Why is it important only to use a small amount of bacteria specimen on a slide?
Well, with any slide under a microscope, light will shine through the specimen so that you may see the details of the organism up close. With bacteria, in order to see details you need to stain that bacteria. The most popular technique is called Gram Staining, and this also helps to identify the type of bacteria you are viewing. Say you swabbed a big clump of your cultured bacteria on a slide and stained it… the light coming through will be minimal and you’ll see a big blob, which is absolutely a waste of your time (and your teacher’s when she has to reitterate to you that you’ve used too much sample on your slide). Just use a thin smear. This will allow you to see the cell membrane/ cell wall of your bacterium to determine the shape. You’ll also want to note if your bacteria exist together in clusters, chians, or singly. Before swabbing your Petri Dish for a sample, also note the shape, size, color, etc… of the colony. This also aids in identification of the type of bacterium you
