This is the main page for the Differential Staining & Specialized Bacterial Growth Media Laboratory Topic of an 8-week introductory college microbiology class. This is part of a series of three labs, in the Virtual Microbiology Classroom, on identifying unknown bacteria, also see Lab #2 and Lab #4.
Streak Plate Interactive Animation: from MSU. Test your skill to see if you can do a virtual streak plate procedure that produces isolated colonies.
Gram Stain Bite Sized Tutorial: This is an extremely useful tutorial that shows, step-by-step, the Gram-staining procedure and the appearance of Gram+ and Gram- bacterial cells.
How to Interpret MacConkey's Agar (MAC) Specialized
Bacterial Growth Medium
How to Interpret Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA) Specialized
Bacterial Growth Medium
SCIENCE VIDEOS
NOTE: Students must review all material in categories highlighted with red titles PRIOR TO ATTENDING LAB in order to be prepared to participate.
DIFFERENTIAL STAINING & SPECIALIZED MEDIA
LAB DOCUMENTS
The Lab Exercise Instructions are the main resource required for students to understand and complete this exercise. They provide a thorough explanation of the lab topic, as well as detailed directions on how to complete the exercise. The Lab Report Assignment is the homework that students complete and turn in.
Printing: The best way for students to print out the PowerPoint Show is to download the PDF version. Select Print, and, when the Print screen comes up, go to the Print Handling options. Under Page Scaling, select "Multiple pages per sheet", Under Pages per sheet, select "2". That uses up less paper, placing two slides on each page.
A mixed slide of acid fast Mycobacteria (hot pink) and non-acid fast Staphylococcus (purple).
Diagram on white board of bacterial controls used for Gram, Acid-fast-and Endospore differential staining of bacterial smears. Positive control on left, negative control on right, unknown bacteria in center.
You have free access to a large collection of materials used in a college-level introductory microbiology course. The Virtual Microbiology Classroom provides a wide range of free educational resources including PowerPoint Lectures, Study Guides, Review Questions and Practice Test Questions.
The VMC offers homework assignments based on Radiolab podcasts.
TV show, from Animal Planet, presenting case studies of people with parasitic infections. So interesting, you'll learn about parasitism without even trying!
Check out our FREE "Monsters Inside Me" Homework Assignments