Pour the water into the saucepan and bring to the boil. Add beef stock powder, sugar and gelatin to the boiling water and stir for a minute until all the ingredients have dissolved. Cool your new agar mixture slightly for 10 minutes. The mixture needs to be still hot to avoid the gelatin setting in the saucepan and to prevent contamination from bacteria in the air. The conditions are far from sterile, but you want to avoid as much contamination as possible.

Take the lid off the Petri dishes and half-fill the petri dish with the hot mixture. Only take the lid off the petri dish when you are ready to pour your agar, or they will become contaminated with the bacteria in the air.
Immediately put the lid back on the Petri dish and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours until the agar has set.      
Do not touch the agar.

Now it’s time to collect and grow your bacteria on the agar plates. Bacteria is not hard to collect because it is everywhere. Try exposing one plate to the air in your house, dorm, or apartment and using a cotton swab run it along the inside of your mouth, nose, hands, feet, belly button, door handle, phone, or computer (Pick only 1 option. It does not have to be from the examples previously listed.) And then slightly run it across the agar in a zig zag motion.

Put the lids back on the Petri dishes, label them, tape them closed and place them upside down in your make-do incubator (if you have one) for 1 to 2 days. If you don’t have an incubator, leave the plates at room temperature for 3-5 days. Out of precaution do not open your sealed Petri dishes.

Observe your results and take pictures of your plates. Write a brief summary of your findings. Describe the shape, color, and texture of the bacteria in your plate, include what area you swabbed for microbes, and research the relevant microbes found in that area. For example, if you swabbed your hands research typical bacteria found on hands. Include these findings in your brief summary for submission.