By: Brian Ravenel
Test swabs from: bottom of shoe, inside of classroom fish tank, and inside of cheek.
Petri Dishes Day 0:
Room temperature dish on left and 37 degrees Celsius dish on right.
Day 0:
I wanted to test the bacteria of a few completely different environments so I chose to swab the bottom of my shoe, the inside of my cheek, and the inside of one of the classroom fish tanks. My hypothesis is that the most bacteria will grow in the fish tank section, the second most from the bottom of my shoe, and the least from the inside of my cheek. I made two dishes to be tested in different temperature environments, one kept at room temperature, approximately 20-24 degrees Celsius, and the other dish to be placed in a heater kept at 37 degrees Celsius or body temperature. I believe that the dish kept at 37 degrees Celsius will grow more bacteria from the swab of inside my cheek than the dish kept at 24 degrees.
Petri Dishes Day 3:
Room temperature dish on top and 37 degrees Celsius dish on bottom
Day 3:
Overall the petri dish kept at 37 degrees Celsius had more bacteria growth in it than the dish kept at room temperature. The swab that showed the most growth in both dishes was the fish tank swab, followed by the bottom of shoe swab, and the swab from inside my cheek showed no growth from the room temperature dish and very little in the dish kept at 37 degrees. This so far supports my hypothesis that the bacteria inside the mouth would prefer the body temperature environment to the room temperature.
Petri Dishes Day 7:
Room temperature dish on top and 37 degrees Celsius dish on bottom
Day 7:
At day 7 both petri dishes had significantly more growth than observed on day 3. For the inside of mouth swab, there was no bacteria growth at all in the room temperature sample. The 37 degree sample had more growth occur of the small growths observed from day 3 and I counted 6 raised bacteria samples yellowish in color. The Bacteria of the fish tank was by far the largest and most successful cultivation of bacteria with the sample in the 37 degree environment growing beyond its marked area in the petri dish. The growths appeared to be spherical in shape expanding outwards. The yellowish color and spherical growths are evidence that this bacteria is possible to be mycobacterium marinum. I counted approximately 39 growths in the room temperature sample and 68 in the 37 degree sample. The bottom of shoe swab also showed significant increased growth from day 3 to 7. A noticeable difference between the two dishes was the appearance of a red colored bacteria in the room temperature sample that did not exist in the 37 degrees sample. This red bacteria could be serratia marcescens and there were 4 growths of it.
Zoomed picture of red bacteria found in bottom of shoe swab, room temperature dish:
Conclusions:
The fish tank contained by far the most bacteria in it. This is probably due to the wet environment containing living organisms. The growths from this swab thrived more than the others in both the room temperature and 37 degrees Celsius samples. The bacteria contained on the inside of a person's mouth requires the warmth of the body's temperature to cultivate as shown in the two samples with growth only occurring in the 37 degree sample and none in the room temperature. The bottom of a person's shoe contained the second most bacteria and both samples exhibited growths with some differences in them. Both dishes had a yellowish bacteria grow, while only the room temperature bottom of the shoe swab had the red colored bacteria growths on it. This is evidence of the diversity of bacteria species found in the ground we walk on and its requirements of different temperatures to grow.
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