Over the next two weeks you will be conducting a bread mold experiment
at home. It will involve daily homework of about 5 minutes
for the entire two weeks. Keep this sheet in a safe
place. It will help you with the rough draft of your lab
report. The following pieces need to be part of your lab
report.
Question: What
question are you going to try and answer with this experiment?
Some examples might include: Does mold grow better in the
dark? Will mold grow better on white or wheat
bread? Will bread soaked in lemon juice grow mold better than
bread that has just been sprinkled with water?
Materials:
Write down the materials that you used during the entire course of the
experiment (yes, even the lab booklet and pencil you use to record your
data!).
Procedure:
Write down what you did to set up the experiment. Also write
down how often you made observations and what factors you checked and
recorded during a typical observation. Be detailed enough so anyone
could repeat both your set-up and a typical observation.
Hypothesis:
What do you think the answer to your question will be prior to
beginning the experiment? What sort of reasoning can you give
for this "good guess"? You’ll need to do some internet
research to complete this step!
Observations
(data): Observe your experiment for 14 days and
record what you see. Be specific by estimating and describing
the size (in % of the bread that’s covered by mold), color,
shape, texture, and smell of your variable and control bread slices
each day. To record your data in the lab booklet, I’d suggest
a table with each of these mold characteristics as table headings.
Conclusion:
Was your hypothesis correct? What data leads you to believe
this? Write down any reasoning you have that might explain
the results you obtained. Did anything you didn't plan on
happen during the course of your experiment that might have affected
your results? Do your results raise any further questions in
your mind about the mold experiment or mold in general? All these
questions must be addressed for your conclusion to be complete!