You Build It Bacteria Farm (Smart Lab) (ISBN 0974848654)

Still Trying to Get the Kit Started :(:
I was excited when we got our kit, because I thought that this would be a neat project for my girls, ages 9, 8, 6 1/2. I took out the items and arranged them as the instructions said. Then I got the small saucepan as the directions instructed and carefully followed how it told me to boil the water and add the gelatin. My first hint of trouble was when the gelatin didn't dissolve in the boiling water like it said. Instead, I got one giant lump of gelatin. Undeterred, I put my 16 years of cooking experience to use and tried using a wisk to wisk it smooth. I accomplished several lumps as I tried to salvage the gelating with more boling water and a fast hand. ...no luck. I got lumpy gel at one point and decided that was the best I was going to get, so I let it cool for a minute before I poured it into the dishes. (I didn't want to pour boiling hot gel into the dishes and crack them.) I literally waited 1 min before checking the gel, and it was solid. Hot, solid gel in the pan not going anywhere. According to the directions, you let it cool for 10 min before pouring. According to my spatula in the lump of gel, I had "gel on a spatula". After shaking it loose, peeling it, and scraping it, I managed to get the gel back into the pan. "Okay, one more try," I thought as I put it in the microwave in a dish to see if I could take a small time out to relax since I was now very frustrated. In the meantime, my 3 girls kept coming in, "Hey, Mom! Is that the bacteria?" "Is it ready YET?" "When will it be done?" By now I was not feeling very excited about this project. Needless to say, I am sitting here taking my time out as my girls are poking at a lump of gelatin. I am wondering if the author, Luann Columbo, TRIED this project before writing about it. I am wondering if Smart Lab was smart enough to make sure this worked before publishing it. I know that I am a fairly intelligent person who is pretty good at following directions, and I cannot figure out how to get the gelatin to work so we can start the bacteria farming.

HELP!:
Having read the other two reviews, we are now stumped as to what to do next. We have no agar at home as suggested in the first review and we, like the others, immediately got a hard lump of gelatin. I think the proportions are off...perhaps 1/4 tsp. of gelatin to 1/3 cup of water? Wish the SmartLab folks published a suggestion somewhere....we may fiddle around a bit to see if we can get the right mixture...VERY frustrating!

Bacteria Farm - Bad news, good news:
The BAD: Well, we had the exact same experience as the previous reviewer. We tried several batches and ended up with semisolid glop immediately upon removing the heat. The "recipe" must have wrong proportions. The GOOD: So, with frustrated parents and kids, I remembered high school bio, and nutrient agar. Hey, we had this nice kit with petri dishes, neat book, an experiment plan, etc. Why waste it? A quick search on the internet got a quick 'n' dirty recipe for nutrient agar, which worked like a charm. Nice and pourable and smooth. The trick with agar is that it melts at near water boiling point, but doesn't "re-gel" until much cooler, giving you plenty of time to cool it then pour it. Here's a short version: you will need lowfat or fat-free chicken broth, and agar. For agar, we found it at a health food store, as "Agar-agar". Follow the directions on the pack - powdered agar is probably 1/2 teaspoon per 1/3 cup broth, flakes more like 1 tsp per 1/3 cup. We got agar flakes, so here's what I did: Measure 2/3 cup chicken broth into a saucepan. While COLD (before heating), stir in 2 teaspoons agar flakes. Now, heat the broth+agar to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then reduce and simmer about 4-5 minutes. Then, let it cool 6, 7, 8 minutes or so, not too long. I poured it into a pyrex cup with a spout and filled the dishes from that. Came out like a professional lab! Was set well within an hour. The UGLY: we hope to get nice yukky colonies out of this.