Growing Bacteria Kit

My son swabbed everything he could think of, classmates volunteered belly buttons,hands etc, kids with sore throats, etc.. then they went swabbed cell phones and keyboards all of these examples yielded the wildest results!! This made my children and even my sons class mates aware of how important good hygiene is! Plenty of agar for dishes, it doesn't take much, to fill it to the half way point. Agar sets up fast! Directions are clear, and easy to follow. Thanks so much!

I decided to swab my tongue. Interesting stuff grew! A few days later, found out I had "walking pneumonia". We had to carefully dispose of that dish!

I ordered a Bacteria Growing Kit for my fifth grade science fair project. The materials were great, shipping prompt and easy, and the directions were detailed and straightforward, making it easy to follow. Thanks SteveSpangler.com!

My son used this for third grade science fair. He swabbed all of our pets to see who had the most bacteria in their mouths. The lizard won! No surprise there. Really excited to watch it grow and examine the results.

I bought this kit for my 5th grade science fair project. It was very easy to use and was quite interesting. I didn't double dip before I did this experiment. Now that I have seen all the bacteria that it leaves behind, I encourage my friends not to double dip either.

Your products are great. My only complaint is the shipping. Your shipping rates too high and too slow. With other companies I pay less than half of what you charge and receive my purchase in 3 days.

HRK -
Thank you for taking the time to review and for your feedback regarding the shipping rates. I would like to assure you that we charge the exact rates of shipping. We keep our products at as-low-as-possible prices to help counteract that. Again, thanks for the feedback. We hope that helps explain a little bit.
 - Steve Spangler Science Web Team

This was a fantastic experiment for my daughter's science project. Instructions were very clear and easy to follow and the results were unbelievely quick! We were growing bacteria in two days. My daughter and I had so much fun and learned so much. Thank you Steve Spangler!!!!!

We ordered the petri dishes for using in a science fair project. My daughter had a great time using the dishes and bringing the project together. Her friends had a great time watching the germs grow.

We have not used this product yet, but I did email customer service to verify if I had indeed purchased the correct product for my daughter's planned science project. My question was answered very quickly! Thank you.

My 7 Year old son and I had a great time testing the doorknobs at my office and used it as a great reminder to wash our hands before we eat or touch food. Happy Experimenting!!!!

This is our second time to order your bacteria growing petri dish kit. We use them for science fair projects and they work
great!! Thank you

I purchased this kit for my science project, Who's mouth is cleaner- a dog or humans? It was so fun. Everything you need is included in the kit and it's very affordable. I will definately be coming to this site again for my next science project.

We are using this kit for a Science Fair project for my 4th grader. He and I think that it's really cool. We made and poured the Agar last night and can't wait until we see some growth. Very pleased with this kit and your company. About 10 minutes ago, I emailed a question and got an immediate response-you can't beat that kind of customer service! I plan to order some other experiments etc. and have Science Night once a week during the summer. Thanks,
Colleen Morris

If this question has you yearning for an answer, you'll want to be sure and buy the Bacteria Growing Kit and find out for yourself. Our elementary students chose this question for their Science Fair project. Since there are enough materials to take 6 different samples, we also took samples from the water cooler, door knob, computer mouse, and stair railing. We grew bacteria in a variety of shapes and colors. My only caution is this ended up being a stinky project. We took pictures instead of displaying the actual Petri dishes. If your students love seeing gross things, however, this kit will certainly be a hit!

I've bought this kit last year for my science fair project and it was pretty interesting. I did my project on what is the dirtiest objects and some everyday objects. (steering wheel, doorknob of the front house ...etc.... I loved the results and It has really fun! I would totally recommend it!

We had a ball with this project! It was easy and informative as well as fun. The only thing lacking was finding out what each bacteria was afterwards. How could we do that?

I would recomend this to parents, teachers, grandparents, anyone at all!!

Our daughter wanted to find out if her mouth, or her dog's mouth was cleaner before we even saw the question posed here. We found the "Bacteria Growing Kit" on line while trying to figure out where to get Petri dishes and Agar. Everything we nneded in one stop! What a success! So easy, and a true scientific process. Our dog is "Eausea" (pronounced OC). See pics here for results after 8 days. The final board looks beautiful with required Hypothesis, Procedure, and photos as well as her drawings(observations) of the "speckles" over time. Highly recommended.

Very easy to use and students were fascinated by the results. Love this product!

AWSOME FUN..AND EASY

We ordered the Bacteria Growing Kit for my son's science fair project. The instructions were good, and we didn't have any trouble getting the agar to "set up". We started growing bacteria within 3 days, so we were very excited. I would definitely recommend this kit!

In trying to explain our test results, we contacted a university professor who made the following suggestions: (1) wear a mask when you are making the ager so that you don't accidentally breathe micro-organisms onto your ager
(2) make sure that you immediately close up the dishes of ager while they are setting up so that they don't pick up micro-organisms from the air
(3) be sure not to open the dishes once you see growing organisms and handle the dishes while wearing gloves and a mask (for safety)
(4) make sure that you order a large enough kit for multiple trials if that is part of the grading rubric for your experiment (we learned this one the hard way and now I am ordering more)
(5) it may also benefit your experiment to keep a chart of bacteria growth checking the dishes every 8-12 hours noting the colors and numbers of colonies that you see.

We ordered the Petri dish kit for my 5th grader's science project, Who Would You Rather Kiss, Your Mom or Your Dog?. It worked very well and was easy to use. We will definitely order something from your website next year.

This Petri Dishes were easy to make! It was a success the 1st time we tried! We used these in a science fair project to see if our dogs' mouths were dirtier than my child's. I am excited to say that he placed 2nd in his 3rd grade division at his elementary school! Thank you for the part that you played in this!

We received the kit just days after we ordered it. After following the directions, we tested the bathrooms at my son's school for bacteria. Very disgusting things began to grow within a week and my son has now decided that hand washing is important! His science fair project is due in two days and we are ready!

Very easy to use product. I grew bacteria from different drinking water sources. I was amazed that I had growth within three days. The was used for an University Integrated Science project.

I am not a biology person and had never worked with agar. The directions were simple and very easy. The students loved this activity. They are submitting it as a science fair project.

This was easy and fun for my 9yr old sons science project he loved it

Bacteria Growing Kit-Petri Dishes was an easy to use kit. However, in some situations I was unable to get any growth to show and at other times there was heavy growth. Since the procedure used was the same I'm uncertain why there was a difference. I would also like to purchase more agar powder without the petri dishes.

I was so excited that everything worked out perfectly with my project! I gave a lesson on germs and our immune system. I thought it would be interesting and fun for my class to get the opportunity to see where germs lived the most. So my class swabbed away- they swabbed everything from their cell phones, to the stair railings, to our teachers key board. I came back with the results the following week and we found out what not to touch.

This is such a fun hands on real life teaching tool, and I will definitely be using it in my classes in the future.

Steve Spangler Science was great with their customer service. They helped me find just what I needed and suggested the route of shipping I should take in order for it to get to me in a few days- and it arrived on time, and everything was a success!!!

The kit contained everything that we needed. The only bad thing about the whole thing is that we wanted to do more! This is only the tip of the iceberg! we tested the cleanliness of the school and we found that the dirtiest place was the teacher's lounge! Thank you ! ! !

I ordered this for my sons 6th grade science fair project. It had clear, easy to follow directions. He enjoyed taking the samples, mixing the auger, and mostly seeing the bacteria growth!!

This was a very fun and interesting experiment! Thanks so much Steve!

The directions tell how much agar to use for the six dishes, but you don't provide enough agar.

Bob, I'm sorry that you experienced a problem with this kit.  We actually provide enough agar for 12 petri dishes, which allows for mistakes, spills, and the like.  A customer service team member will contact you to discuss this with you.  -- The Steve Spangler Science Web Team

My five year old and I had so much fun testing door knobs, remote controls, dog noses, toilet seats, etc...It was amazing to see after a few days how much bacteria (and different types of bacteria) was growing in the dishes

This is a creative and excellent science fair experiment that appeals to kids, asks a good question, performs multiple tests, and eventually comes to some disgusting conclusions. What a great way to demonstrate the scientific method, the use of a variable and a control, and the process of making discoveries/conclusions. Amazing job!

Just Awesome

I can't believe how gross this is. The best part is that I could do it at home with petri dishes and the jello stuff. This is a great science fair project idea for my daughter who loves gross stuff.

We wish there was one extra pack of agar in the bacteria growing kit. Even though your instructions warn of microwave boil-over, it did happen to us, and is probably very common, so we were out of luck. Our alternative was to buy 25 ounces more for the same price as the kit. We think you could have put an extra 5 ounce pack for more value, less disappointment. Otherwise - great product and service. Luckily, our experiment is going forward because we bought 2 kits, wanting 12 samples of (comparing growth of dog, cat, rat, saliva). We now have a compromised 8 samples for the science fair project, with less agar in each dish....

The directions were very clear. The agar set quickly. It made my class of first graders feel like real scientists