Blog 15: E. Coli Background Info

Background information about E. coli. Describe the basic biology of E. coli. Review some key information about this model organism. 

Escherichia Coli, or E. Coli are a bacteria that are found inside intestines of warm-blooded animals. The bacteria are rod shaped. Most E. Coli are completely harmless as well as essential. They help with digestion by releasing B and K vitamins through a process in which the E. Coli helps break down food into usable, digestible nutrients. A couple of bad strains of E. Coli is called O157:H7, E. Coli 0121 and E. Coli 0104:H21. These strains comes from the runoff of fecal matter of other animals. It can leak into water sources, which are then used to supplement animals, and vegetables. If we ingest the meat of such animals or vegetables then we can get E. Coli poisoning which includes symptoms of vomiting and abdominal cramps, and long term effects of kidney failure. E. Coli poisoning occurs when the E. Coli from another organism get into your stomach. A common E. Coli breakout that comes from factory farms is E. Coli from the intestines of cows. In many cases when young children or elderly adults are infected with E. Coli, the poisoning can eventually lead to death because their immune systems are not as strong as an average, healthy adult. 

Blog 14

Lessons Learned From My First Experiment

          What was the favorite part of your experiment?

My favorite part of the experiment was checking the plants everyday. It was fun to see the changes that they went through and how rapidly they grew. Everyday, the plants would look completely different because they grew so rapidly. 

           What did you find challenging?

The most challenging part of this experiment for me was keeping track of our data. It was hard to make sure that we measured each plant like the last. Another thing that was challenging in this experiment was just overall remembering everything that had to be done with the plants everyday because we always needed to water, measure, and take pictures of them.

          What could you have personally done to improve your work?

To improve my work, I personally could have paid better attention to making sure that everything was executed correctly. Since this was our first experiment in the class, and having no experience, it was difficult to make sure that everything was done correctly. For example, in many of our photo's of our experiment, we forgot to put in some sort of unit of measure like a penny or a ruler.

          Is there anything about your experience that I should be aware of?

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. I have never designed my own science experiment and it was interesting to learn about the process of how one plans, and executes a full science experiment.