P.O.T.B.R. 2025 Day 6

    Today was a full science day, meaning staying at the campsite for lectures and science work. We finally got the WI-FI set up to do online work but first we had to go through a lecture and review from Jessica and Corbin on the basic things we've been doing so far. Like for our PH strips: a normal PH level is a 7 in terms of testing the toxicity levels of the water samples we've collected. And so far our PH readings have been between 6-5, so only slightly acidic. Or like how our equipment the turbidity tube has a Secchi disc inside and the water is measured by how far you can see the disc at. Things like temperature: the more warmer the water the more bacteria will grow at a faster rate. Which is why we're incubating at 37 degrees Celsius for more than 24 hours, to grow our bacteria. The average temperature we have measured at the bodies of water have been around 15 Celsius so bacteria isn't able to grow as fast. 16 degrees Celsius is the best temperature for the fish they say. We we're also encouraged to ask questions about our data collected so far like for example: have the cows/local animals had an impact on the water sources?. In order to get us thinking and possibly get a solution to that answer or think if it's even possible to test that and how. 

After that we took a break and were sent to go do a lab with Corbin and change into our lab coats.  The lecture from Corbin was also almost also like a review but about the equipment and material we are using to transfer our bacteria. We first have to inoculate our water onto the bio paddles, which we already had done. Once incubated the bacteria will then grow on the NUT-TTC (yellow side) called general media that grows pigment and or the selective media side (red side) that creates the potentially harmful bacteria.

Today the grown bacteria gets transferred from the Bio-paddles to the nutrient agar where it will be able to spread out more and faster. We were also shown the Simmons Citrate Agar that we would be using in the future.

Once we finished that lab we were back to Jessica as we worked on a shared file to input all our notes on the information of the water samples we collected to help us be sure we had all the right information needed and for everyone to see.

After that we needed to finish our blogs up until at least day 5 which took a while for me and even though we didn't actually go anywhere today, I feel like this ended up being one of the most exhausting days. My back was killing me. Then we got started on our posters and had to note down all of our methods used so far to test our water samples and grow our bacteria. 

We finally wrapped up for dinner time and went to go eat. I showered after because this was the last day at the campsite and I heard the next showers weren't going to be as welcoming as these ones, sounds like limited shower time.