INTRODUCTION
Give general background for the purpose of experiment. What is your hypothesis? Why is it important to identify your unknown organism? Be sure to introduce EACH test or stain, what it tells you about the microorganism, and justification for utilizing it (cite these from the manual).
Results do NOT go here!
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METHODS
YOU MUST CITE THE LAB MANUAL OR IT IS PLAGIARISM! Outline all the methods you used starting from how and where you isolated your unknown, any staining techniques, how test media was inoculated, incubation time and temperature(s), etc. Discuss the aseptic techniques you used throughout the experiment. This section should be written in past tense, since it is something you have already done! How did you get the bacteria in order to perform/inoculate the tests? Streak plate? Broth? After reading your paper, someone with the exact same unknown bacteria should be able to follow your methods and come out with the same results.
List all reagents used and how much you used for each test conducted. You MUST mention EVERY test you performed! Even if the test produced a negative result. Results do NOT belong here!
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RESULTS
Describe here the microorganism you have isolated from your environmental sample collection. What is the colony morphology? What does it look like microscopically? Explain what physical changes you observed in media or tests that were used. Just because something turned a color, doesn’t just make it positive or negative. Explain what the color change MEANS, not just that it changed color or not. Explain the biochemistry behind the different resulting physical characteristics of the media (things like bromthymol blue, pH indicator, mixed acid fermentation, cysteine desulfurase, etc. might be helpful phrases to use) No black precipitate in the TSIA is still a result (albeit negative) and should be included! You can include charts, graphs, tables, and pictures.
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DISCUSSION
In this section, guide the reader through your thought process and process of elimination used.
What do the test results MEAN? Just because something turned a color, doesn’t make it positive or negative. Explain what the color change MEANS, not just that it changed color. Explain what the results imply as to what the bacteria are or are not capable of. Do not forget to cite sources you used to help you determine the identity of your microorganism. Did your unknown microorganism meet your original hypothesis? Why or why not?
This section should incorporate at least 2 primary literature sources.
20 pts
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20 pts
