying bacteria and other microorganisms. Students must take caution when handling samples and growth media because even the slightest trace of contamination can produce undesirable results. To assist those students doing projects in Microbiology, we offer the following resources:
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All About Agar
Agar is the most popular culture medium for bacteria and various other microorganisms. Please read this document to find out all about agar as well as what kind of agar is suitable for your particular experiment.
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Interpreting Plates
What's growing on that Petri dish? Different types of bacteria will produce different-looking colonies, some colonies may be colored, some colonies are circular in shape, and others are irregular. Click here for a quick introduction to colony morphology and pictures of typical Petri dish exhibits of microorganisms.
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Inoculation: How to Put the Bacteria You Desire on a Petri Dish
Streaking is an essential tool for conducting Microbiology experiments involving bacteria. Here is an introduction to some common techniques.
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Microbiology Techniques & Troubleshooting
A wealth of useful information can be found on this page, including safety guidelines, which disinfectants to use for cleanup, tips for growing cultures, etc.
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Microbes in Action
Lab protocols for various experiments and interesting classroom activities that you can try.
Safety Considerations
Bacteria are ubiquitous, and live within the human gut, and in every corner of our environment. We come in contact with bacteria on a daily basis. Handwashing is 99.9% effective at decontaminating ourselves from bacteria which may reside on the skin. Thus, when the proper safety precautions are taken, colonies of microorganisms can be safely isolated from homes, yards, gardens, etc. The majority of microorganisms are non-pathogenic, but bacterial cultures or petri plates containing any type of bacterial colonies should always be treated with general safety precautions. Household bleach at 10% strength, or general common household cleaning reagents (409, Fantastic, Lysol, etc.), are effective at decontaminating all bacteria, and should be used at the completion of the study, before plates are discarded.
For more information, see the Science Buddies Microorganisms Safety Guide.
