The materials used for this project were; graham crackers, a watch with a second hand, 40 Petri dishes, approximately 45 sterilized gloves, a black sharpie pen, a gallon-sized Zip-loc bag, agar, three different ground surfaces: grass, sidewalk, and kitchen floor, Q-tips, and a card table.
My procedure was as follows. First I took a few graham crackers and put them in the gallon-sized bag. Then I broke each graham cracker into eighths.
Next I gloved one hand and took a graham cracker out of the bag and swabbed it with a Q-tip. I swabbed the Q-tip in the Petri dish and put the top of the Petri dish back on. I repeated this process 9 more times for the Control Group.
Then I gloved one hand, picked up a graham cracker, and dropped it on the kitchen floor for five seconds. I picked the graham cracker up immediately after five seconds were up, swabbed the side that touched the ground with a Q-tip, and swabbed the Q-tip in the Petri dish. Next, I closed the lid on the Petri dish.
I repeated this process 9 more times for my Kitchen Floor Group. I repeated this process for my grass and sidewalk group, each 10 times. Finally, I taped the lids shut to all of the Petri dishes and placed them on a card table to watch them for 7 days.