Useful facts

• Some bacteria are harmful, but most serve a useful purpose. They support many forms of life, both plant and animal, and they are used in industrial and medicinal processes.

• Bacteria are thought to have been the first organisms to appear on earth, about 4 billion years ago. The oldest known fossils are of bacteria-like organisms.

• When bacteria reproduce the kids are exactly the same as their mum.

• Bacteria can use most organic and some inorganic compounds as food, and some can survive extreme conditions.

• There are many different types of bacteria. One way of classifying them is by shape. There are three basic shapes. 

• Bacteria feed in different ways. 

• Bacteria can be found in soil, water, plants, animals, radioactive waste, deep in the earth’s crust, arctic ice and glaciers, and hot springs. There are bacteria in the stratosphere, between 6 and 30 miles up in the atmosphere, and in the ocean depths, down to 32,800 feet or 10,000 meters deep. 

• Bacteria are often thought of as bad, but many are helpful. We would not exist without them. The oxygen we breathe was probably created by the activity of bacteria. 

Collecting the Bacteria.

1. Collect the bacteria but first you must divide your petri dish in 4 and label each part 1,2,3,4.

2. On your blog write numbers 1-4 down the page. Beside each one you need to write where you collected the sample from.

3. Take a 3 photos of  your experiement. The photo needs to be taken on your chromebook camera and uploaded to your site.

1 photo at the start, 1 of collecting your samples and 1 at the end.