Drinking Water Microbiology Lab
Description
This interactive virtual lab simulates the full workflow for detecting Total Coliforms and E. coli in drinking water using membrane filtration (ISO 9308-1), in line with SFDA/GSO standards. Trainees use drag-and-drop tools to move through sample reception, dilution preparation, filtration, plating on Chromogenic Coliform Agar, incubation, colony reading, and confirmatory testing (oxidase and indole) — with real-time feedback that flags common technique errors as they happen. Designed as a safe, repeatable environment for building correct habits before handling real samples, the lab ends with an auto-generated report and a short quiz series, making it suitable for onboarding new QC technicians, refresher training, or a hands-on component in a microbiology or food-safety course.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lab, trainees will be able to prepare a water sample and dilution correctly, perform membrane filtration using proper aseptic technique, and explain how Chromogenic Coliform Agar distinguishes coliforms from E. coli. They will also set correct incubation conditions, read and enumerate colonies accurately, and calculate results as CFU/100 mL. Trainees will further be able to run and interpret oxidase and indole confirmatory tests, set up valid positive and negative controls, and make a correct pass/fail judgment against GSO/SFDA drinking water limits — while recognizing the technique errors that most often compromise a result.