Moldy Bread....

What is mold???

Is it a bacteria? Is it fungus? How does it grow? Can it hurt me? How many different kinds of mold are there? How long does it take to grow? Why is it different colors?

Mold is disguising. It is furry. It stinks. It grows on food that has spoiled. And for some reason my nephews love it.

The experiment that we are working on (there are four of us in the group), have four pieces of bread that we are waiting to see how much it molds. We used different surface swipes to see which would cause the most mold to grow. We have all the slices of bread in the same window seal, they are all getting the same sunlight and temperature as each other. I believe the sunlight and heat will make the mold grow faster.

Bread 1: surface swipe of an iPad

Bread 2: surface swipe of the men's restroom

Bread 3: surface swipe of roast beef

Bread 4: No surface swipe (controlled)


I believe the order of the bread slices that grow mold is:
1st: the slice with the roast beef surface swipe
2nd: the slice with the men's restroom surface swipe
3rd: the slice with the iPad surface swipe
4th: the slice with no surface swipe (controlled)



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Update as of June 12th after class:

We have mold! Not much, but just a little bit. Two of the four pieces of bread now have some green mold on the side of the bread. Those two pieces are the Ipad surface swipe and the men's restroom surface swipe.

Bread 1: 2 squares of mold

Bread 2: 1 square of mold

Bread 3: no squares of mold

Bread 4: no squares of mold

I believe that bread 1 and 2 will continue to grow more green mold, and it will work across the top of the bread and into the middle of the slice. My order of guessing which slice would grow mold first was close, but not correct. I still believe that the slice with no surface slice will be the last piece to grow mold, but I am surprised and disgusted that the iPad was one of the first slices to grow mold. I wonder how many people have actually used the classroom's iPad, and when the last time they were cleaned. Luckily, I use my own iPad.....

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Update as of June 14th after class:

Here are the photos I took,









During class we were told that we did not do these experiments correctly, and we have to start over again. We did not use gloves to keep the pieces of bread uncontaminated, and because of this we did are not able to trust the mold that has been growing on the pieces of bread. So these are the first photos of noticeable mold, and now we will be starting over again, but instead of mold growing on bread....but instead mold growing on cheese!