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Growing Bacteria in
Nutrient Agar
Alex Sallade

Abstract-Pg.2

Introduction-Pg. 2

Statement of problem-Pg. 2

Variables-Pg. 2

Hypothesis-Pg. 3

Review of Literature-Pg. 3

Materials-Pg. 3

Procedures-Pg. 4

Method-Pg. 4

Results-Pg. 5

Recommendations-Pg. 6

Conclusions-Pg. 6
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Abstract
My experiment was growing bacteria in agar Petri dishes. The
problem for my experiment was “What item in my house contains the
most bacteria?” I collected bacteria from a doorknob, a computer
keyboard, a soap bottle, and a TV remote. In the end it turned out the
soap bottle had the most bacteria on it, but the bacteria in the computer
keyboard dish took up more area. If you go by the size of the bacteria,
the computer had the most bacteria, but if you go by the amount of
bacteria spots, the soap bottle had more bacteria.

Introduction
The purpose of my experiment was to see what item out of a
computer keyboard, doorknob, soap bottle, and TV remote contained the
most bacteria. My goal was to figure out what item of those four had the
most bacteria. Based on the research the TV remote should have the
most bacteria and the soap bottle would have the least bacteria. Even
though based on the research the TV remote would have more, my
hypothesis was that the computer would because my family’s always
using it.

Problem
What item in my house out of a doorknob, TV remote, computer
keyboard, and soap bottle has the most bacteria on it?

Variables
Independent-The item swiped for bacteria (Doorknob, keyboard,
soap bottle, and TV remote)
Dependent- The amount of bacteria grown in the Petri dishes
Control- Petri dish size
Control- Agar viscosity
Control- Room temperature
Control- Cotton swabs were sterile
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Hypothesis
If I gather bacteria from a TV remote, computer keyboard,
doorknob, and a soap bottle, then the computer keyboard will grow the
most bacteria.

Review of Literature
There are 12 different types of agar; Blood, Chocolate, Luria
Bertani, MaConkey, Miller’s LB, Neomycin, non-nutrient, nutrient,
Sabouraud, Thayer-Martin, Tryptic Soy, and XLD agar. I used nutrient
agar which is the most commonly used agar because it is suitable for
growing bacteria safely and has a very low risk of human contamination
unlike Blood, Chocolate, Thayer-Martin, Neomycin, and Sabouraud
agar. Nutrient agar has a light brown/beige color and the texture is very
similar to gelatin, but agar can stick to Petri dishes. I also researched the
dirtiest items in a house. The website listed the top ten items; Bathtub,
kitchen drain, telephone, toothbrush, remote control, computer
keyboard/mouse, cutting board, behind appliances, top of refrigerator,
and doorknobs. I used a doorknob, TV remote, computer keyboard, and
a soap bottle. Based on the website the TV remote would have the most
bacteria and the soap bottle would have the least (Because it wasn’t even
in the top 10).

Materials
 Bottled agar formula
 8 sterilized Petri dishes
 8 sterilized cotton swabs
 Tray/Rack
 Gloves/Oven mitts
 Microwave
 200ml agar formula
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Procedure
1. Sterilize your Petri dishes by placing them in boiling water then
dry them upside-down on a drying rack. If they are still in
packaging keep them there until use.
2. Unscrew the cap of the bottle of agar formula a little and place it in
the microwave to warm and liquefy.
3. When the agar is liquid, hold the bottle with the gloves or oven
mitts and pour the agar into the Petri dishes.
4. Pour enough so it’s about 1/8 an inch thick and put the lid on fast
to let it dry.
5. Let the agar solidify for a few hours.
6. Once dry, get the cotton swabs one at a time to transfer the bacteria
7. Rub one cotton swab on the object them quickly rub it on the agar
8. When rubbing it on the agar, hold the tray upside down so bacteria
in the air doesn’t fall onto it.
9. Let the bacteria grow

Method
To record the growing bacteria, I took notes in my lab notebook
each day. I wrote about each Petri dish that had bacteria growing, and
then wrote which had nothing grown yet. Each item I rubbed a cotton
swab, a computer keyboard, a doorknob, a soap bottle, and a TV remote,
got two Petri dishes to grow stuff on. The dishes were D1, D2, S1, S2,
T1, T2, C1, and C2. I included the color, size, and shape of the bacteria
spots so I’d be able to see changes from day to day. My control
variables were that the Petri dishes were the same, they were all in the
same room and on the same rack, the agar had the same viscosity in each
Petri dish, and I applied the bacteria the same for each dish. For the first
few days nothing had grow, but after 6 days, on Feb. 3, one spot grew in
Petri dish C1. Every day since Feb. 3 more spots grew and changed. I
originally planned to record the bacteria growing for 1 week, but it took
almost a week for one spot to grow so instead I recorded for 2 weeks.
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After recordings for two weeks, I did my final recording then counted
the number of bacteria spots in the Petri dishes.

Results

50 Growing Bacteria in Nutrient Agar

According to the number of spots the soap bottle had the most
bacteria on it. But according to how much room the bacteria took up,
the computer keyboard had the most. C1 had two very big spots that
took up more room than the spots in S1.

S1 C1

As you can see, the spots in C1 are much bigger and take up more room.
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Recommendations
My experiment has been done differently by many people with
different variables and methods, but done are ever the exact same. One
person might do this project but use a piano as one of the items instead
of a doorknob. Also, everybody’s house, or wherever the cotton swabs
were swiped, is different. They could have more bacteria or fewer
bacteria. Because all of these uncontrollable variables that would affect
the project immensely, there’s no way of having any good expected
results.
If I was to do this again, I’d change a lot of things. I would keep
the agar in a warmer room. The room I had the agar in wasn’t that warm
and might have slowed down the growing process, making the
experiment take twice as long as expected. I would also use a different
variable instead of a doorknob since that Petri dish had nothing grown.
When I poured the agar, there were some parts not fully melted so they
were big chunks in the Petri dishes. Next time, I’d make sure that the
formula is fully prepared to be poured. I would’ve liked to see how
much bacteria would grow in another week, or month, or even a few
months.

Conclusion
The results of the experiment arguably supported my hypothesis.
If you decide which Petri dish had more bacteria growing by the number
of spots, the soap pump would have the most. But if you decide which
had more bacteria by how much room they took up, the computer
keyboard had the most. The results I got didn’t match the ones from
online at all. The TV remote had only more than the doorknob, which
should have been less than the soap bottle.
The only explanation of nothing growing in the D1 or D2 is that
the bacteria couldn’t grow fast enough because of the temperature. I
expected the TV remote to have more because it’s constantly being used
and is touched by everyone in my family, like the computer keyboard. I
was surprised the soap bottle had as much bacteria growing as did, but I
must’ve swiped a spot where a lot of bacteria had been.
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Feb. 2011.

<http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000165>.

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