Antibiotics Lab

Prior Connections:

Have you ever taken an antibiotic? Do you remember the name of it? What illness did your doctor prescribe it for?

Are you allergic to antibiotics?

Why do we not use a virus for the antibiotics lab?

Microbiology

Journal Entry📓

With your table group, come up with a statement that represents what you think Microbiology/Microbiologists does/do. Why do we need microbiology? What does it contribute to our lives? This will be your I Used to Think statement that you will need for the last part of this activity. Write this on the front of the notecard.

Kimmel_Amber_CP.pdf

Explore more about microbiologists here: What Microbiologists Do

Write notes in your journal as you read through the article.

With your table group, review the notes you made from the article. Then create a Now I Think statement with your group after reviewing the resources above. Do you see microbiology in a new light? Did you realize that they did so much in healthcare?

Terry's Antibiotic Dilemma

Fill out the table with what you know about the disease agents.

You may need to research some of your answers.

Paste your completed table in your journal.

Terry's Antibiotic Dilemma.pdf

Using Experimental Design to Select the Best Medicine for Your Patient - Block Day!!

In this final part of the activity, conduct an experiment to determine the best medication for the young patient. As you may have noticed in your Disease Dictionary, antibiotics✏️ are a class of medications used to destroy harmful bacteria. Some antibiotics are more effective on particular types of bacteria than they are on others. Scientists can conduct experiments in the lab to figure out which antibiotic would be best to treat a particular bacterial infection.

When microbiologists work with bacteria in the lab, they use careful procedures, referred to as aseptic technique✏️(see video below to find examples to use in your definition), to be sure they do not contaminate their work space with bacteria and that they do not allow any contaminants to grow inside their samples. You will take on the role of microbiologist to test how effective antibiotics are at destroying the bacteria in this case.

Which of the following are true statements?

Antibiotics can resolve or treat any illness.
Only bacteria make us sick.
All antibiotics are equally effective at killing ANY type of bacteria.

Antibiotic Lab

Journal Entry📓

MD_1_3EffectivenessOfAntibioticsExperiment (1).docx

Safety First and Aeseptic Technique

lab1.webm

Take a look at tips for working with bacteria in the lab:

You will grow bacteria for your experiment on small plates that contain a substance called agar✏️. Bacteria typically grow in small, raised clumps called colonies. When the growth takes over an entire plate, it’s referred to as a lawn.

The bacteria you’re using in this experiment are not able to make you sick and are safe to use for experimental design. You do, however, want to develop good habits and practice proper technique when working with bacterial samples.

Each antibiotic has been soaked into tiny paper discs. Remember that to avoid contaminating your sample and to ensure reliable results, you should handle the discs carefully. Use a special type of tweezers called forceps to place your discs on the plates. Be sure to clean your forceps in alcohol after you’ve placed a disc on the plate.

Don’t forget—safety first! Make sure to wear your personal protective equipment✏️ and remove it safely when finished with your experiment.

Watch the video to learn more about how to work with the materials you have available.

Design your experimental procedure for carrying out the antibiotics lab.

After your teacher has reviewed your experimental procedure, gather your materials.

Set up and perform your experiment according to your procedure.

Make sure to draw your finished agar plate (to scale) in your notebook and label the antibiotic discs.

Plating Bacteria and Placing Discs

lab2.webm

Safe Glove Removal

lab3.webm

Conclusion Questions

The group next to you completed the same experiment, but forgot to use a control. Why is this a problem?
Your friend is complaining that he went to the doctor for a cold and the doctor did not prescribe him an antibiotic. Should you recommend that he see a different doctor? Why or why not?

The Mystery Infection

A worried mom runs her ten-year-old son into a crowded ER. She carries him in her arms, because his fever has left him weak and too tired to walk. After he’s checked in, the nurse takes his vital signs. The young boy answers some questions about how he’s feeling, but he leaves most of the details to his mother to answer. She fills in details about what her son has experienced over the past few days. The information provided is organized into medical files that the medical team will review.

3. Summarize and list important symptoms under the Antibiotics Lab in your journal.

4. Review the completed Disease Dictionary. Summarize any trends you notice related to treatment. Do you notice any patterns for each agent group (virus, bacteria, fungi)?

5. Based on all of the information above, can you diagnose the patient? Prescribe treatment.

Disease Dictionary

Finished? Try out these Wordles that I created for you based on this unit's learning. Think back on what we have covered and see if you can figure out the words related to this unit. The whole point of a Wordle is to use your ingenuity and smarts to figure it out so don't steal the joy from others by sharing the answer with others once you have completed a puzzle. Enjoy!