Life
is present all around us – even when we cannot see it, and the
students of Biology 1407 are set out to demonstrate it.
The
lab experiment was simple. Each lab group was given a petri box, a
clear sterile container, with the appropriate medium for bacteria
to develop.
Students went to different locations on the VV campus and collected
small samples of dust or water.
Samples were taken from areas such as kitchen surfaces, soap dispensers
in the bathrooms, water fountains, vending machines and tables.. Even
computers were sampled.
Jeremiah
Davis, EPCC Biology tutor, holding the culture of
bacteria. Davis is majoring in Nursing at UTEP.
Photo by Paula Ramirez
After
several hours in a special incubator, visible colonies of bacteria
flourished inside the containers.
“I was surprised to find that many of the things you touch are
full of bacteria. You think you are washing your hands clean, but
when you touch the faucet you’re really touching contaminated
things,” said Wendy Carranco, a biology student who participated
in the experiment. The cultivated germs will serve as examples for
students as they do other experiments in future class sessions.
One of these includes the “Gram Stain Test,” which measures
the width of the wall that covers the nucleus of a cell in order to
determine how resistant bacteria are against antibiotics.
“The objective of the activity was to create an awareness of
the presence of microorganisms in our everyday activities,”
said Jose Maldonado, biology instructor at the Valle Verde Campus.
