One limitation to engaging K-12 students and the public with microorganisms is the inability to cultivate and dispose of bacterial and fungal samples safely without expensive equipment or services. This barrier has been amplified with remote learning modalities and laboratory closures driven by safety precautions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At-home lab kits are being used to bring hands-on experience in microorganism cultivation to students learning remotely, but these kits often fail to take into full consideration the safety aspects or the costs associated with microorganism disposal, limiting which experiments can be performed at home. Here, we outline a method that makes cultivating and deactivating microorganisms accessible to the public through low-cost and readily available equipment. This method reduces exposure to microorganisms by forgoing the need to open petri plates for chemical deactivation with sanitizing reagents. This technique may benefit remote K-12 and postsecondary students, students wishing to get hands-on microbiology research experience, and members of the public interested in cultivating microorganisms to contribute to citizen science efforts or for creative art applications.

中文翻译：

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生长安全：使用低成本厨房用品灭活培养的微生物的化学方法。

吸引K-12学生和公众接触微生物的一个限制是无法在没有昂贵的设备或服务的情况下安全地培养和处置细菌和真菌样品。由于COVID-19大流行，在安全预防措施的驱使下，远程学习方式和实验室关闭扩大了这一障碍。在家中使用的实验室套件可为远程学习的学生带来微生物培养的实践经验，但是这些套件通常无法充分考虑安全性或与微生物处置相关的成本，从而限制了可以在以下地点进行的实验家。在这里，我们概述了一种通过低成本且易于获得的设备使公众能够进行培养和灭活微生物的方法。该方法通过避免为了使用消毒试剂进行化学灭活而打开皮氏培养板来减少对微生物的暴露。这项技术可能会使偏远的K-12和大专生，希望获得动手微生物学研究经验的学生以及对培养微生物有兴趣的公众感兴趣，这些微生物可以为公民科学工作或创造性艺术应用做出贡献。