Growing Bacteria NEW 2016 GCSE

Growing Bacteria in the lab for the New GCSE spec. Simple lesson looking at students growing bacterial cultures. Agar plates are needed and there is a teachers slide in the PPT detailing the preparation for the lesson if needed.

Starter - Students to draw the first 4 generations of bacteria as an introduction to BINARY FISSION before using this as a tool to describe exponential growth after 10, 20, 30 and 50 divisions.

Main - Practical activity whereby students grow cultures using swabs from areas of interest to them. All information is on the practical sheet and students are required to work independently although this can be tweaked to suit your class. After the practical students answer questions on the worksheet relating to the lesson.

Plenary - Class feedback/discussion of answers to practical questions followed by a 3,2,1 plenary to ensure students are reflecting on their work.

OBJECTIVES:

GOOD – FOLLOW rules needed to prepare an uncontaminated culture

GREAT – EXPLAIN why it is important to use an uncontaminated culture to investigate bacterial growth

EPIC – SUGGEST how to measure the growth of bacteria and discuss uncertainty

As always, any feedback is welcome :)