Effect of different antibacterial agents towards sour milk bacteria

Purpose:
To conduct an experiment that will determine which of the 3 antibacterial agents (antibiotics, commercial cleaners, green cleaning agents) is best able to limit bacterial growth, based on the zone of inhibition.

Hypothesis:
Vinegar, Mr. Clean and Polysporin are all effective antibacterial agents that are capable of eliminating bacteria because they all have chemicals that disinfect bacteria. We also predict that traditional cleaners will be the most effective antibacterial agent because the chemicals in traditional cleaners are much more abrasive than "green" cleaning agents and antibiotics. For example most "green" cleaning agents and antibiotics can be digested without any harm to your body but if you ingest a traditional cleaner your health could be at risk since the chemicals are much more abrasive.

Materials:
Sour milk 2 Petri dishes with pre-made agar 2 Q-tips 8 Filter paper disks Vinegar Mr. Clean cleaning detergent Polysporin Tape Access to computer Camera Paper and cardboard Printer Glue

Procedure:
1. Obtain bacteria from the sour milk, by dipping the Q-tip into the sour milk. Afterward inoculate the pre-made agar with the bacteria-soaked Q-tip. Make sure you reduce contamination as much as possible. 2. Separate each petri dish into 4 sections, and label them 1 through 8. 3. Soak a pair of filter paper dish into distilled water. This will be used as the control group. Then place one of the water-filled filters into section 1 which you labelled previously. Place the other one in section 5, which will be on the other petri dish. Repeat step 3, but with antibiotics, commercial cleaners and green cleaning agents. Make sure you put each one in different sections, and make sure each petri dish doesnt have the same filter paper dish. Look at diagram 1 for reference.

Distilled Water

Antibiotics

Distilled Water

Antibiotics

3
Commercial Cleaners

4
Green cleaning agent Commercial Cleaners

8
Green cleaning agent

Diagram 1 4. After putting each filter paper disk into the petri dish. Enclose the lid, and tape it around the side, and place it in somewhere safe. 5. After the bacteria started to colonize, you should be able to see a clear area around each antibacterial detergent that is called the zone of inhibition. 6. Set the petri dish on a flat surface, and take a photo of one petri dish at a time. Both photos should be taken from the same distance between the petri dish and the camera. 7. Upload the photo onto a computer, and print it exactly as it is. 8. Cut out the 6 zone of inhibition and glue it onto a cardboard. Make sure you use the same amount of glue for each zone of inhibition. 9. Cut out the zone of inhibition thats glued to the cardboard box. 10. Weight each zone of inhibition and record the result on the table below:

Liquids Distilled water Antibiotics Mr. Green Vinegar Distilled water (2) Antibiotics (2) Mr. Green (2) Vinegar (2)

Colony shape

Colour

Weight of cardboard

Additional Comments