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Identification of Unknown Bacteria
Laboratory Exercise
Virtual Microbiology Classroom of Science Prof Online
ID of Unknown Bacteria Lab Materials
SPO VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
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ADDITIONAL LABORATORY REQUIRED READINGS
Microscopy:
Bacterial Stains:
- Gram Stain Procedure: Differential Stain for Gram+ & Gram- Bacteria Identification
- Acid-fast Ziehl Neelsen Stain for Identifying Mycobacteria & Nocardia Bacteria
- Endospore Stain Procedure: Differentiating Endospores from Vegetative Bacterial Cells
- Differential Staining & Bacterial Controls: Gram, Acid-fast & Endospore Stains
Bacterial Growth Media & Culture:
- Differential & Selective Bacterial Growth Media: MacConkey's, Mannitol Salt & Blood Agar
- Cellular Metabolism: What Is Fermentation?
How to Prepare a Bacterial Smear for Gram Staining
How to Prepare a Bacterial Smear for Acid-fast
(Ziehl-Neelsen) Staining
How to Prepare a Bacterial Smear for Endospore Staining
How to Do a Gram Stain
How to Do an Acid-fast
Ziehl-Neelsen Stain
How to Do an Endospore Stain
Tutorial on Compound Light Microscope Parts & Operation
MORE ID OF UNKNOWN BACTERIA HELPFUL LINKS
- Streak Plate Procedure Animation: with narration from Sinauer Associates.
- 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.
- Acid-fast Stain Animated Tutorial: Very educational video of the staining procedure.
- Endospore Stain Procedure: Instructions, illustration and table indicating color of cells at each step.
- Bacterial Endospore Formation animation and quiz from McGraw-Hill.
- API-20E Animation from Microbe Library.
- Reading the API-20E, a YouTube video from Dr. Kimmitt.
- Normal Flora Webpage, by Douglas F. Fix. Interactive page where you can select an area of the body and learn which normal flora typically colonize that location.
ID of UNKNOWN BACTERIA LABORATORY VIDEOS
ID OF UNKNOWN BACTERIA LABORATORY IMAGES
The images linked here directly relate to the lab exercise and are designed to help you review and study that lab material while outside of lab.
- Microbiology General Images (see examples of API-20E)
- Bacterial Staining: Gram, Acid-fast & Endospore Stain Images
- Bacterial Growth Media: Blood Agar, MacConkey's & Mannitol Salt Images
How to Interpret MacConkey's Agar (MAC) Specialized
Bacterial Growth Medium
How to Interpret Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA) Specialized
Bacterial Growth Medium
How to Interpret Blood Agar (BAP) 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.
In this lab, students are exposed to several means of identifying bacteria, including Gram, Acid-fast and Endospore differential stains, as well as specialized media, streak plating, dichotomous keys and the API-20E test strip. The links on this page provide the Virtual Microbiology Classroom documents, web pages and videos useful in preparing for this lab.
ID of UNKNOWN BACTERIA LABORATORY POWERPNTS
ID of Unknown Bacteria Part I
- Lab #3a: How to Prepare an Isolation Streak Plate
- Lab #3a: Prepare Bacterial Smears for Staining
ID of Unknown Bacteria Part II
- Lab #3b: Identification of Unknown Bacteria Part II
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.
ID of UNKNOWN BACTERIA LABORATORY DOCUMENTS
This laboratory topic has four associated Word documents. The Lab Exercise Instructions Part I provide a thorough explanation of streak plating and how to prepare bacterial smears for differential staining.
Lab Exercise Instructions Part II explain how to perform differential stains (Gram, Acid-fast & Endospore), use a dichotomous key to identify bacteria and how the API-20E is used to identify Gram-negative bacteria.
ID of Unknown Bacteria Part I
- Lab #3a: Preparing Bacterial Smears & Streak Plating Lab Exercise INSTRUCTIONS
- Lab #3a: Differential Stains & Specialized Media Lab Report ASSIGNMENT
ID of Unknown Bacteria Part II
- Lab #3b: Identification of Unknown Bacteria Lab Exercise INSTRUCTIONS
- Lab #3b: ID of Unknown Lab Report ASSIGNMENT
Additional Lab Documents:
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.
SCIENCE PHOTOS
Page last updated:
12/2015
The ID of Unknown Bacteria Lab materials include:
- Lab Exercise & Report word documents
- Laboratory PowerPoints
- Additional laboratory required readings
- Videos!
- Links to related images
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- Rabid by Wasik & Murphy
- The Viral Storm by Wolfe
- The Ghost Map by Johnson
- Missing Microbes by Blaser
- The Great Mortality by Kelly
-The Great Influenza by Berry
- Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know by Doherty
- Deadly Outbreaks by Levitt
- Microbe Hunters by De Kruif
- Wickett's Remedy by Goldberg
- The Dress Lodger by Holman
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The VMC offers homework assignments based on Radiolab podcasts.
RADIOLAB PODCASTS:
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:
