Anyone good at identifying germs on Agar plates?

[SeasonallySnowyPeasant]

This plate is from DD’s handprint. I’d love to tell her what’s grown if anyone can identify any of the germs? She also wants to take it into school but I’m reluctant in case any of it is dangerous.

Science Buddies on interpreting agar plates is good though that pic looks like mostly mould to me. Did you tape a lid on the plate after your DD did her handprint? That's a vital step otherwise airborne mould spores get in there and take over.
How long has it been growing for? You'll usually see different things crop up at different times, so it might surprise you yet!

Those round, golden colonies could be staph aureus, the rest looks like mould to me.

What is that sharp wick thing?

I think staph aureus too

When I grew staph aureus it didn't look like that. It was very bright and yellow / gold, but I'm not an expert. The link I posted above has some very nice pics! The school safety advice is to kill whatever you've grown with bleach before binning, just in case it's something special. But I kept our plates growing for a couple of weeks to observe the changes in colonies on them - was interesting to see.

Great link, thanks. I didn’t tape the lid on, rookie error for next time. DD is suitably impressed by the mould and is washing her hands very thoroughly (thank goodness). I’ve bleached and binned.

No wick, just a gash where she was a bit too forceful with the handprint.

I think the picture must be rendering differently on different screens - bright and yellow/gold is exactly how it looks to me

What agar is it? Just nutrient agar? I'm a microbiologist. The big flat dry looking thing is a mould, very common to have on hands, on surfaces etc, probably harmless.

The wet colonies are more likely to be either bacillis species or a coliform, both very common organisms found on hands. It's unlikely to be a staph Aureus as its usually smaller, dryer and less translucent. BUT there are loads and loads of other staph species that aren't aureus that are harmless.

Remember that something like 25% of us carry staph Aureus up our noses quite happily without any problem, and that our skin is covered in bacteria that help us right off the harmful ones too!

Here are some of mine - two yellow ones I think are staph aureus, from swabbing an infected cut on my finger. One nice multi-coloured plate from a swab of my stair banister, being bleached prior to disposal but then I realised I didn't have a good pic!

Doesn’t look like S aureus to me - not golden enough and too translucent. More likely a bacillus. The mould is mould!

I'm not sure what kind of agar it is - DP bought them so he might know.

The yellow spots are bright yellow.