•Where can the natural micro flora related to human skin and throats be found? •Are bacteria associated with the human skin and throat typically pathogenic? •What was the significance of using blood agar, MSA, and SAB plates for assessing the microorganisms on human skin? What did we see in our experiment? •What is the significance of using chocolate agar and a candle jar? What types of bacteria can grow in a candle jar and why?
Exercise 6(Part 2): Microorganisms and Tooth Decay: Determination of Susceptibility to Dental Caries•What are dental caries and how do they form? •What species of bacteria are involved in the formation of dental caries? What role does each of these bacterial species play in dental caries formation? Understand these roles with respect to the types of sugars they use for fermentation and the structure of the tooth. •Why is the Snyder test a good test for assessing susceptibility to dental caries? What about the media makes it a useful test? •Understand how to evaluate the results of a Snyder test with respective to an individual person’s susceptibility to dental caries. •How does toothbrushing fit into these interpretations of dental caries susceptibility?
Exercise 8 (Part 1): Kirby Bauer Procedure for Evaluating Antibiotic Susceptibility
•What is the difference between antimicrobial agents, chemotherapeutic agents, and antibiotics? How are they related?
•Why are antibiotics not effective against viruses? How could taking antibiotics when you have a viral infection be problematic?
•What is the Kirby Bauer procedure? How and why is it standardized?
•How is the Kirby Bauer procedure performed?
•How can this procedure be used to assess antibiotic sensitivity patterns?
•What is the zone of inhibition method for assessing antibiotic susceptibility? Do antibiotics and bacteria use the same measurements for determining susceptibility?
•Exercise 8 (Part 2): Testing the Effectiveness of Antiseptics and Disinfectants
•What is the difference between antiseptics and disinfectants? Be able to give some examples. How do they differ from antibiotics?
•What are the two main rules when using these chemical agents?
•Why does the zone of inhibition method not discriminate against antibiotics that are bacteriostatic vs bactericidal?
•How did we test for the effectiveness of antiseptics and disinfectants?
Exercise 10: Standard Test for the Detection of Fecal Coliforms in Drinking Water
•What are fecal coliforms? What are their characteristics?
•When is water considered polluted? What are some forms of water pollution? What types of pathogens are associated with water pollution?
•How do we test for fecal coliforms and why do we use a test for an indicator species? What is this indicator species?
•What are the three stages of the standard test for fecal coliforms?
•What type of media is used in each stage? Why is each ingredient in that media important for that particular test? Understand how to interpret the results of each of these tests.
•What organism can complicate the results of a standard test for fecal coliforms? Why is this organism a potential complication?
Exercise 11 (Part 1): Microbial Production of Sauerkraut
•What are the natural microflora on cabbage?
•What is an enrichment culture? What is a facultative anaerobe? What is fermentation? What is microbial succession?
•Understand the process of microbial succession as it related to sauerkraut production. When is each type of organism favored in the production of sauerkraut and why is each organism favored at the respective stage of sauerkraut production?
•How did we assess microbial succession in this experiment? What did we do with the sauerkraut, etc.?
Exercise 11(Part 3):Microbiological Analysis of Food Samples
•Is food sterile? Why or why not?
•What is the difference between a food infection and food intoxication? What types of food borne contaminants cause a food infection and what types cause food intoxication?
•How can we prevent food borne contaminants from causing infection/intoxication?
•How did we determine the microbial quality of food samples
