What surface has the most bacteria?

If I take a swab to test the bacteria on my mom's purse,then it will have more bacteria than the ipad, keyboard and phone.

• 4 petri dishes

• 12 millimeters of agar

• 4 cotton swabs

• 1 vial of purified water

• 1 small cardboard box

• used laptop keyboard

• used iphone

• used ipad

• used purse

1. gather all materials needed

2. open one petri dish container and place it on a clean surface

3. grab one cotton swab and dip the tip in the purified water

4. once you dip the cotton swab in the water, rub the cotton swab on to the phone

5. then swab the sample on to the petri dish and close immediately

6. repeat steps 1-5 with keyboard,ipad, and purse

7. once done put all petri dishes in a small box and place the small box in a dark and hot room

8. wait 3-7 days

9. observe and record all the bacteria you see

10. DO NOT OPEN ONCE YOU SEE BACTERIA

11. repeat for 3 trials

Dependent Variable: the amount of bacteria

Independent Variable: phone,ipad,keyboard, and purse

Constant: Petri dishes, cotton swabs, purified water, and agar.

You wash your hands after you get out of the bathroom but do you wash your hands when you are done using your phone? Most people don’t realize that there is bacteria surrounding you wherever you go. My project will show you that you need to be more cautious about your surroundings. What surface has the most bacteria? I believe that if I take a swab to test the bacteria on my mom's purse,then it will have more bacteria than the ipad, keyboard and phone. After the bacteria grew I found out that the purse did have the most bacteria out of all the other devices. This was an easy project to conduct. All you need to do is take a sample of your devices in my case ipad,phone,keyboard, and purse Then place it in your Petri dishes, The last thing you need to do is wait 5 days and your project will be done. If you are thinking of doing this project I would recommend it it's fun and very interesting.

The purpose of my project is to show people that even in the places that you think there is no bacteria, there actually might be. It is also so people can be cautious with what they touch and always wash your hands. My problem statement was what surface has the most germs? In my hypothesis I said that my mom's purse would have the most bacteria and it turns out I was right. This experiment can be used to show how there is bacteria everywhere.

In order to conduct this experiment, I needed to grab all devices and materials that were needed, grab the Petri dish, open it and place it on a clean surface, grab a cotton swab, and then take a sample of the device and place it in the Petri dishes. Wait 5 days and the experiment will be done. Observe and record data. In my tests, it would show that the purse would always have the most bacteria, and the phone would have the least amount of bacteria. The reason for this is because the purse is always on different surfaces; table,chair,floor,etc which is why I believe the purse has more bacteria.

This can be used in everyday life because it shows you to sanitize everything more often, not just throw it somewhere and expect it to still be clean.

This can be used in real life situations because you can try to be clean and realize how there are germs everywhere and you should sanitize and clean. Especially with covid-19 you have to be careful with everything you touch and sanitize most things. With this project you can realize how there are germs everywhere and you should be careful.

1. Spangler, Steve. “Growing Bacteria in Petri Dishes.” Science Experiment, February 12, 2021, https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/growing-bacteria

2. Schaner, Debbie. “How to Grow Bacteria: 5 Experiments to Grow & Test Bacteria.” Home Science Tools, October 15, 2020,

https://learning-center.homesciencetools.com/article/bacteria-experiment-guide/

3. Norman, Amy. “Science Fair Experiment: Grow Bacteria.” Little Passports, March 25, 2017,

https://www.littlepassports.com/science/science-fair-project-grow-bacteria/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS