THE BREAD MOLD EXPERIMENT
Jaden Byington
7th period 1-10-14| Mrs. Mcnees|Syracuse Jr. High
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• Do hand soaps and sanitizers prevent the growth of bread molds?
RESEARCH
•
I researched what mold needs to grow.
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I researched the types of mold that can grow on bread.
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I researched the active ingredients in hand sanitizer.
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I researched the ingredients in soap
• Citations
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Bjornsson ,Erin. “Do Hand Soaps and Sanitizers Prevent the Growth of Bread Mold?”. Education.com. Web.
12-18-2013. http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/hand-soaps-sanitizers-prevent-bread-mold/
•
Deshpande, Amruta. “Bread Mold Growth”. Buzzle, 02-04-2013. Web. 12-18-2013.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/bread-mold-growth.html
HYPOTHESIS
• If you use hand soap water or sanitizer then It will grow mold
because it is wet and not in its normal state.
PROCEDURE: MATERIALS
•
8 slices of fresh bread with no preservatives
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16 sealing plastic sandwich bags
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Latex gloves
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Sticky Labels or masking tape
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Pen
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Toaster
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Knife
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Spray Bottle
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Baking Sheet
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Measuring Teaspoon
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Liquid Soap
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Hand Sanitizer
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Water
PROCEDURE: STEPS
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1. Put on gloves
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2. Toast 4 slices of bread
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3. Cut all 8 of the bread slices in half so that we have 16 pieces total, (8 toasted and 8 untoasted)
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4. Put one piece of untoasted bread in a sandwich bag and seal it label it untoasted sealed
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5.Put one piece of toasted bread in a sandwich bag and seal it label it toasted sealed
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6. Put one piece of untoasted bread in a sandwich bag and leave it unsealed and label it untoasted unsealed
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7.Put one piece of toasted bread in a sandwich bag and leave it unsealed and label it toasted unsealed
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8. Fill spray bottle with water
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9. Put two pieces of toasted bread and two pieces of untoasted bread into their own sandwich bags
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10.Spray each piece lightly with water
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11.Close one of the toasted bags and one of the untoasted bags leaving the other two unsealed.
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12. Add one teaspoon of soap to the water in the spray bottle mixed well.
PROCEDURE: STEPS CONTINUED
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13. Put each of two pieces of toasted bread and each two pieces of untoasted bread into their own sandwich
bags
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14. Spray each piece lightly with soapy water
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15. Close one of the toasted bags and one of the untoasted bags leaving the other two unsealed
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16.Dump out the soapy water in the spray bottle and wash the bottle well fill it again with water and add one
teaspoon of hand sanitizer mixed well
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17. Put each of two pieces of toasted bread and two pieces of untoasted bread into their own sandwich bags
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18. Spray each piece lightly with the hand sanitizer water mixture
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19. Close one of the toasted bags and one of the untoasted bags leaving the other two unsealed
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20. Lay out all the bags on the baking sheet spray side up
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21. Place the tray in a warm dark place
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22. Check on the bread daily after one week seal all of the open bags
VARIABLES
• Constants: Location of the bread, and zip lock bags.
• Controlled variables: I compared the bread that had soap and
sanitizer with the bread that had nothing on it
• Independent (manipulated) variable: The bread
• Dependent (measured) variable: The existence of mold that appeared
on the bread
DATA/OBSERVATIONS
• Experiment started on 12-31-13. Daily close observation of bread to
determine if any mold has grown. After one week unsealed bags
become sealed. On 1-6-14 mold grew on sealed untoasted hand
sanitizer bag, and on unsealed untoasted hand sanitizer only. On
1-9-14 mold grew on unsealed toasted hand sanitizer only, and on
sealed toasted hand sanitizer only.
CONCLUSION
• Hand soaps and sanitizers do not help prevent mold growth. The data
does support the hypothesis because bread that had hand sanitizer on
it had mold on it.