Experiment Template

Question: How does vinegar affect the growth of bacteria?

Rationale: It will help doctors preserve tools longer, so they won’t have to spend as much money on new
tools.

What we know from our research: we learned the difference between acids and bases

We learned that Pasteurella bacteria is in birds, and they get in birds by biting their skin.
We learned that lots of acids are dangerous in different ways.

Sites we used for research:

Bacteria Facts

http://carolina.com

What bacteria lives in the world

Our Hypothesis: We think vinegar will kill the bacteria because acid can be used to clean bacteria at
your house.

Materials:

1. Petri Dishes
2. White vinegar
Steps of our experiment:

1. Take a cotton swab and get two bacteria samples from Seahawk
2. Put one bacteria sample on a plain petri dish and one on a petri dish with a vinegar “X” painted on
3. We will wait for the results
4. If there is a “X” in the bacteria it means the bacteria did not grow and our hypothesis was right

Our Results:

Bacteria Vinegar Day 1 Day2 Day3

Names of experts we contacted:

Conclusion:

Looking at our results, our original hypothesis was right. One way we know it is right is that bacteria did
not grow on the vinegar that was in petri dish that had vinegar in it, but fungi did. We think this happened
because the vinegar might have not been a suitable environment for the bacteria, but the fungi had no
problem. Another interesting that that happened was that the bacteria grew better when we tested the
different bacteria. I think this was because we got bacteria from different parts. In conclusion, it turns out
that only fungi grew on the vinegar “X” but not bacteria. If I were to do this again, two things I would
change would be putting the same bacteria from the same spots or over the “X” another thing I would
change is that we could have had more bacteria samples.

Follow up:

Question: does vinegar affect the growth of fungi.

Rational: It could help stop the growth of fungi in kitchens or doctor's tools

Steps:

1. Get two bacteria samples from the floor because that had the most fungi grow in it.
2. Put one of the samples on a blank petri dish and one on a petri dish with vinegar, then you will
see if the fungi can will grow on the vinegar or on a blank petri dish.

Hypothesis:

We don’t think that vinegar will stop fungi from growing.

Conclusion:

Looking at our results, our original hypothesis was wrong. One way we know it is wrong is that the same
bacteria grew and there was no difference. We think this happened because vinegar is not strong enough
to kill the fungi.Another interesting that that happened was that __________________. I think this was
because ___________________. In conclusion, it turns out that _____________________. If I were to do
this ag.ain, two things I would change would be ___________________.