My topic is bacteria. We chose this topic because we thought that it was interesting. I also chose this topic because I think it is cool to work with bacteria.
The question I tried to answer was, how can bacteria be grown? I thought that this topic was very interesting because you can work with bacteria but you have to wear gloves so you will not get sick. Also you get to streak plates with skim milk (sour) and some other colored liquids (indicators). We had pH paper to show how much acid was in the things we measured.
Bacteria was discovered by a Dutch naturalist named Anton Van Leevenhook with the aid of a simple microscope. He reported the discovery to the Royal Society of London in 1683, but the science of bacteria was not established until the mid 1800s. For 200 years it was believed that bacteria were everywhere. Scientists proved that some bacteria come only from similar organisms. This fact was proven in 1860 by the French scientist Louis Pasteur. He also discovered that many infections and diseases are caused by bacteria.
To answer my question I first had to streak a plate. A plate is something that grows bacteria in an incubator. Next I put the plate in the incubator. The incubator makes heat of body temperature for bacteria to grow. Later I streaked two more plates to see which grew first. I wrote all of the information down that happened during my investigation.
I learned that bacteria could go anywhere or be on anything that somebody touched. I also learned that you can get sick or even die if you don't wash or shower every day. You should clean everything in your house often.
Something a future student could do might be to streak dirt or something like that. Someone's question could be, what bacteria is in dirt?
February 27, 1997 - pH reading of milk is 6.3 (five days after placing it in a test tube - it looks watery and clear
February 28, 1997 - pH reading still 6.3 - looks watery (with a big glop at top)
March 3, 1997 - pH reading 5.9 - looks clear
March 6, 1997 - pH reading 5.9 - looks very watery
March 10, 1997 - pH reading 4.8 - looks very, very watery
March 23, 1997 - pH reading 5.3 - looks very clear