Day 1 - Preparing Culture Media

For our culture media, we made Nutrient Agar "for the cultivation of a wide variety of microorganisms."  (Nutrient Agar container)

1.  We measured 200 mL of tap water and 4.6 g of the nutrient agar and combined them in a Erlenmeyer flask.

 

Measuring agar

 

Measuring water

Combining agar and water

Mixing thoroughly

2.  After covering the flask with aluminum foil, we sterilized the agar in the autoclave at 121 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.  This is at 15 psi.

 

3.  Once the sterilized agar cooled slightly, we poured about 25 mL into each of 8 petri dishes.  Then we let the dishes cool so they can be used for future experiments.