mold and bread science experiment

8/11/2019 Mold and Bread Science Experiment

1/10

Introduction:

The sole purpose of this experiment is to see if fungus

can grow on white crust less bread that has been treated

with the following substances: apple juice (acid), water(neutral) and liquid hand soap (base).

The reason I chose these liquids is because these are

items we us everyday for various purposes. For example we

drink apple juice because of its vitamins, water is a

necessity for life and we use soap to sterilize our hands.

Other than the reasons mentioned earlier, my other

goal is to see what kind of environment fungi need, or togrow best in.

In this experiment I used white bread because white

bread will not interfere with the countless colors of fungi.

Apple juice has a pH of 3, the water has a pH 0f 7 and

the liquid hand soap has a pH of 10.

Hypothesis:

Using my prior knowledge, I can say that molds an

only grow on bread that has a neutral substance in it

because bases are used to bacteria and molds, while acids

may intervene with the mold spores and may react with it.

Materials:

1)

12 white bread slices [crust less (ingredients: white

enriched flour, yeast and water)]

2)

Concentrate dapple juice [(ACID) ingredients: apple

juice concentrate, water and sugar]


2/10

3)

Liquid hand soap (BASE)

4)

Water (NEUTRAL)

5)

12 3X4 reclosable bags

6)3 teaspoons

7)12 garage sale labels.

Procedure:

1)

Designate each of the teaspoons to the usage of

basic, neutral and acidic substances.

2)

Put a teaspoon of the basic substance on 4 slices of

bread.

3)

Do the same as procedure 2 for the neutral and theacidic substances.

4)

Number the reclosable bags 1-12.

5)Put the 4 slices of basic bread in the bags

numbered 1-4.

6)Do the same thing for the neutral bread and

acidic bread. (Put neutral bread in bags

numbered 5-8 and put acidic bread in the bags

numbered 9-12.


3/10

7)

Put the 12 garage sale labels on the bags.

8)

Write in the labels:

9)

Bag number 1: base, warm /light.

10) Bag number 2: base, warm/dark.

11) Bag number 3: base, cool/light.

12)

Bag number 4: base, cool/dark.

13) Bag number 5: neutral, warm/light.

14) Bag number 6: neutral, warm/dark

15) Bag number 7: neutral, cool/light.

16)

Bag number 8: neutral, cool/dark.

17)

Bag number 9: acid, warm/light.

18)

Bag number 10: acid, warm/dark

19)

Bag number 11: acid, cool/light.

20)

Bag number 12: acid, cool/dark.

21)

Put the bags to its designated environment and

observe.


4/10

Data:

WARM/LIGHT WARM/DARK COOL/LIGHT COOL/DARK

1) Fungus grewin smallquantities

around the

piece of bread,

except directlyon the basic

substance

2) Fungus

grew, but in

very little

quantitiesaround the

piece of bread.There was an

absence of

mold on theplace where a

basic substance

was present.

The color ofthe gray, but in

some parts itwas black.

pH

BASE

3) Fungus

completelycovered the

piece of bread.

The color of itis gray, but in

some portions

its black


5/10

4) Fungusgrew around

the edge of

the piece of

bread. There

was anabsence of

mold directlyon the basic

substance.

The mostvisible colors

of mold are:

gray, black

and inextremely

smallquantities areyellow molds

5) Nearlycovered by

fungus or molds

where theneutral

substance

(water) waspresent. The

color of themold was blackand gray

NEUTRAL

6) Fungus grewin small

amounts

around the

piece of bread.In the center of

the bread is a

golden kind offungus. The

most visible

colors offungus are:

gray, black,

yellow, andgolden


6/10

7) The pieceof bread is

almost

covered a

golden type of

molds withpatches of

black and graymolds.

8) The pieceof bread is

completely

covered by amixture of

golden, black

and gray

molds.9) A turquoisetype of fungus

has completely

covered thepiece of bread.

There is also a

strip of yellow

fungus

10) A turquoisetype of fungus

has completelycovered the

piece of bread.A white kind of

fungus is also

visible.

ACID

11) A

turquoise typeof fungus has

completely

covered the

piece of bread.At the bottom

of the piece ofbread is some

golden fungus.


7/10

12) Aturquoise type

of fungus has

completely

covered the

piece ofbread. Also,

there are somepatches a

golden

fungus.

Conclusion:

After the experiment I now can conclude that fungi

(molds) can unanimously grow on neutral bread. It cangrow on bread that has been treated with a weak acidic

substance. Never-the-less molds cannot grow on basic

bread, so it grows around the edge of the bread where the

basic substance wasnt present.

From this experiment I learned that fungus could

basically grow in any type of environment. I could have

significantly made this experiment better by carefullycontrolling the temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Other than using only one type of the basic, neutral and

acidic substances, I could have used a wide range of them.

Bibliography:

I) Websites:

i)

Molds.

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/

nonprint/(12 Nov 2004)

ii)

Mold Guide.

http://epa.gov/iaq/molds/moldguide.ht

ml(12 Nov 2004)


8/10

iii)

Fungus

http://www.franklin.com/present.html

(5 Nov 2004)

iv)

Bkgrndhttp://www.geocities.com/~ymjcath/i

mg/bkgrnd/(5 Nov 2004)

v)

Soyhealth

http://www.planthealth.wise.edu/soyh

ealth/cause.html(5 Nov 2004)

vi) Mold01

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/wee

klypics/-504.html(5 Nov 2004)vii) Slime moulds

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protist

a/slimemolds.html(24 Nov 2004)

viii)20Mold http://www.pnw-

ag.wsu.edu/smallgrains/Snow%20Mol

d.html(24 Nov 2004)

ix)

Indoor airhttp://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/

indoorair/mold/(15 Nov 2004)

x)

Mold in dry wall

http://www.emarresources/photos/mol

dondrywall/(15 Nov 2004)

II) Books:

i)

Money, Nicholas P. Mr.

Bloomfields Orchard. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2002.


9/10

ii)

Christensen, Clyde M. The Mold and

Man. Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1975.

III) Encyclopedia Articles:

i) Molds Encarta Encyclopedia.

2004ed.


10/10

mold and bread science experiment

Documents