Results

I waited 2 days after my experiment to check on the mould and see what had happened. There hasn't really been any real distinguishment, but I saw that the parts where the vinegar had touched there appeared to be some sort of white covering on the mould. I think that's a different type of mould that's grown on top of the main area. Anyways here are the photos:

Results of bag A:

Results of bag B:

Results of bag C:

Judging from the bags of mould that I'm looking at right now cos the photos aren't too reliable, it seems that bag B has been the most effective. Where the rice vinegar has touched the mould, a little patch of pale pink has grown on the mould and is almost the original colour of the bread. Bag C seems to be the second most effective. A pale pink patch where the mould was had grown, but the pink colour isn't as evident as it is in bag B. This might be due to the red colouring used in rice vinegar. Bag A, the bag with the brown vinegar, seemed to be the least effective. A pale yellow covering had grown on the mould but it didn't seem to have killed the mould as effectively as the other two vinegars had.

Therefore I can conclude that rice vinegar was the most effective in killing bread mould and that it has the highest concentration of acetic acid out of rice vinegar, white vinegar and brown vinegar.

Post experiment

Alright so I put the vinegar onto the bread mould and here's the photos. To keep track of it easier, I put it in alphabetical order so bag A was brown vinegar, bag B was rice vinegar and bag C was white vinegar.

Bag A post-experiment:

Bag B post-experiment:

Bag C post-experiment:

Vinegar:

I have the photos with the results coming up :)

Experiment !

I know it's been ages since I last posted and during that time, I experimented on my mould, and now I have the results. The experiment was on Friday, and I took some pictures before and after I dropped the vinegar onto the mould. Here they are:

Bag A before experiment:

Bag B before experiment:

Bag C before experiment:

Experimented photos will be coming up later :)

Day 9

That is seriously ****ed. LOLL
All my other pieces of bread have started to mould, and my control variable is still nice and clean with no signs of mould starting. Nice, how am I supposed to do my experiment now ==
I think I'll just tear a bit of mould off each other piece of bread so that can be kept as a control instead of my current epic fail one.
I will most likely be starting my experiment sometime tomorrow or Friday. Hopefully all goes well x]

Day 7 !

I remember, it's day 7 ! I'm waiting for more mould to grow on my bread THEN start my experiment in a few days. There's not enough mould to start experimenting on..
I'll update with photos tomorrow. I'm too cold to get off my computer x]

Day 6? Day 7/?

Haha I really don't remember exactly which day I started my experiment. I can't be bothered to remember now, but don't worry, I will :)

YESS MOULD HAS STARTED GROWING
But on all the pieces of bread except the control. There's different colour moulds growing, I think one's Penicillium and the other Aspergillus? I'm not too sure, but hopefully that won't affect my results. Sighh
I'll start experimenting when the mould grows more and covers at least half the slice of bread. Hopefully that won't take too long (:

Day 4 and nothing's happening.

Gosh it's day 4 already and nothing's happening to my experiment. I just checked my bread, and nothing's a different colour. I guess I'll have to wait a few more days. Meanwhile, I'm getting started on my intro and abstract and working out how to graph results :)

Day 3 :)

I just checked on my bread and...nope, no sign of anything starting to turn mouldy. Sigh, it's gonna take a while, then I still have to do my results..

ANYWAYS

It's time to look on the bright side! I measured the pH of the three different types of vinegar I'm in possession of: white vinegar, brown vinegar and rice vinegar. They all have the same pH level, around 3.2. Here's a photo:

Yesh, that's my finger that accidentally got in the way. And yesh, that's a plate. The different shades on the white parts of the indicators are the colours the vinegar is. The brown vinegar is obviously brown, the white one white, and rice vinegar reddish brown. As you can see, they pretty much have the same tone, which means the same pH level. Since the indicator goes no lower than 3.8, I'm making the guess that vinegar's pH level is around 3.2

Just researched it..http://www.jackeden.com/tips/phmat.html says that vinegar is 2.4 - 3.4 :)

Pretty accurate hahaha

Anyways

I'll post more tomorrow. Nights x

Second dayy

Hi blog !

It's the second day of my experiment. I've taken some pictures and here they are:

I just checked on my bread. Nope, nothing's happened. I guess it's going to take a while for the mould to start growing so I can finally start the fun part of my experiment :)

Okays that's all I have to say tonight. Ciaoo xx

Final method, i swear.

Okay, since ms Zhang said that my other method was too primary school level, which I agree, I have come up with my final method, hopefully. The aim and hypothesis will be stated in my introduction.

Materials:

• 4 slices of non-preservative bread (I used Baker's Delight bread)
• 4 cotton balls
• 4 sealable bags
• Rice vinegar
• White vinegar
• Brown vinegar
• Magnifying glass
• Dropper
• Face mask

Method:

1. Wet the 4 cotton balls with water.
2. Seal each slice of bread in a separate sealable bag and dab one area of the bread with a cotton ball until it is moist. Leave the bag in a dark area until mould begins to grow.
3. Put on face mask.
4. Draw white vinegar into the dropper.
5. Open a little slit of the sealablebag and place a few drops of vinegar onto the bread mould.
6. Wash the dropper afterwards.
7. Observe any changes to the mould over a period of time when changes start happening to the mould.
8. Record your observations.
9. Repeat steps 4-8 with brown and rice vinegar.

And I have started my experiment tonight! I've put the slices of bread in the sealable bags and chucked them under my bed. Dark place ;)

I'll upload photos tomorrow. For now, night!

i got it .

i have it. my experiment. my method before i know, sounds pretty primary school. so now i've decided to make it more of something year 10 level and experiment with different types of chemicals.

i will go and buy my equipment and hopefully start my experiment tomorrow. if not, i will have the introduction done THEN start so i know all about my experiment :)

tomorrow's list of materials to buy:

• microscope
• face mask
• baker's delight non-preservative bread
• rice vinegar
• white vinegar
• another type of vinegar i can find
• small seleable bags

i'll post the method up tomorrow. tonight i'm doing serious research on my introduction and i'll go to the library tomorrow to use books to make up for the other 40% of my references.

nights! xx

hmm

hmm i guess that method's a little preliminary. and i've lagged a bit in my srp, okay it's time to do some researching on bread mould.

using this website, http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01955.htm, i've found that calcium propionate is a preservative found in bread that prevents the growing of bread mould. it is toxic on moulds and also humans at high concentrations.

according to http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/mycology/1996-March/003621.html, there are many ways to prevent mould growth. these are:
- baking at 400 degrees celsius which kills the moulds so the bread starts out mould free and sterile. but my oven at home doesn't go up to 400 degrees =/
- chemicals such as propionic acid (calcium propionic is the organic salt formed by the reaction of calcium hydroxide with propionic acid), and acetic acid, the acid in vinegar.

i think i'll change my method. again. i'll write up a proper method tomorrow cos i'm gonna get off pretty soon. but the idea is based around that i'll use the chemicals calcium propionate and acetic acid on bread mould to see which one is able to kill the bread mould more quickly and effectively.

byee !
x.

REAL METHOD

OKAY. MY METHOD TIME.

Aim: To investigate what conditions make mold grow on bread the fastest.

Hypothesis: Which conditions will work best for the mold to grow: warm or cold, moist or dry?

Equipment:
* Bread
* 10mL water
* 3 sealable bags

Method:
1. Seal each slice of bread in a sealable bag and label each bag A, B, C.
2. Place the A bag in the refrigerator.
3. Put 10mL of water to the bread in bag B and place in a dark place.
4. Place bag C out of light but do not add anything in it.
5. Check each bag daily and record observations in a table.

Variables:
Independent: time
Dependent: mold growth
Controlled: Bag C with the bread in room temperature and out of light.

method :)

I found a pretty good website to base my experiment on:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceExHowGrowMoldOnBreadFastestMO68.htm

on the website under PROBLEM (which i think i should relate to as the aim)

anyways, the question tells me to research how bread mold is different from and the same as plants and animals.
well i did my research and this is what i found:
- according to http://www.experiment-resources.com/mold-bread-experiment.html, mold is neither a plant nor an animal but a fungus like toadstool and mushrooms, except it is not edible.

my method will be there in the next post :)

OMG THANKYOU PEOPLE

THANKS FOR MAKING ME FEEL SO BLOND

apparently you copy it onto paint and then save it as a JPG file. i feel so blond now.

AANYWAYS

my graphs:

it's time for those graphs!

i know these graphs were due yonks ago, but i've finally remembered to post them on this :)
damn..who knows how to turn excel graphs into jpg files ?

CHANGEEE

i'm changing my idea.. it's too hard and dangerous on what i've decided to do
i have a general idea of a method, but it's still a draft. i'll put up the final thing when i've edited everything :)
right now, instead of EXAMINING bread mould, which i've been told is potentially dangerous, i'm gonna do something like seeing the rate of mould growth with bread in different conditions. like moist areas, sunny areas, room temperature, yeah.
AND
i'll get my graph up soon, hopefully tmrw :)

experiment

okay i've decided on an experiment:

'Do different brands of bread take different periods of time to become mouldy?'

I will be using the brands WonderWhite, Sunbeam and Sunblest, all white bread. The percentafes of yeast used and preservatives present of each brand will be noted.

Independent variable: the time taken for different brands of bread to mould.
Dependent variable: the amount/type of mould produced.
Controlled variables: the conditions in which the bread moulds in; same brands and types of bread are used each time.

Aim: to investigate the rate at which different brands of bread become mouldy.
Hypothesis: the brand of bread with less water and less preservatives will mould faster.
Method:
1. Take a slice of each type of bread and seal them up in separate bags.
2. Place them in the same conditions for them to become mouldy.
3. Check the rate of mould production everyday using a microscope and record results.
4. After 2-3 weeks, take out the slices of bread and compare the production of mould.

an idea..finally :)

omg haha i finally got an idea. what about doing an experiment on whether different types of bread (eg white, wholemeal, wholegrain, multigrain, etc) produce different types of mould, ms zhang? your approval before i start?

i've done some research on what mould is and different types of mould. according to http://ezinearticles.com/?Bread-Mold&id=405845:

• Bread mold is a kind of fungus that is commonly found on bread surfaces.
• Bread mold is found in different types, species, shapes, and colors. Some of the common bread molds are Penicillium, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Monascus, and Fusarium.

also, this website suggested an experiment which could be performed to see bread mould:

'If you are interested to see bread mold you can perform a small experiment with bread. You can take a slice of bread and moisten it slightly. Then keep the bread for two or three days in a place where there is no chance of the moisture content drying up. You will see some mold growth on the surfaces.'

i will probably be doing this first to get the mould, then using a microscope to examine the type of mould, and recording the results. any variables i have to consider? or any ideas ?

sigh..

it's been a while since i posted on here
i just read the list of project ideas and i'm thinking...
something to do with food ?
i don't know..
i'll think about it today and hopefully will have decided something tmrw
see you laters
xx

Hello World

heyy! my start of science blog :)