Bacteria Quantitative Experiment

This lesson teaches students how to apply quantitative methods to an experiment. Student’s T-Test Background Info introduces students to statistical hypothesis testing, alternative hypothesis, null hypothesis, and t-tests. After students learn about t-tests, they view the Bacteria Quantitative Experiment. This experiment compares the growth of bacteria on agar plates swabbed from hands that weren’t cleaned, and cleaned with hand sanitizer, regular soap, and antibacterial soap. There are pictures of three plates for the control group and for each cleaning method. Instructions are listed and direct students to count the colonies on plates and record the number of bacterial colonies in the Bacteria Quantitative Experiment Excel Student spreadsheet. There is an instructor version of the Excel spreadsheet, Bacteria Quantitative Experiment Excel Instructor that has all the data. Once the Excel spreadsheet is completed, students answer the questions on Bacteria Quantitative Experiment Questions worksheet.