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 -  Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Interesting
Reviewed By: Rachel 
Loved this bacteria experiment. It worked great, easy to use and understand. My daughter used it for a Science project. She found bacteria on door knobs, phones, remotes, sinks, books,hands, and even the dogs mouth.

 -  Thursday, February 09, 2012
Perfect
Reviewed By: Elizabeth 
We bought this for my daughter's science fair project. It is a perfect fit for a girl who wants to know how dirty her dog really.

 -  Wednesday, February 08, 2012
exciting!
Reviewed By: Lori Burrell 
Love the kit!! Comes with everything you need. Easy to use. Both my kids love it! Good lesson on germs and were they are and importance of washing hands!

 -  Monday, January 30, 2012
Easy to achieve dramatic results with this kit
Reviewed By: Laura Foley 
I ordered this kit after witnessing my 6-year-old son running a toothpick along a dusty dragon sculpture at a Chinese restaurant then trying to use the same toothpick to spear a bit of food. Luckily, I was able to stop him in time, but I thought this would be a good introduction to a demonstration about bacteria. Our first three petri dishes contained a swab from the outside of our toilet, the inside of our cat's mouth, and some coins. All three samples produced huge bacteria colonies! I like the fact that this is a very grown-up looking kit: very straightforward, no flashy cartoon characters. We look forward to our next experiment!

 -  Monday, January 30, 2012
Grand Prize
Reviewed By: Justin Bieber Lover 
This kit was amazing!! It came with everything I needed to complete my award-winning science fair project! I am in the seventh grade-age 13- and I recomend this product! I am gooing to order some more supplies just for fun.

Read More Reviews

-  Sunday, January 29, 2012 Convenient All-in-One Kit Reviewed By: Yvonne Griffiths  This kit was very convenient for use in a homeschool coop Biology class. For a good price, it included all I needed to give each student a couple of petri dishes, swabs, etc. to grow their own bacteria cultures. They very much enjoyed showing them to each other the next week!  -  Sunday, January 29, 2012 Easy and educational Reviewed By: Reese  This was exactly what my son needed for his middle school science project. Only issue is that it took "2" tries to get it right because when we heated up the agar to the temperature directed, it wasn't quite hot enough. Therefore we poured lumpy liquid into the dishes. I wish it had said somewhere on the directions that you should also heat it up until it's completely a liquid. (which is what we did the second time). So it worked great the second time.  -  Friday, January 27, 2012 Great Project Kit!!! Reviewed By: Kjm  This is my 2nd time ordering this bacteria kit. It is great-it does include everything you need to grow bacteria!! Very easy for 13yr old to do. Looking forward to another winning project this year!!  -  Monday, December 12, 2011 Very Simple! Reviewed By: Lori C.  I was skeptical about ordering online but the kit was just as described and very simple to use. Just read the instructions and you really can't go wrong!  -  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Bacteria on the kitchen table Reviewed By: Jenny Bryant  I currently have bacteria growing on my kitchen table and thanks to this handy kit it is delightfully contained in petri dishes!! The bacteria kit was shipped and delivered in a few days and my son (13yo) was able to start his science fair project over the next weekend. He was able to do everything himself using the directions included with the kit. I am one happy mama.  -  Sunday, June 19, 2011 great kit Reviewed By: Tricia  My summer campers had a great time seeing all that they could grow in their petri dishes and what substances had antibacterial effects.  -  Tuesday, April 05, 2011 Great Experiment!!! Reviewed By: KJM  The kit contained everything needed to complete experiment, including instructions. Daughter(12yr) was able to complete herself. Within1-2 days bacteria begin to grow! She placed in Science fair with this project, was very pleased with results.  -  Friday, February 18, 2011 Fun Experiments Reviewed By: Diana Wise  My 15y.o. daughter used this last year with great results. It was easy to use. I supervised, but she was able to do it on her own. We have ordered science supplies from here since she was 4, with consistently great results.  -  Thursday, February 10, 2011 Super learning kit! Reviewed By: Airman  This is one of the best kits ive ever seen when it comes to learning about bacteria!  -  Monday, January 17, 2011 Great Product Reviewed By: KMW  I purchased the bacteria Experiment Kit for my son's science fair project. The kit was delivered quickly and no issues. After reading other customer reviews and suggestions on preparation of the Agar I was very nervous about the dish prep. I followed directions carefully and didn't have any problems melting to a liquid in the microwave. Each time I took the bottle out of the microwave I capped the bottle and swirled the agar to distribute heat evenly then proceeded by un capping and placing back in microwave. We got bacteria to grow within two days. Overall great product and would buy again.  -  Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Great product Reviewed By: Mary  I ordered this kit for my daughter's 8th grade science fair. It was a great kit and included everything she needs to do her experiment.  -  Friday, October 29, 2010 6th Grade Science Project - School Bacteria Reviewed By: Shane Schilling  My daughter's 6th grade science project was, "Where Can You Find Bacteria Around Twin Lakes School?" Using the kit here, her project was a home-run! I photographed her taking samples from 13 different places around her school including restroom,lunchroom (including the refrigerator), classroom, and playground/equipment. She included numbers in close-ups of the locations she swabbed and also numbered the petri dishes. Then she photographed them at 5,9,and 15 days. Her presentation was at 21 days. All the kids in school were talking about the results such as the toilet seat having less bacteria (in types and growth) than the drinking fountain head, or the paper towel dispenser having the most bacteria of the places sampled in the restroom. One kindergarten teacher used the display for a teaching lesson and parents were talking to their kids about the importance of washing their hands and how to get a paper towel out. My daughter was beaming with compliments. So, some tips from our experience: 1) The cultures did not get into full bloom until about day 15, 2) We used an old suitcase for the dark area to keep the bacteria between viewings, 3) We used dry swabs, 4) We used 1 bottle of agar and it went into 13 dishes. By the 21st day, one mold sample had apparently used all the agar up. So, don't skimp on the agar to make it go farther. It would be nice to have some lines on the agar containers to help in pouring out even amounts. 5) Taking the samples at school during lunchtime heightened the other kids interest in seeing the results, 6) The hot water bath took a long time, but even when very hot and apparently melted, the center still had a small clump. Microwaving would have probably ensured that it all melted.  -  Tuesday, March 30, 2010 perfect for projects Reviewed By: Mia Wallace  I purchased this kit a few years ago for my daughters 3rd or 4th grade project, (I can't remember), but I'm about to purchase it again for my son's 4th grade project. He was so interested in his sister growing bacteria, that he really wanted to do this for himself. It's a great project for mom's too, we can actually see what products actually work and which one's are total money wasters! Have fun!  -  Wednesday, February 10, 2010 Super Fun! Reviewed By: Sue Ellen  This was a great kit! We swabbed the fridge, phone, (my son's mouth) and had someone cough in the plate! Results were YUCK, but oh so interesting! We also completed the antibiotic disc test with E. coli. We made slides of the colonies using the gram stain kit! Can't wait to see if my son can identify this bacteria! We will definitely shop here again. HINT: Agar was easiest to prepare in the microwave. NEED: More swabs please. [Home Science Tools adds on 6/7/10: As requested, we've doubled the number of swabs in this kit now, so you'll have one swab per petri dish and can do more experiments!]  -  Friday, January 08, 2010 Awsome! Reviewed By: Sandi Bond  I got this kit for my son for Christmas. He loves it! He loves growing bacteria! I would rate this product a 10 if I could! COOL! I would recommend this kit for scientists of all ages!  -  Wednesday, November 04, 2009 Great project Reviewed By: Patti  Had enought to do all 20 dishes so make sure you have 20 swaps. I would buy again if needed for another child.  -  Wednesday, September 02, 2009 Amazing Reviewed By: Stephanie  this was great. I am a seventh grade student and i used this kit for my science fiar experiment... i won! i barely did any work and i got the highest grade in the class. BUY THIS PRODUCT!  -  Monday, March 02, 2009 Bacteria Experiment Kit Reviewed By: Meghan Whisenand  Wow! This was a fantastic and fun project. The kit made testing all sorts of everyday objects for bacteria a breeze. Contained easy to follow directions and arrived fast. An eye-opener to the importance of good handwashing! Thanks so much  -  Thursday, February 19, 2009 Bacteria Kit Reviewed By: Paula  This was a great kit. It had everything needed included in the kit. I agree, there should be 20 swabs included in this kit as well. My kids had a great time and we went nuts swabing everything. I couldn't believe what was growing on my cell phone, the doorknobs, the toilet, etc! Amazing product and great price. Would definitely recommend. We purchased more swabs so we can do the mouth/mouthwash experiment next :)  -  Friday, February 13, 2009 Bacteria Experiment Kit Reviewed By: Krisha H  I purchased this kit for my daughter (6th Grade) to use for her science fair project. The kit was very easy to use and the directions easy to follow. I liked the fact that she was required to prepare the petri dishes before beginning the experiment. This was a great way to introduce her to the world of science. The kit also contained tips and directions about different ways to grow bacteria.  -  Wednesday, February 04, 2009 Bacteria study kit Reviewed By: Kelly  Great value! My local school supply store was asking $7.95 for 2 petri dishes, agar sold separately. This kit provides everything you need plus instructions for several different experiment ideas. The instruction guide was easy to use. My 7th grade son was able to perform experiments that I did in college. The only negative side is that there are only 10 sterile swabs and 20 petri dishes. We had to buy additional swabs for our experiment. Overall, I would definitely recommend this product.  -  Thursday, January 29, 2009 Bacteria Study Kit Reviewed By: D. Talley  I purchased this kit for my daughter to use in conducting a science fair experiment. The kit contained adequate supplies for the project, but the instructions were a little vague on certain things. Overall, the was an excellent kit for the price.  -  Tuesday, January 27, 2009 Great for Science Fair Projects Reviewed By: S. Dropping  We ordered this kit for our 5th Grade Science Fair project. We grew bacteria from both home and school (washing machine, restroom, keyboard, front door) for our experiment. Never having grown bacteria before, we just followed the instructions that were included in package. It was very simple and we had glorious results, growing all kinds of hairy, green/black/clear colonies. A must to purchase for your experiments. The cost was reasonable too.  -  Saturday, March 15, 2008 Good for a group   This is a good kit when you have a group of students. (Otherwise, the price may be prohibitive.) I recommend reading the instructions carefully before determining what you'll do with the kids. The previous reviewer makes some great points.  -  Tuesday, February 05, 2008 Bacteria Study Kit   This is a very good home science product. My two eleven year old boys were kept busy and interested, learning about agar and petri dishes and the best environment for growing microorganisms. I liked it because the boys were able to independently set up the experiments and evaluate the results. The bacteria does take several days to grow, so if you are looking for a activity to complete in one day, this is not a good choice. Otherwise, in addition to learning about growing microorganisnms, it indicates where germs are most abundant around the house.  -  Tuesday, February 05, 2008 Overall, a very good kit   I agree with the previous positive reviews of this kit. My following comments will be more negative, but they are MINOR; I'm mentioning them because they were not mentioned in the previous reviews. But my overall assessment of this kit is definitely positive, and, if I were going to do a group demonstration, I would purchase this kit again. One thing that I would modify is part of the instructions. It would be nice to have more details about how much iodine, for example, to put on each square of blotter paper, or, if certain substances in the blotter paper sqaures should get separate petri dishes of their own. Example: When we used the blotter paper and iodine, the iodine diffused out of the blotter paper and into the nutrient agar, which was expected. However, it diffused so far out that it killed almost everything else on the plate (petri dish). In other words, we couldn't tell how effective some of the other substances in other blotter squares on the same plate were, because the iodine wiped out almost everything. The same was true of the bleach, although less so. This problem could also be avoided by the use of divided petri dishes and putting one blotter square into each section. I ended up doing this when I redid the experiment. More discussion in the instructions would also help, although I realize that the objective of this kit does not include functioning as a lab manual. For example, rubbing alcohol (70%) did not inhibit growth as much as we expected, but we don't know if that's because it was relatively ineffective as an antimicrobial or (more likely) if because of its high volatility it simply evaporated too quickly and became ineffective over the three days that we allowed the bacteria to grow at room temperature. The other minor negative comment I have about the kit is the price. For a co-op demonstration, this is affordable, but the price could put it out of the range of many homeschoolers who might want to do this lab for only on  -  Saturday, December 15, 2007 Bacteria Study Kit Reviewed By: Virgil Gibbs  I used this kit for the Science Class I teach at the Co-op. This was a fantastic kit and the students really enjoyed culturing different specimens. We watched the cultures grow for a few weeks and it made firm handwashers out of the students!  -  Thursday, January 25, 2007 Bacteria study kit   This was a very good kit. My initial concern was that there would not be enough agar to fill the dishes. However, after preparing the dishes with a very thin layer (thats all you really need) there was enough to fill some of our own test tubes and do some stabs and still have some left. This is an excellent intro to general as well as microbiology with or without a microscope though with a microscope a great deal more is possible. In both high school and college microbiology this was the very first project we did, with good reason, and it was the first I did with my homeschool daughters. It is also a very good project with which to introduce children to scientific method as it allows you to not only follow each step in the method but also an opportunity to set up and conduct experiments from start(including preparation of the media)to finish. There are two suggestions that I will make very strongly. First, without an incubator your cultures will take a long time to grow and if you are unfamiliar with culture prep and care you might be inclined to give up on it too soon.With a bit of creativity we were able to explore various ways to incubate the cultures and compare with non incubated cultures, etc. Second, be sure to prepare the agar properly or you will get a rough bubbly surface rather than a smooth one. Forgive my long windedness but microbiology was one of my favorite subjects and this simple kit provides so much for so little cost and time and with some creativity you will never run out of things to do. But also remember that with a project like this you need to use good sanitary practice beyond universal precautions and common sense and when finished dispose of it properly. George Fear  -  Thursday, January 04, 2007 bacteria kit Reviewed By: Gary Blaney  it was fun and helped me understand more about bacteria (and now i wash my hands more)