Isolation of Bacteria from the Environment

Be careful! Your regular trip to the public bathroom may be more hazardous than helpful.  Today, we began our mission to uncover the bacteria found on two commonly used items: the handle on a restroom door and the public drinking fountain. But to do this, we had to execute a technique to isolate the bacteria from the regular environment it resides in.

To isolate the bacteria:
First, we opened the sterile swab and dipped it into a nutrient agar broth.  To prevent the swab from dripping excess fluid we removed the swab sliding it across the edge of the test tube.

Next, we rubbed the swab against the area we wanted to test for bacteria; in our case, this was the spout of the drinking fountain and the handle of the women's restroom.

Next, we returned the samples to the laboratory, making sure not to touch or contaminate the swab.

After this, we rubbed the swab against the agar plate evenly and thoroughly.  We closed the agar plate and marked the bottom with our names and sample type using a China marker.

We marked the side of the plate containing the sample.  This is important because if the lids of two samples were mixed we could easily identify our sample.

Now the samples are ready for the incubator!

It is important to incubate the samples with the agar medium facing upward.  This way, the bacteria can grow properly in the incubator.  We made sure to note the temperature of the sample location, since bacteria grows at room temperature.  Thus, the incubator we used is similar to the temperature of the air in the bacteria's natural environment. This particular incubator has a temperature of 21 degrees Celsius.

Now, our bacteria is growing at a steady pace, awaiting us to discover its mysterious qualities.



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