Download All About Bacteria Lab

NAME: ______________________________________
ALL ABOUT PROKARYOTIC CELLS
OBJECTIVE:
We will compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
I will compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells by completing a variety of activities.
For stations #1-2: Use the pamphlets to help answer the questions. Look through the micro-viewer, look at
the following slide numbers (slide number is located next to each slide), and draw what you see in the
circles below (in detail).
Station #1: Helpful Bacteria
Slide 1 – Bacteria of Decay
1. What do the bacteria of decay do to help living things?
Slide 3 – Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria in Soil
1. What do green plants need to grow and survive (keep living)?
2. Where does this type of bacteria get the nitrates from?
Slide 6 – Vinegar Bacteria
1. What are some examples of food made by adding vinegar?
Slide 7 – Cheese Bacteria
1. Why are there so many different types of cheese?
Station #2: Harmful Bacteria
Slide 3 – Pneumonia Bacteria
1. Pneumonia is a disease that attacks what part of your body?
2. Label the capsule and the actual bacteria in your drawing.
a. How does the capsule make it difficult for our bodies to fight
the disease?
Slide 4 – Bacteria of Tuberculosis
1. Where does this bacteria attack your body?
Station 3:
A. Amoeba Sisters Video
1. True of false ______________________ All bacteria are harmful.
2. True or false ____________________________ Antibiotics are effective against bacteria.
3. Bacteria are prokaryotic cells. Since they are prokaryotes, they do not have a ________________________ or
__________________________________________.
4. Why do antibiotics sometimes make you feel sick to your stomach?
5. True or false _______________________ You have more bacteria in your body than human cells.
6. State one food that you could eat to replace “good” bacteria in your body.
7. State two ways bacteria are helpful.
B. What causes antibiotic resistance?
1. We have _____________ times more bacteria cells in our body than human cells.
2. The medicines that are used to fight bacterial infections are called ______________________________.
3. Name two ways antibiotics work to destroy bacteria cells.
4. What does “resistant” mean?
5. True or false. __________________________ Bacteria can share genes with each other.
6. True or false ___________________________ MRSA is resistant to most antibiotics we currently have
available.
7. True or false ___________________________ Some bacteria can actually break down antibiotics and prevent
them from working.
8. How can we prevent antibiotic resistance from continuing to become a larger problem?
Station 4: Bacteria Information Sheet
I. Where Bacteria is Found:
1. List four places bacteria can be found in the world.
2. Why have bacteria been able to survive for 3.5 billion years (longer than any other organism)?
II. What They Look Like
1. How many cells make up a bacteria organism?
2. Not all bacteria cells look the same. What are some different shapes bacteria cells can have?
III. Bacteria’s Role in the Ecosystem
1. Why is carbon dioxide so important to our world?
2. What do the decomposers do to help keep the ecosystem balanced?
3. What else do bacteria do in the ecosystem? How do they help plants grow?
IV. Examples of Bacteria
1. What is the name of the bacteria that turns milk into cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products?
2. Which bacteria causes strep throat and pneumonia?
3. What does the bacteria “cynobacteria” do?
4. The good “E-coli” bacteria does what?
Bacteria Information Sheet
Many of us know bacteria only as “germs”, invisible creatures that can invade our bodies and make us sick.
Few know that many bacteria not only exist with us all the time, but help us do many amazing things like
make vitamins, break down some garbage, and even maintain our atmosphere.
I. Where Bacteria is Found
Bacteria can be found virtually everywhere. They are in the air, the soil, the water, and in and on plants and
animals, including us. A single teaspoon of topsoil contains about a billion bacterial cells. The human mouth
is home to over 500 species of bacteria.
Some bacteria can survive in the most forbidding, uninviting places on Earth, from nearly boiling hot springs
to super-chilled Antarctic lakes buried under sheets of ice. They are found at the tops of mountains, the
bottom of the deepest oceans, in the guts of animals, etc. One reason they have been able to spread so far
and be around for so long (3.5 billion years) is their ability to go inactive for an extended period of time.
II. What They Look Like
The human body is made of millions of cells. A bacteria cell is only a single cell! However, even though
bacteria have only one cell each, they come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors.
Some bacteria look like little balls, while others appear like tangled strings or corkscrews under a
microscope. Others look like medicine capsules or segmented ribbons. Still others look like fat commas.
III. Bacteria’s Role in the Ecosystem
The ecosystem, both on land and in the ocean, depends heavily upon the activity of bacteria. Organic
carbon, in the form of dead and rotting organisms, would quickly use up all the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere if not for the activity of the decomposers (bacteria and fungi). This may not seem all that bad to
you but think about it. Without carbon dioxide there would be no photosynthesis in plants and therefore no
food. When organisms die, the carbon in their bodies is not available for other living things. Decomposers
like bacteria and fungi break down these organisms and release the nutrients back into the environment.
This is one of the most important roles of bacteria.
Another important role of bacteria is in the cycling of nitrogen (remember all things go througha
cycle). Plants need nitrogen to live. However, they cannot the nitrogen gas from the air so the bacteria
convert the gaseous nitrogen into nitrates that the plants can use.
IV. Example of Bacteria
Cyanobactiera: live in water, where they produce large amounts of the oxygen we breath
E-coli: lives in the intestines where it helps digest food and produces vitamin K
** the “bad” strain of E-coli causes bad foodborn sickness
Lactobacillus bulgaricus: helps turns milk into cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products
Mycobacterium tuberculosis: causes tuberculosis (a disease of the lungs)
Streptococcus pneumoniae: causes strep throat and pneumonia (disease of the lungs)