MY NUMBER IS 25
What is the Unknown Project?
The Unknown Project is a fun project that you will be working on during the last week of the course. Each student will sign up for an Unknown number. Your unknown organism will be one of the following:
Gram-negative rod
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Gram-positive coccus
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Gram-positive rod
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Sign Up for an Unknown Number
The first thing that you will be doing is signing up for an unique number in D2L. In order to do that, click on the Tools tab. Then, choose Groups. You will see a list of numbers. Click on one of them to sign up. Once you sign up using the Groups tool in D2L, complete the Unknown Project Survey quiz located in D2L. This quiz is not for a grade. In this quiz, you will type the unknown number that you signed up for and complete a T/F question that states that you understand that you cannot change your unknown number.
The Identification Process
Gram Stain Results and Morphology
Once you complete the Unknown Project Survey Quiz, a file will be released in D2L, and you will be able to check results for Gram staining and morphology. This is the first step in your identification process. You will be able to determine in which category your unknown number fall: Gram-positive coccus, Gram-negative rod, or Gram-positive rod.
Phenol Red Glucose and Phenol Red Lactose Tests and Results
In addition of seeing the file in D2L with the Gram staining and morphology results, you will also see a file that contains the results for Phenol Red Glucose and Phenol Red Lactose broths. These two tests are mandatory and you will be able to start the identification process. You will start filling out the Unknown Project report located in the Assignments section in D2L (under the Assessment tab). Using the table located in D2L, you will start the process of elimination (if any, depending on your unknown Gram staining and morphology results).
Choosing the Right Test
After reporting results of Phenol Red Glucose and Phenol Red Lactose, you will choose wisely which test to run next in order to start narrowing down your choices. These tests are most of the biochemical tests that you learned about in Modules 8 and 9 of the course. Feel free to review all the biochemical tests, the results, and interpretations. You will see different files with all results for different biochemical tests, but you can’t report all the tests in your Unknown Project lab report file. You are allowed a maximum number of 5 tests to report. For example, if you have a Gram-negative rod, it is not wise to report results for catalase. If you see the table that is in D2L, all Gram-negative rod organisms listed on the table are catalase positive. Therefore, this test will not help you to narrow down the possibilities. Another example is reporting citrate test result if you have a Gram-positive coccus. For this subset of organisms, they are all citrase negative. Reporting a test that is not suitable or helpful in the identification process of your unknown will result in point deductions.
Unknown Project Lab Report
You will be completing the Unknown Project Lab Report file located in the Assignments category of the Assessments tab. You will complete the first page of the document. All students must report Phenol red glucose and phenol red lactose results. When writing results for phenol red, you must write it using the proper way. For instance, you cannot write “yellow with a bubble”. Instead, you would write A/G or A/+. For the interpretations, you will write what does it mean in terms of the biochemical tests. For example, a phenol red glucose broth that is A/G or A/+, mean that the organism ferments glucose with the production of CO2.
Please, review all biochemical tests in Modules 8 and 9 for proper results reporting and accurate interpretations. These two tests are mandatory for everyone. After this test, each student will choose which test to run next. You are to write down the rationale for that. Therefore, many tables on that pdf file will be unfilled. If you fill out every table of the document, you will lose points. You are not allowed to report results of every single test listed in the file. For each test that you report, you must use the proper way to record the results, the interpretations for the test, and what’s next including the possible organisms that you may have and why you are running the next test.
After you have identified your unknown organism, you will type the name of the bacterium on top of page 7 of lab report. Then, you will do some research using reliable sources. You will then write about your findings in an essay format (page 8 of lab report file). All instructions for this part are in page 7 of lab report file. Do not forget to include your citations in the last page of the lab report.
MY NUMBER IS 25
