Petri dish

A petri dish is a piece of laboratory glassware, a small dish shaped like a cylinder. Scientists use it to grow cells from animals, fungus, and diseases so they can study them. They are usually made of glass or plastic. Glass petri dishes can be used again if they are sterilized. Sometimes people fill them with agar, which helps cells grow. These are called agar plates. Petri dishes also have lids so germs in the air can not get into them, or contaminate them, and ruin the experiment.