Determination of the Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Student Cell Phones

Sampling of common use items (e.g., student cell phones) for bacterial presence, identification, and antibiotic resistance profiling helps students to recognize the need for routine cleaning of personal items and encourages thoughtful use of currently available medications. This multilab period project can be used to teach or reinforce several methods from general microbiology including aseptic technique, isolation streak, serial dilution, spread plating, Kirby Bauer testing, unknown identification, and media production. The data generated can be saved and added to each semester, thus providing a data set that reflects a local trend of antibiotic resistance.