streaking an agar plate
In practical 5 you will be streaking bacteria onto agar plates . The whole point of this is to dilute the bacteria so you end up with one region on the plate that has discreet bacterial colonies that have originated from one bacterium. You can then assume that all bacteria in one colony are identical. To give you a head start, here is a video that shows you how to streak an agar plate... So it is pretty simple really. The biggest problem a lot of you will have is that you will press down too hard on the agar with the loop, and end up digging the loop into the agar. Just be gentle and remember, practice makes perfect!