TITLE: Footwear Versus Bacteria

AUTHOR: Susan Chan

SCHOOL: John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science

SCHOOL ADDRESS: 55 New Dudley Street, Roxbury, MA. 02120

The purpose of my project is to determine whether footwear provides an environment for the growth of bacteria, and if so, to discover which type of footwear grows the most bacteria. My hypothesis for this project is that sneakers is a types of footwear that grows the most bacteria. Usually because sneakers are hot on the inside, and the material within the sneakers is absorbant. The experiment uses a variety of footwear worn by ten different people. This will be used for the first part of the experiment to determine whether significant amounts of bacteria grew during the time they were worn. TSA petri dishes will be used. Then, the type of bacteria that grew most abundantly (gram-negative or gram-positive) will be identified, and the kind of footwear that provided the most ideal conditions for its growth will be determined. This will be done with CAN and MacConkey petri dishes.

In conclusion after an intense five months of experimenting testing I concluded that sneakers provided the best experiment for the growth of bacteria. It also depends on how long you kept the shoes. The longer the period of having a shoe, the more bacteria will grow. But also it depends what type of materials are used.