Spontaneous Generation Lab Results


This lab was a recreation of Louis Pasteur's famous lab that disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, which stated that life came from nonliving material.  Students put 25 ml of broth in a test tube, put a stopper with a straight neck or a curved neck on it, and boiled it in a hot water bath to sterilize it.  The test tubes were then placed in an incubator and let sit to see if bacteria would grow.  The broth was examined for color change, clarity, and also looked at microscopically for evidence of bacteria.  The straight neck tubes should have shown some bacteria growth while the curved necks should not have.  This lab has various rates of success from year to year.