Download Date pg. _____ WebQuest Learn Your Microbes Part 1: Bacteria

Date __________________ pg. _____
WebQuest
Learn Your Microbes Part 1: Bacteria
Think Bacteria and Viruses are the same?
1. Visit Website #1: Virus or Bacterium? to complete the following table comparing viruses and bacteria
Characteristic
Bacteria
Virus
Larger or smaller?
More or less complex?
Cell membrane and/or cell wall?
DNA?
Reproduce independently?
Cause disease?
Bacteria Basics
2. Visit Website #2: The Average Bacterium and answer the following questions:
a. Where can we find bacteria living?
b. How many bacteria can fit the period at the end of a sentence?
c. Are bacteria unicellular or multicellular?
d. How are they different from eukaryotes?
e. How old is the earliest bacteria fossil?
f.
What are Eubacteria?
g. Bacteria Shapes: sketch and describe these bacteria shapes
Cocci
Sketch
Bacilli
Description
Sketch
Spirilla
Description
Sketch
Description
Bacteria History and Ecology
3. Visit Website #3: Bacteria - Life History and Ecology to answer the following questions:
a. How would you compare the number of pathogenic (disease causing) bacteria to the number of harmless
bacteria?
b. Where can bacteria be found on Earth?
c. What is the difference between aerobic bacteria and anaerobic bacteria?
d. What is the difference between bacteria that are heterotrophs and those that are autotrophs?
e. Explain two (2) of the roles that bacteria play in the world’s ecosystem.
Bacteria Structure
4. Visit Website #4: Bacteria Cell Structure and label the parts of the bacterium:
flagellum, pilli, nucleoid (DNA), ribosomes, cell (plasma) membrane, cell wall, capsule
Describe each of the following
bacterial cell structures:

flagellum (pl. flagella) –

capsule –

cell wall -