A very scientific project by Aaron, Eric, Jessie, and Tianrui.

EpicTeam

Pathogens (bad bacteria) and infection is bad for your health. Bacteria can cause sickness as infection, along with disease. Incomplete cleaning or even age can affect how much bacteria has colonized an area. Hyde Park Middle School and unsanitary. At some point, wiping, cleaning and sweeping might not be enough. Our team of highly intelligent 6th graders is testing the dirtiest and most unsanitary places in Hyde Park. Since wiping and cleaning may not be enough! is over 5 decades old, and though thoroughly cleaned, bacteria has caused the school to begin to become dirty, our team is looking for a way to diminished the amount of bacteria in the dirtiest places in Hyde Park.

The Problem?: As we are in the twenty first century, bacteria at first site may not seem like a threatening issue. It is, however. In fact, over eighty percent of the deaths caused today are from diseases. Our team is hoping to warn people of the filthiness in our school. In order to do this, Epic Team hopes to find the dirtiest places our school has to offer. The testing spots range from the gutter in a water fountain, to the toilet seat in the bathrooms. This creates our problem statement: What is the dirtiest place in Hyde Park Middle School?

The Problem

-Flagella: A whip like organelle that the bacteria uses to move around

-Cell Wall: A solid layer surrounding the cell     

-Cell Membrane: A small bilayer and consists of phospholipid and protein molecules that "envelope" the cell   

 -Cytoplasm: Fills areas in the cell without organelles     

-Chromosomes: A long skinny band of DNA that contains genes   

 -Ribosomes: An organelle composed of RNA and ribosome proteins   

 -Plasmid: Circular double-stranded DNA molecules

Bacteria Structure

-Bacteria needs food, moisture, warmth and time  -Bacteria can grow in raw and cooked food-Can grow moist and dry climates  -Can grow in below 20 degree Celsius temperature (psyphrophilos)-Can grow in above 45 degree Celsius temperature (thermophiles)-Mesophiles grow between 5 degrees Celsius and 63 degrees Celsius (growth or "danger" zone-Each bacteria cell will divide into two 20 minutes   -in 6 hours one bacteria can turn into 131,072 bacteria-pH level: Most bacteria like neutral conditions (pH value of 7) and will not grow in foods below a pH of 4.5-But ever if bacteria are exposed to acid in food, they may not die instantly and cause serious illness-Oxygen: Bacteria have different oxygen requirements-Some which require oxygen called aerobes

Bacteria Conditions

-Kitchen Sink:     -Sometimes the kitchen sink can be dirtier than a toilet seat-- Some common bacteria that might grow in a kitchen sink include:          -E.Coli (Escherichia Coli)          -Salmonella-Other Places include:     -Toothbrush        -Salt and Pepper Shaker     -TV remote     -Computer Keyboard-Salt and Pepper Shaker Study:     -In a survey, researchers asked 30 adults that experienced cold/flu symptoms in the past 18 hours. They asked what surfaces they touched (past 10) and found that all the people that touched salt and pepper shaker tested positive with the viruses.

Common Bacteria Habitats

-Streptococcus Pyogenes:     -Common Symptoms of the Streptococcus Pyogenes:          -Skin Infections          -Sore Throat-Escherichia Coli (E.Coli):     -Causes vomiting and diarrhea when it infects the body     -E.Coli is commonly found in foods-Vibrio Cholerae:     -Responsible for the outbreak of Cholera     -Symptoms include:          -Common Cold          -High fever          -Runny nose          -Vomiting          -Diarrhea-Enteritis Salmonella:     -One of the most common types of food poisoning-Enteritis Salmonella II:     -Symptoms of infection          -Dehydration          -Vomiting-Salmonella Typhi:     -Another Type of Salmonella     -Can cause typhoid fever which can be fatal if there is no medical response when  symptoms appear

Common Bacteria

Our team thinks that the most bacteria infested place is the PE locker room. This belief is caused by our understanding of the dirtiness of this place. PE locker rooms contain sweat, which makes the area around it moist, and it contains food from the gum and candy wrappers. It also is warm, because of all the people who exercise. Since perfect conditions of bacteria growth are 37 degrees Celsius temperature, moist air, and food, we thought that the PE locker would be the dirtiest place in Hyde Park Middle School. 

Hypothesis

Control: • The cotton swabs• The petri dishes• The test time/day• The cotton swabs • Test space (2” by 2”)Independent Variable: The test places–women’s toilet seat, computer keyboard, door knob, water fountain spout, and the men’s and women’s locker room floors. (7 in all)

Dependent Variable: The amount of bacteria that grew– the number of bacteria colonies.

Controls and Variables

• Nutrient Agar• Q-Tips• Logbook• Water• Pencil• Petri Dishes• Hyde Park• Tape• Scissors• Plastic Bag• Post It Notes

Materials

1. Take out all materials2. Go to desired testing area3. Use the Q-tips to swipe a 2 by 2 in area4. Swipe the nutrient agar horizontally covering the entire plate5. Do step 4 again but vertically6. Do this three times for each test area7. Repeat steps 1-6 for all areas needed to test8. Label the Petri Dishes9. Leave the petri dishes to incubate at room temperature for 48

hours10.Count the bacterial colonies11.Write the data down on a graph12.Compare and contrast results

Procedure

Boy's Locker Room

Girl's Locker Room

Classroom Tables

Keyboards Toilet Seat Water Fountain

Door Handle

0200400600800

10001200140016001800

1560

51 26117 32 15 18

1323

17215

1095 7 16

1040

92 11158

7 5 6

Bacteria Colonies in Hyde Park

Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3

Test area

Bact

eria

col

onie

s

Data

Data AnalysisAfter our experiment, we

counted the amount of bacteria in the petri dishes. After we counted, we found out that the boy's locker room floor was the dirtiest place overall. With an average bacteria count of around 1307 colonies, it was the most bacteria infested place. The second most infected place, the classroom keyboards has an average bacteria colony count of 128. That is about a 10 times difference from the first dirtiest place from the second! That proves that the locker room is far the dirtiest place at school. The third bacteria infested place is the women’s locked room with an average of about 109 bacteria colonies. It is still dirty, but not as dirty as the first two places.

Our group, EpicTeam was very productive over the past few months. We all felt like we accomplished a lot altogether. We assigned jobs to all our team member along the way.

To make sure that everything was done on time, our group had deadlines for when things had to be done. For example, we set the deadline for our experiment to take place no later than January twenty-ninth. This was to allow us to have time to evaluate our experiment with time to spare.

Our group was very cooperative together. We worked with each other, and we all discussed together. When a team member needed help, one of us would go to work with them. We also had some hardship along the way. One of the challenges we faced was Petri film. Petri film is a very safe, but expensive way of capturing bacteria. We bought a package, hoping that it would allow us to grow bacteria at school. When we finally did our first experiment, we waited for the bacteria to colonize. They never did. Finally, after a few days of impatient waiting, our team realized the Petri film didn’t work, or that it took a really long time to grow. Since we couldn’t stall any longer, our team decided to use nutrient agar plates. These very special plates are not as safe as Petri film, but we had to deal with it. We eventually saw bacteria growth, and all of us were proud of all we have done.

To pass out the jobs to everyone in the group, we first looked at what they have previously done. For example, since Aaron was already busy doing the experiment, and starting to create the website, I took the job upon myself to do the mission folder. Tianrui was helping everyone around, like Jessie, when he came up with a very unique idea that would fit in with our experiment. He got really involved in it, he decided that it was what he wanted to do. Jessie in our team was the person who helped a little with everything. For Aaron, she help do the experiment, for Tianrui, she helped him do a little of the mixing, and for Eric, she made the resources we used.Altogether, I think our team worked together really nicely, and I think we did a very good job working together. Although we had some arguments along the way, as a team, we went far beyond what we thought was possible. 

Team Collaboration

To help people in our community, we decided to raise self-awareness by creating a website. Aaron was in charge of creating the website. The website was created to make worldwide awareness of the filthiness of bacteria. The website address is teamofepicness.weebly.com. We included much important information about our project on that website, so that the public will know about our plans. Our plan was to have people read the website and realize what the dirtiest place in a middle school is.

This could help our community a whole lot. The reason it could help is by raising student awareness. This would result in the school focusing on cleaning the dirtier places more often. The effects caused by this, is that dirtier places would get cleaned more often, resulting in less people getting sick. Since our school is North Las Vegas, many of the students here are not very wealthy. They can’t afford to get sick at all. By raising the awareness, we could help stop a wide spread of bacteria, allowing in less people getting sick, which could make the world a happier place.

To continue this research, the next step would be to test multiple middle schools. Since all middle schools are not the same, there may be some difference in the bacteria number. For example, our school, Hyde Park, might have classroom keyboards as the dirtiest place, while another middle school, Cashman, may have door handles as the dirtiest place.

We also need to extend our subject. While we have seven test areas, they may not necessary be the dirtiest place in a middle school. To find a more accurate response, we would need to test more variety of subjects. We should also take more tests. Since we only had a limited amount of Petri dishes, we could only test each of the places three times each. If we were going to test it again, we would have at least five samples for each of the places we would test.

Benefit to the Community

Producer: JessieEditor: AaronDesigner: Jessie The info: Everyone on the EpicTeam For more information, check out our website:

Credits

teamofepicness.weebly.com