Viruses and Bacteria

This week in science we learned about viruses and bacteria. On Monday we took notes on the topic and we learned how viruses reproduce. We also did a lab that showed how viruses are transferred. Each student had a tube containing water and one student had a chemical in his tube. We all shared what was in our tubes without knowing who had the chemical. The person who shared their chemical infected the other tubes just like a virus would. On Tuesday we finished our lab by narrowing it down to who had the virus by seeing who had infected us and seeing who had infected them. On Wednesday we started a new lab. We grew bacteria in  petri dishes and agar. We then removed bacteria from different areas around the school where we thought bacteria would be. My group chose the computer keys which had 56 bacteria colonies. On Thursday I watched some of the progress of the bacteria .We also started another lab. In this lab we tested to see if anti-bacterial cleansers worked as well as they said they would. We put 4 hole punches with anti-bacterial cleansers on each of them in a petri dish with bacteria and waited for the results to see if the cleanser killed the bacteria in the petri dish. On Friday we looked at different bacteria that the other classes had grown. I wasn't surprised that the dumpster had the most bacteria.
This week I learned that bacteria is everywhere and that some bacteria is good and some are bad; but there is more good bacteria than bad bacteria. One way in which I can improve is by thinking more through my hypothesis when we do an experiment, by connecting the dots of the information I learn from my notes in class to what I actually do in my actual lab experiments.
I looked up the pandemic of 1918 and was shocked to learn that more Americans died from the flu in 1918 than the number of people who died in World War I! The link is attached.

http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/the_pandemic/index.html