Oil spills cause devastation to the environment killing sea life, birds, and coastal plants. Spraying areas of contamination with oil-eating microbes accelerates the degradation of the oil. This process is known as bioremediation. In this open-ended experiment, students will grow a mixture of oil-eating bacteria and observe their effectiveness at degrading a variety of oils.
- Group size: for 10 lab groups
- Time required: after establishment of cultures, lab requires 50 minutes
- Includes: instructions, oil-eating microbes (powder), growth media, Petri plates, 1N HCl, 1M NaOH, tetrazolium indicator powder, pH paper, and pipettes
- You need: shaking platform or stir plate (with stir bar), glassware, various cooking oils such as vegetable, canola, or olive, balance, distilled water, pipette pumps, and spectrophotometer (optional)
- Storage: some components require refrigerator storage
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