The Saint Maur scientists were in for a treat this month as they received a new piece of equipment purchased for them thanks to the support of the Saint Maur International School Parent Support Group.

Thanks to the availability of the autoclave that the PSG kindly bought for us last year, we have been able to initiate substantial microbiology work using solid agar plates. In just a few months, this equipment had already proved invaluable for our IB students during their Group 4 projects, Extended Essay and Internal Investigations. The next step forward was to be able to grow microorganisms in liquid cultures, and those require temperature control and constant shaking. A shaking water was therefore needed and once more, we called upon the PSG for support and were delighted when they approved our request.

A shaking waterbath allows culture media to be oxygenated and allows bacteria to thrive without settling at the bottom of the container. The main advantage of growing liquid cultures is that it allows to obtain quantifiable data, and grow frozen stocks of bacterial strains. It allows lower students as early as Grade 6 to start learning basic microbiological techniques by growing baker’s yeast, which is the safest strain to be using, one which requires particularly vigorous shaking when grown in liquid cultur