The provision of hands-on wet lab training for students to perform micro-organism proliferation experiments is useful for experiential skills development. However, the risk of laboratory-acquired infections arising from inadvertent ingestion, inhalation or skin penetration of these micro-organisms presents a safety concern. To obviate this risk, an augmented reality exercise requiring only a tablet/smartphone, and a petri dish with appropriate markers, was devised to allow students to study "Escherichia coli" colony growth on agar plates. Positive responses were obtained from a pilot study conducted with high school and undergraduate students on its use.