Hypothesis The tested hypothesis for this lab stated that the disease that infected Pond 22 and is now dispersing to Pond 23 has a bacterial nature.
Methods
Many different scientific procedures were performed in order to either retain or reject the hypothesis for this experiment. First, the water samples obtained from Pond 22 (Disease-struck) and Pond 16 (Healthy) were serially diluted. As a result of the serial dilution process, the two pure samples were brought to a concentration of 10-4. Next, the dilute samples were used to grow bacterial colonies on agar gel in petri dishes; specifically, Brain Heart Infusion Agar (BHIA) was utilized to sustain the bacterial colonies. However, before streaking any plates, three of the five plates were treated with antibacterial agents. The antibiotic treatment process involved a sterile transfer pipette which was used to transfer each specific agent to the BHIA in the petri dishes. …show more content…
Prior to streaking, the loop was held on top of a Bunsen Burner flame in order to maintain sterility and the heating process was performed before the loop was used to streak each quadrant of the dish as well as each of the individual petri dishes. After sterilization, the loop was inserted to the diluted samples of each pond and a bubble was formed in the loop, confirming that the looped actually picked up the solution. Next, the loop was placed on top of the BHIA and it was moved back and forth in a diagonal motion. Moreover, this process was repeated for each quadrant and for all of the five petri dishes. Only one petri dish was streaked with the Pond 16 sample solution as it was a control dish while the other four were streaked with the Pond 22 sample solution. The four dishes included the three treated with antibacterial agents and one control dish in which no antibacterial agent was