Cotton Swab Lab Report

In order to preform this experiment you will need; cotton swabs, agar plates, microscope, unused slides, oil immersion, nigrosin, and crystal violet. The first task we must do is use the cotton swabs and swab an item out side of the laboratory, that has the capability of containing either yeast, bacteria, and mold. My lab partners and I chose to swab one of our group members cell phone. Once we swabbed the phone with the cotton swab, we then each had a plate of agar. To start the process of the transfer of the microorganisms you will need to label the agar plates and state where the plate is going to be located after you run your cotton swab over the plate of agar. One group member placed it in the 37C incubator and the others placed it in the cabinet to be stored at room temperature.

Once the plates incubated for a week long, we obtained the plates and observed what we saw on the plates. This would be known as the macroscopic observations of your microorganisms. We needed to take note on how many colonies were formed, as well as the physical characteristics that appeared on the plate itself. After we noted the macroscopic characteristics it was time to transfer a colony to slides. At this point each member of the group had picked one colony from their own agar plate to transfer to slides via different staining techniques. We completed two separate techniques, the simple staining technique, which is a positive staining technique, as well as the negative staining technique. If there is a possibility that the microorganisms could possibly be a mold, you will need to do a third type of technique called, Lactophenol Blue