Reviews of EZ BioResearch Pre-poured Agar Plates and Swabs, 10 plates & 10

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This is a set of 10 Petri dishes which come with pre-poured nutrient agar. For those of you who are culturing micro-organisms for the first time, a Petri dish itself is just a plastic (or less often, glass) dish with a cover on it. Organisms won't grow in it unless food is provided for them in the dish. Most commonly this is done with "nutrient agar" which is (as you might imagine) a mixture of nutrients and agar that comes in a powder form. The powder is mixed with water and the mixture is heated up until the powder has dissolved into the water; the hot liquid is then poured into the Petri dishes and allowed to cool before use.

This set of Petri dishes already has had all of that done for you so all you need to do is put the micro organisms in and wait for them to grow. It's very convenient but there is extra cost because of this. I was quite pleased with the dishes I received; they were well-packaged, free of contamination, and most definitely ready to go. The package advises you to put the dishes in a 4 C environment when you get them this turns out to be the temperature of my fridge... don't put them in the freezer as I did with my first set! The water in the agar freezes and when you pull the dishes out to use them, you have to wait for them to defrost and when they do, you're left with a huge number of cracks in the agar, rendering most of the plate unusable...

If you take care not to repeat my mistake, these should work well for you. If you need large numbers of Petri dishes, consider buying powder to mix your own nutrient agar to reduce costs.

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I have a PH.D. in biochemistry and have made and used my own agar plates for years in a research lab. Now I am a "retired" stay-at-home" mom and use these plates to do science experiments with my kids at home. They are great! I haven't had any problems with them at all. They work just like they should. You don't really need to refrigerate them upon arrival if you are going to be using them within a week or so. I prefer not to refrigerate mine because IF they are contaminated, I want to KNOW IT and SEE the contamination before I use the plate. It is important to set up a warm "incubator" to keep them and they will grow over night. I bought a heat lamp (for reptiles sold at a pet store) and clipped it on the the side of a plastic box. I put a thermometer in there to make sure the temp stays between 90-98 degrees F. I covered it loosely with aluminum foil. That is all you really need to do. You should not let them grow more than 24 hours. Letting them grow for weeks as some people did will not generate accurate results. The plates will grow mold and dry out.

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The plates came in secure packaging. Nice clear agar, no contams whatsoever. After collecting my samples and finishing my research, I was able to autoclave the petri dishes and reuse them.

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I ordered the petri dishes for my second graders unit on Germs. They worked beautifully. In the past, I would make a solution with agar, but it took a long time and it was a hassle. These dishes and swabs were perfect for our experiment. The students loved it and learned a lot about germs being everywhere even in our classroom.

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Worked great for a fourth grade science fair project. Stored the unopened box in the refrigerator for one week until we were ready to use them. I gave three stars instead of five for two reasons: first, we received no instructions whatsoever with the plates. No information at all. Second, three of the apgar solutions cracked as we rubbed the swabs across. THe consistency was like a firm jello (knox blox?). The cracking did not affect the kit's ability to grow bacteria, but it made us anxious at first, especially given the lack of written instructions.