2. Life Traps - Logistics

Time
30 min to introduce the activity and seed the plates
5-10 min to make observations every other day over the next 2 weeks

Grouping
Individual or in pairs.

Materials
For approximately 50 plates you need:

• 50 sterile disposable plastic 15 mm x 100 mm Petri dishes (can be purchased from Ward’s Natural Science, item number 18 V 7101, approximately $4 for a package of 20 dishes)
• 15 g agar agar powder (a gelatin substitute made from red seaweed, available at most Asian grocery stores and health food stores, ideally purchase the unsweetened variety but pre-sweetened is OK as long as you ensure that you subtract out the weight of the sugar when measuring out 15 g of agar agar)
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1 liter distilled water
• stove and large pot for preparing nutrient agar and steam sterilizing the Q tips (better yet, if you have a pressure cooker, you will be far more assured of initially sterile conditions in your agar plates)
• 50 Q tips
• paper towels
• permanent markers for labeling plates
• masking tape
• bleach

Setting
Classroom