Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Learn How to Disinfect Contaminated Water
Objective
To investigate the disinfecting properties of sunlight.
Introduction
Water is a precious commodity. It keeps us healthy and clean. Water is necessary for growing plants, many of which produce food for us. You probably go about your day without giving your abundant and clean water a second thought. Our towns and cities provide us with clean and safe drinking water because they have the means and infrastructures to clean and disinfect water. However, there are people that don't have the luxury of clean and safe water. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. The lack of safe water can be due to drought, war, or perhaps a town doesn't have the money or infrastructure to provide clean water to its citizens.
Water can be contaminated with several types of water-borne pathogens. These include Vibrio cholerae (a bacteria that results in cholera), Shigella dysenteriae (a bacteria that causes dysentery), Giardia lamblia (a parasite that results in giardia), and viruses like polio. Often, when a person who doesn't have access to good health care contracts one of these diseases, it can be fatal. In fact, more than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 years die each year of water-borne diseases in Africa and Asia. These pathogens can be present in water anywhere. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the best way to disinfect water is to first filter the water and then boil it vigorously for 1–3 minutes. Let the water cool, and then transfer it to a clean container. To treat the water chemically, first filter the water and then use regular, unscented household bleach. Add two drops of bleach for every quart or liter of water, stir or shake the water, and then let it stand for at least 30 minutes. If the water is cloudy before you've chemically treated it, then double the number of bleach drops and double the amount of time that it stands. Both iodine tinctures and calcium hypochlorite are better at treating contaminated water than bleach is. However, there are significant safety issues when using these chemicals.
But what if you live in an undeveloped nation? You might not have the financial resources available to purchase chemicals. Fuel for boiling water might not even be available. In this situation, there is a water-disinfection procedure that is available, solar disinfection, also known as SODIS. This process takes advantage of sunlight, which is free and readily available, and plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which are available around the world.
The SODIS process is easy to follow. The first step is to find a PET bottle with a lid and clean it well. PET bottles are recyclable and have a "1" surrounded by a triangle symbol on the bottom. Then fill the bottle ¾ full with water. The water should not be too turbid. Highly turbid water protects the pathogens from the Sun's radiation. Shake the bottle for 20 seconds to aerate it. Now fill the bottle fully and close the lid. Place the bottle on a black iron sheet or on your roof, where it will have access to sunlight. Leave it in the sunlight. After a certain amount of time (which you'll be investigating in this science fair project), the water will be ready to drink.
So what exactly does the sunlight do to the organisms in the water, making it safe to drink? Light from the Sun can be separated into several sections, three of which are as follows: visible light (400–700 nanometers (nm)), ultraviolet (UV) light (10 nm–400nm), and infrared (IR) light (700 nm–1 millimeter (mm)). The UV spectrum is also separated into several portions, one of which is UVA, which has a spectrum of 320 nm–400 nm. The UVA reacts with the oxygen dissolved in the water and produces highly reactive forms of oxygen that are thought to kill pathogens in the water by causing fatal DNA damage and destroying the cell walls of bacteria. The IR portion of the spectrum heats the water. If the temperature of the water rises above 50°C, the disinfection process proceeds three times faster.
In this microbiology science fair project, you will investigate the exposure time to UVA light that is required for a bottle of water to be disinfected. You will test different exposure times and compare the results to boiling water. One of the missions of science research is to help improve human health and life. In doing this science fair project, you can become a part of that mission.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
Pathogen
Bacteria
Cholera
Dysentery
Parasite
Giardia
Virus
Polio
Disinfect
Solar disinfection (SODIS)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Turbid
UVA
Sterilize
Reactive oxygen species
Questions
In which parts of the world is SODIS used?
What does UV light do to pathogens?
Is SODIS just as effective with glass bottles as it is with clear plastic PET bottles?
What is the technical difference between sterilization and disinfection? Is SODIS a sterilization or a disinfection procedure?
What kinds of reactive oxygen species are created during the irradiation of oxygenated water with UVA? How do these reactive oxygen species contribute to the disinfection process?
Bibliography
The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. (n.d.). Solar Water Disinfection—The Method. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://www.sodis.ch/Text2002/T-TheMethod.htm
Wikipedia Contributors. (2009, February 16). Solar Water Disinfection. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_water_disinfection&oldid=271168524
Materials and Equipment
Metal cookie sheet
Aluminum foil (1 roll)
Pot, 8-quart (qt.)
Pipet [dropper, flint glass, 105-millimeter (mm), 2-milliliter (mL)], (3 packages of 12); available at sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6240512. The pipets come with bulbs.
Glass stirring rods (6); available at sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6731074
Clean glass jar with lid (1), should be large enough to hold the pipets
Stove top
Oven
Tongs, metal
Oven mitt
Plastic jug with cap, 1-gallon (gal), clean (1)
Disposable gloves; available at your local drugstore
Plastic water bottles with caps, 16-oz., clean (6). The bottles must be clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. PET bottles are recyclable and have a "1" surrounded by a triangle on the bottom.
Clamp lamp, approximately 8 1/2-inch. This item (or something similar to it) can be purchased at your local pet store.
Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb, 100-watt (W). This item (or something similar to it) can be purchased at your local pet store.
Note: The Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb mimics sunlight and emits UVA. In order to get similar results for each trial (versus actual sunlight), you will use the blue reptile bulb to act as the Sun.
Optional: Buret support stand; available from sciencekit.com, SKU # WW60832M01
Dark metal sheet, should be large enough to hold two 16-oz. bottles on their sides.
Liquid measuring cup
Pot with lid, 1-qt.
Tryptic soy agar plates, prepared (4 packages of 10); available from sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6732303. If you will not be using the plates immediately after delivery, store them in your refrigerator. Take the plates out of the refrigerator, as needed.
Clock
Permanent marker
Lab notebook
Experimental Procedure
Caution: Do not drink any of the water during or after you have completed the experiment, or you might risk getting sick. The SODIS process is a disinfection process and not a sterilization process. It also doesn't remove chemicals from the water. The resulting water may not fulfill EPA standards for drinking water.
Note: There will be many steps going on at the same time with this experiment, so be sure to read through the procedure carefully beforehand, and keep careful track of samples, upcoming steps, dates, and times as you perform the experiment.
Preparing the Setup
The first step is to sterilize all of your tools prior to collecting the water sample. Sterilization kills all of the bacteria on the tools. Using sterilized tools prevents you from adding bacteria to the samples.
Preheat the oven to 225°F.
Cover the cookie sheet completely with aluminum foil.
Fill the pot with tap water. Put all of the pipets, the glass rods, and the jar and lid into the pot.
Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Boil all of the tools for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
Using the metal tongs, lift each item from the pot and place it onto the cookie sheet. Once all of the items are on the sheet, place it into the pre-heated oven to dry. Let the items dry completely for 10–15 minutes. Carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven with an oven mitt when the time is up.
Use the tongs to place each pipet into the glass jar. Put the lid on the jar so that the pipets remain clean. Completely wrap all of the glass rods in a sheet of aluminum foil to keep them clean for the duration of the project. Store all of the sterilized tools in an area that will not be disturbed.
Go to your local creek or stream with the clean, plastic 1-gal jug and a pair of disposable gloves. Place the jug into the water and fill it up. Avoid trapping any large particles or foreign objects in the jug. Once the jug is full, replace the cap. Take the jug back to where you are conducting your testing.
Now put the clamp-lamp and the Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb together, following all instructions that came with the lamp. Find a quiet location near an electrical outlet. Clip the lamp onto something, such as the bottom of a cabinet door over a counter, allowing the lamp to face downward. You could also clip the lamp assembly to the top of the rod of a buret stand. Figure 1 shows this configuration with a homemade buret stand.
Figure 1. This image shows the experimental setup, with the UV light shining on the test samples (Note: the samples in the picture have not been placed on the dark, metal sheet yet, but yours should be.)
Preparing the SODIS Samples
Carefully transfer some of the water from the jug into two of the clean 16-oz. clear plastic water bottles. Follow the SODIS procedure detailed in the Introduction when filling the 16-oz. water bottles, as follows. Fill the bottles ¾ full with the creek or stream water and screw on the lid. Shake the bottles for 20 seconds each in order to aerate them. Now fill the bottles fully and screw on the lids tightly. Keep the rest of the water in the jug in a cool, dark place.
When the sample bottles are prepared, plug the lamp into the outlet and turn on the lamp. The lamp should be about 6 inches away from the counter, or from the bottom of the buret stand. Place both samples onto the dark metal sheet beneath the lamp, directly in the path of the light, to mimic the SODIS process as much as possible. Based on your background research, what does the metal sheet represent, and why it is important? Leave the light shining on the samples. Do not disturb the light or the samples until you are ready to test their bacterial content, 12 hours later.
Note: When the SODIS process is applied in a real situation, the minimum time that the bottle of water sits in direct sunlight is 6 hours (longer if the water is very turbid). In this science fair project, you are using the lamp as a substitute for the sun. Since the lamp doesn't produce the same amount of UVA or heat as the Sun does, you will need to keep your bottles of creek or stream water under the lamp for longer than 6 hours. In your lab notebook, note the time on the clock and the date on which you placed the samples under the lamp. Warn others in your household to be careful around the lamp and bottles on the counter.
Preparing and Testing the Boiling and Untreated Water Samples
Note: It is important that you observe the following agar plates at the same time. You will apply the boiled water and untreated water samples to the agar plates while the SODIS samples are still under the UV lamp. You must keep track of the time when you start and stop tests so that the observations can be compared.
While the SODIS samples continue resting under the UV light, measure 1 cup of the creek or stream water in the liquid measuring cup and pour it into the 1-qt. pot. Place the pot onto the stove top and bring the water to a rolling boil. Boil the sample for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the burner, cover the pot, and let the water cool to room temperature.
Put on a pair of disposable gloves. Get a clean pipet from the glass jar and attach a bulb to the top. Get out three tryptic soy agar plates and a glass stirring rod from your aluminum foil package. Suck some of the boiled (but now room-temperature) water into the pipet.
Remove the cover of one of the plates. Apply three drops of the boiled water to the soy agar. Use the glass rod and smear the water drops in a zigzag pattern on the surface of the soy agar, starting in the center—smear the water sample from the center of the plate to the edge of the plate. Replace the cover.
Repeat steps 2–3 with the two other tryptic soy agar plates. You can use the same pipet and bulb. Using the permanent marker, note down the time, the date, and the treatment process on the bottom of the plates (in this set of trials, it is boiling; for the next set of trials it will be untreated). Discard the pipet and the bulb. You can reuse the glass rod later, but you will have to sterilize it again. If you don't sterilize right away, then keep it separate from the clean glass rods and use a clean glass rod for the next trials with the untreated water.
Keep your tryptic soy agar plates in a warm location in your house that will not be disturbed.
Repeat steps 2–5 with untreated water from the 1-gal jug. You should have six agar plates.
Let the boiled water and untreated water plates sit undisturbed for 24 hours. Do you observe any growth on the plates? Record the time, date, and your observations in your lab notebook. Check again in, 48 hours, 72 hours, and 96 hours. Record your observations each time you check. If you see any growth, count the number of bacterial colonies and record the number in your lab notebook.
Testing the SODIS Samples
In the meantime, you will need to also keep track of the time the water samples spend underneath the UV lamp. After 12 hours, remove one of the bottles from underneath the lamp. Repeat steps 2–5 of the previous section with this SODIS sample. Then perform step 7 of the previous section, counting the number of bacterial colonies, and recording the time and date in your lab notebook.
After 48 hours have elapsed, remove the second SODIS sample from under the lamp. Repeat steps 2–5 and step 7 (all from the previous section) with this sample.
Repeating the Experiment
Repeat the entire experiment two additional times, with fresh materials. Remember to record all your observations in your lab notebook.
As you finish obtaining your sets of data, follow the procedure detailed in Microorganisms Safety Guide to safely dispose of your agar plates.
Analyzing Your Data
Now analyze your data. Plot the data on a scatter plot. For the first plot, label the x-axis Treatment and the y-axis Bacterial Count at 96 Hours. For the second plot, label the x-axis Observation Time and the y-axis Bacterial Count. For this second plot, you can plot all of your data on one plot or you can make a plot for each treatment.
How does the bacterial count change with each treatment? Is SODIS a viable treatment process? Do bacteria grow at different rates for different treatments?
Variations
Prepare samples and place them outside in direct sunlight. Follow the SODIS process. Does sunlight kill bacteria? What is the difference in latitude between where you live and Africa? Does this difference affect the efficacy of SODIS?
Try using different-colored PET bottles. Does the color of the bottle affect the efficacy of the SODIS process?
Does changing the orientation of the bottles affect the efficacy of the SODIS process? Try changing the orientation and find out.
Does increasing the potential for reactive oxygen species increase the efficiency of SODIS? You'll need to do some background reading about how reactive oxygen species are formed and think about what additives could be introduced to the water to promote reactive oxygen species production.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
Michelle Maranowski, PhD, Science Buddies
To investigate the disinfecting properties of sunlight.
Introduction
Water is a precious commodity. It keeps us healthy and clean. Water is necessary for growing plants, many of which produce food for us. You probably go about your day without giving your abundant and clean water a second thought. Our towns and cities provide us with clean and safe drinking water because they have the means and infrastructures to clean and disinfect water. However, there are people that don't have the luxury of clean and safe water. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. The lack of safe water can be due to drought, war, or perhaps a town doesn't have the money or infrastructure to provide clean water to its citizens.
Water can be contaminated with several types of water-borne pathogens. These include Vibrio cholerae (a bacteria that results in cholera), Shigella dysenteriae (a bacteria that causes dysentery), Giardia lamblia (a parasite that results in giardia), and viruses like polio. Often, when a person who doesn't have access to good health care contracts one of these diseases, it can be fatal. In fact, more than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 years die each year of water-borne diseases in Africa and Asia. These pathogens can be present in water anywhere. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the best way to disinfect water is to first filter the water and then boil it vigorously for 1–3 minutes. Let the water cool, and then transfer it to a clean container. To treat the water chemically, first filter the water and then use regular, unscented household bleach. Add two drops of bleach for every quart or liter of water, stir or shake the water, and then let it stand for at least 30 minutes. If the water is cloudy before you've chemically treated it, then double the number of bleach drops and double the amount of time that it stands. Both iodine tinctures and calcium hypochlorite are better at treating contaminated water than bleach is. However, there are significant safety issues when using these chemicals.
But what if you live in an undeveloped nation? You might not have the financial resources available to purchase chemicals. Fuel for boiling water might not even be available. In this situation, there is a water-disinfection procedure that is available, solar disinfection, also known as SODIS. This process takes advantage of sunlight, which is free and readily available, and plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which are available around the world.
The SODIS process is easy to follow. The first step is to find a PET bottle with a lid and clean it well. PET bottles are recyclable and have a "1" surrounded by a triangle symbol on the bottom. Then fill the bottle ¾ full with water. The water should not be too turbid. Highly turbid water protects the pathogens from the Sun's radiation. Shake the bottle for 20 seconds to aerate it. Now fill the bottle fully and close the lid. Place the bottle on a black iron sheet or on your roof, where it will have access to sunlight. Leave it in the sunlight. After a certain amount of time (which you'll be investigating in this science fair project), the water will be ready to drink.
So what exactly does the sunlight do to the organisms in the water, making it safe to drink? Light from the Sun can be separated into several sections, three of which are as follows: visible light (400–700 nanometers (nm)), ultraviolet (UV) light (10 nm–400nm), and infrared (IR) light (700 nm–1 millimeter (mm)). The UV spectrum is also separated into several portions, one of which is UVA, which has a spectrum of 320 nm–400 nm. The UVA reacts with the oxygen dissolved in the water and produces highly reactive forms of oxygen that are thought to kill pathogens in the water by causing fatal DNA damage and destroying the cell walls of bacteria. The IR portion of the spectrum heats the water. If the temperature of the water rises above 50°C, the disinfection process proceeds three times faster.
In this microbiology science fair project, you will investigate the exposure time to UVA light that is required for a bottle of water to be disinfected. You will test different exposure times and compare the results to boiling water. One of the missions of science research is to help improve human health and life. In doing this science fair project, you can become a part of that mission.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
Pathogen
Bacteria
Cholera
Dysentery
Parasite
Giardia
Virus
Polio
Disinfect
Solar disinfection (SODIS)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Turbid
UVA
Sterilize
Reactive oxygen species
Questions
In which parts of the world is SODIS used?
What does UV light do to pathogens?
Is SODIS just as effective with glass bottles as it is with clear plastic PET bottles?
What is the technical difference between sterilization and disinfection? Is SODIS a sterilization or a disinfection procedure?
What kinds of reactive oxygen species are created during the irradiation of oxygenated water with UVA? How do these reactive oxygen species contribute to the disinfection process?
Bibliography
The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. (n.d.). Solar Water Disinfection—The Method. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://www.sodis.ch/Text2002/T-TheMethod.htm
Wikipedia Contributors. (2009, February 16). Solar Water Disinfection. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_water_disinfection&oldid=271168524
Materials and Equipment
Metal cookie sheet
Aluminum foil (1 roll)
Pot, 8-quart (qt.)
Pipet [dropper, flint glass, 105-millimeter (mm), 2-milliliter (mL)], (3 packages of 12); available at sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6240512. The pipets come with bulbs.
Glass stirring rods (6); available at sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6731074
Clean glass jar with lid (1), should be large enough to hold the pipets
Stove top
Oven
Tongs, metal
Oven mitt
Plastic jug with cap, 1-gallon (gal), clean (1)
Disposable gloves; available at your local drugstore
Plastic water bottles with caps, 16-oz., clean (6). The bottles must be clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. PET bottles are recyclable and have a "1" surrounded by a triangle on the bottom.
Clamp lamp, approximately 8 1/2-inch. This item (or something similar to it) can be purchased at your local pet store.
Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb, 100-watt (W). This item (or something similar to it) can be purchased at your local pet store.
Note: The Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb mimics sunlight and emits UVA. In order to get similar results for each trial (versus actual sunlight), you will use the blue reptile bulb to act as the Sun.
Optional: Buret support stand; available from sciencekit.com, SKU # WW60832M01
Dark metal sheet, should be large enough to hold two 16-oz. bottles on their sides.
Liquid measuring cup
Pot with lid, 1-qt.
Tryptic soy agar plates, prepared (4 packages of 10); available from sciencekit.com, SKU # WW6732303. If you will not be using the plates immediately after delivery, store them in your refrigerator. Take the plates out of the refrigerator, as needed.
Clock
Permanent marker
Lab notebook
Experimental Procedure
Caution: Do not drink any of the water during or after you have completed the experiment, or you might risk getting sick. The SODIS process is a disinfection process and not a sterilization process. It also doesn't remove chemicals from the water. The resulting water may not fulfill EPA standards for drinking water.
Note: There will be many steps going on at the same time with this experiment, so be sure to read through the procedure carefully beforehand, and keep careful track of samples, upcoming steps, dates, and times as you perform the experiment.
Preparing the Setup
The first step is to sterilize all of your tools prior to collecting the water sample. Sterilization kills all of the bacteria on the tools. Using sterilized tools prevents you from adding bacteria to the samples.
Preheat the oven to 225°F.
Cover the cookie sheet completely with aluminum foil.
Fill the pot with tap water. Put all of the pipets, the glass rods, and the jar and lid into the pot.
Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Boil all of the tools for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
Using the metal tongs, lift each item from the pot and place it onto the cookie sheet. Once all of the items are on the sheet, place it into the pre-heated oven to dry. Let the items dry completely for 10–15 minutes. Carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven with an oven mitt when the time is up.
Use the tongs to place each pipet into the glass jar. Put the lid on the jar so that the pipets remain clean. Completely wrap all of the glass rods in a sheet of aluminum foil to keep them clean for the duration of the project. Store all of the sterilized tools in an area that will not be disturbed.
Go to your local creek or stream with the clean, plastic 1-gal jug and a pair of disposable gloves. Place the jug into the water and fill it up. Avoid trapping any large particles or foreign objects in the jug. Once the jug is full, replace the cap. Take the jug back to where you are conducting your testing.
Now put the clamp-lamp and the Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb together, following all instructions that came with the lamp. Find a quiet location near an electrical outlet. Clip the lamp onto something, such as the bottom of a cabinet door over a counter, allowing the lamp to face downward. You could also clip the lamp assembly to the top of the rod of a buret stand. Figure 1 shows this configuration with a homemade buret stand.
Figure 1. This image shows the experimental setup, with the UV light shining on the test samples (Note: the samples in the picture have not been placed on the dark, metal sheet yet, but yours should be.)
Preparing the SODIS Samples
Carefully transfer some of the water from the jug into two of the clean 16-oz. clear plastic water bottles. Follow the SODIS procedure detailed in the Introduction when filling the 16-oz. water bottles, as follows. Fill the bottles ¾ full with the creek or stream water and screw on the lid. Shake the bottles for 20 seconds each in order to aerate them. Now fill the bottles fully and screw on the lids tightly. Keep the rest of the water in the jug in a cool, dark place.
When the sample bottles are prepared, plug the lamp into the outlet and turn on the lamp. The lamp should be about 6 inches away from the counter, or from the bottom of the buret stand. Place both samples onto the dark metal sheet beneath the lamp, directly in the path of the light, to mimic the SODIS process as much as possible. Based on your background research, what does the metal sheet represent, and why it is important? Leave the light shining on the samples. Do not disturb the light or the samples until you are ready to test their bacterial content, 12 hours later.
Note: When the SODIS process is applied in a real situation, the minimum time that the bottle of water sits in direct sunlight is 6 hours (longer if the water is very turbid). In this science fair project, you are using the lamp as a substitute for the sun. Since the lamp doesn't produce the same amount of UVA or heat as the Sun does, you will need to keep your bottles of creek or stream water under the lamp for longer than 6 hours. In your lab notebook, note the time on the clock and the date on which you placed the samples under the lamp. Warn others in your household to be careful around the lamp and bottles on the counter.
Preparing and Testing the Boiling and Untreated Water Samples
Note: It is important that you observe the following agar plates at the same time. You will apply the boiled water and untreated water samples to the agar plates while the SODIS samples are still under the UV lamp. You must keep track of the time when you start and stop tests so that the observations can be compared.
While the SODIS samples continue resting under the UV light, measure 1 cup of the creek or stream water in the liquid measuring cup and pour it into the 1-qt. pot. Place the pot onto the stove top and bring the water to a rolling boil. Boil the sample for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the burner, cover the pot, and let the water cool to room temperature.
Put on a pair of disposable gloves. Get a clean pipet from the glass jar and attach a bulb to the top. Get out three tryptic soy agar plates and a glass stirring rod from your aluminum foil package. Suck some of the boiled (but now room-temperature) water into the pipet.
Remove the cover of one of the plates. Apply three drops of the boiled water to the soy agar. Use the glass rod and smear the water drops in a zigzag pattern on the surface of the soy agar, starting in the center—smear the water sample from the center of the plate to the edge of the plate. Replace the cover.
Repeat steps 2–3 with the two other tryptic soy agar plates. You can use the same pipet and bulb. Using the permanent marker, note down the time, the date, and the treatment process on the bottom of the plates (in this set of trials, it is boiling; for the next set of trials it will be untreated). Discard the pipet and the bulb. You can reuse the glass rod later, but you will have to sterilize it again. If you don't sterilize right away, then keep it separate from the clean glass rods and use a clean glass rod for the next trials with the untreated water.
Keep your tryptic soy agar plates in a warm location in your house that will not be disturbed.
Repeat steps 2–5 with untreated water from the 1-gal jug. You should have six agar plates.
Let the boiled water and untreated water plates sit undisturbed for 24 hours. Do you observe any growth on the plates? Record the time, date, and your observations in your lab notebook. Check again in, 48 hours, 72 hours, and 96 hours. Record your observations each time you check. If you see any growth, count the number of bacterial colonies and record the number in your lab notebook.
Testing the SODIS Samples
In the meantime, you will need to also keep track of the time the water samples spend underneath the UV lamp. After 12 hours, remove one of the bottles from underneath the lamp. Repeat steps 2–5 of the previous section with this SODIS sample. Then perform step 7 of the previous section, counting the number of bacterial colonies, and recording the time and date in your lab notebook.
After 48 hours have elapsed, remove the second SODIS sample from under the lamp. Repeat steps 2–5 and step 7 (all from the previous section) with this sample.
Repeating the Experiment
Repeat the entire experiment two additional times, with fresh materials. Remember to record all your observations in your lab notebook.
As you finish obtaining your sets of data, follow the procedure detailed in Microorganisms Safety Guide to safely dispose of your agar plates.
Analyzing Your Data
Now analyze your data. Plot the data on a scatter plot. For the first plot, label the x-axis Treatment and the y-axis Bacterial Count at 96 Hours. For the second plot, label the x-axis Observation Time and the y-axis Bacterial Count. For this second plot, you can plot all of your data on one plot or you can make a plot for each treatment.
How does the bacterial count change with each treatment? Is SODIS a viable treatment process? Do bacteria grow at different rates for different treatments?
Variations
Prepare samples and place them outside in direct sunlight. Follow the SODIS process. Does sunlight kill bacteria? What is the difference in latitude between where you live and Africa? Does this difference affect the efficacy of SODIS?
Try using different-colored PET bottles. Does the color of the bottle affect the efficacy of the SODIS process?
Does changing the orientation of the bottles affect the efficacy of the SODIS process? Try changing the orientation and find out.
Does increasing the potential for reactive oxygen species increase the efficiency of SODIS? You'll need to do some background reading about how reactive oxygen species are formed and think about what additives could be introduced to the water to promote reactive oxygen species production.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
Michelle Maranowski, PhD, Science Buddies
Yeast Reproduction in Sugar Substitutes
Objective
The purpose of this project is to see if yeast will reproduce using various sugar substitutes.
Introduction
Did you ever wonder how bread gets its "spongy" structure? If you've ever baked homemade bread yourself, you know that you need yeast to make the bread dough rise. Yeasts are single-celled fungi. Like the cells in your body, they can derive energy from sugar molecules. They can also break down larger carbohydrate molecules (like starches present in flour) into simple sugar molecules, which are then processed further.
Yeast can extract more energy from sugar when oxygen is present in their environment. In the absence of oxygen, yeast switch to a process called fermentation. With fermentation, yeast can still get energy from sugar, but less energy is derived from each sugar molecule.
In addition to deriving less energy with fermentation, the end products of sugar metabolism are also different. When oxygen is present, the sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and water (plus energy that the yeast uses to grow and reproduce). In the absence of oxygen, the sugar molecules are not broken down completely. The end products are alcohol (with two carbon atoms) carbon dioxide (one carbon atom), and water. Less energy is extracted from each sugar molecule: the energy that could be extracted from the alcohol molecule if oxygen were present.
As you know, carbon dioxide is a gas (at least at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, for you gas law aficionados). In bread dough, carbon dioxide produced by yeast forms bubbles that make the dough rise, and give bread its spongy texture.
OK, so yeast can derive energy from simple sugars and complex starches. What about sugar substitutes? This project is designed to find out. You will prepare several different yeast solutions, some "fed" with sugar, others "fed" with sugar substitutes and still others "fed" with only warm water. To measure the metabolism of the yeast under the different conditions, you will collect the carbon dioxide gas from each solution.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
yeast metabolism,
simple sugar, compound sugar, starch.
Questions
Investigate the simple sugar molecule glucose and each of your sugar substitutes to find out about their chemical properties. How are the substitutes similar to glucose? How are they different from glucose?
Now that you have researched yeast metabolism and the chemical properties of the various sugar substitutes, what do you predict will happen in your experiment? Which (if any) sugar substitutes will the yeast be able to use? Do you think yeast grown with sugar substitutes will produce more, less or the same amount of carbon dioxide as yeast grown with sugar?
Bibliography
You may wish to choose different sugar substitutes than the examples we chose. This Wikipedia Category page has links to many possible choices:
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Category: Sweeteners," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Sweeteners&oldid=33822221.
Here are Wikipedia articles on several different sweeteners (including both sugars and sugar substitutes):
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Acesulfame potassium," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acesulfame_potassium&oldid=34490285.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Aspartame," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aspartame&oldid=34422683.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Glucose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glucose&oldid=34642934.
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Saccharin," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saccharin&oldid=33009492.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucralose," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucralose&oldid=34548918.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucrose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucrose&oldid=34571913.
Materials and Equipment
For this project you will need the following items:
dry yeast (buying a whole jar is probably more economical than individual packets),
sugar,
sugar substitutes, for example:
saccharin,
sucralose,
aspartame (commercial name: NutraSweet),
acesulfame potassium (also known as: Ace-K);
warm water (typically 110°F–115°F, but consult the recommendations on your yeast package),
thermometer to measure water temperature,
at least 6 empty plastic bottles (1-pint water bottles are good),
1 cap (must fit all bottles)
plastic tubing,
epoxy or silicone sealant,
graduated cylinder (an empty plastic bottle can be substituted, if necessary),
plastic tub or bucket,
packing tape,
water.
Experimental Procedure
Do your background research.
You will be collecting CO2 from the yeast by displacing water trapped in an inverted graduated cylinder. Here's how to set it up:
Fill your plastic tub (or bucket) about one-third full with water.
Fill the graduated cylinder with water.
If your tub is big enough, fill the graduated cylinder by tipping it on its side inside the tub. Allow any bubbles to escape by tilting the cylinder up slightly, while keeping it under water. Keeping the opening of the cylinder under water, turn it upside down and attach it to the side of the tub with packing tape.
If your tub is not big enough, fill the graduated cylinder completely and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Quickly invert the cylinder and place the opening in the tub, beneath the surface of the water. Remove the plastic wrap. Attach the cylinder to the side of the tub with packing tape.
The graduated cylinder should now be upside down, full of water and with its opening under the surface of the water in the tub. It is ready to trap CO2 produced by your yeast.
Next, you need a way to bring the CO2 from the yeast to your gas collection apparatus. You'll attach some plastic tubing to the bottle cap to do this.
Make a hole in your bottle cap, just big enough to insert the plastic tubing. Get help from an adult if needed.
Insert the plastic tubing through the hole in the cap so that it sticks out about 2 cm.
Seal the tube to the cap with epoxy or silicone sealant so that it is air-tight. Allow the epoxy or silicone to cure fully before conducting your experiment.
You'll attach this cap to your yeast bottle, and place the other end of the tubing inside the inverted graduated cylinder. Any CO2 produced by the yeast will bubble up inside the cylinder, where it will be trapped. You can measure how much CO2 is produced by seeing how much water is displaced.
You can test your gas collection apparatus by blowing gently into the tube. The bubbles you create should be captured inside the cylinder. (You'll need to re-fill the cylinder before starting your experiment.)
When your gas collection apparatus is ready, you can start the actual experiment.
Label each of the bottles with the type of solution you'll be feeding the yeast (e.g., sugar, nothing, saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium).
You'll be making one solution at a time (unless you decide to set up more than one gas collection apparatus). It is important to use the same water temperature each time you make a solution, since yeast activity is temperature-dependent.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (110°F–115°F). When the sugar is fully dissolved, add 2 teaspoons of yeast (this is about the same amount as 1 packet of yeast), mix and pour into the appropriate bottle. Be sure to note the actual temperature of the water in your lab notebook.
Cap the bottle tightly with your "tube cap," and place the open end of the tube inside your gas collecting cylinder. Note the starting time in your lab notebook.
Within 5–10 minutes, the yeast solution should start foaming, and you should see bubbles collecting in the graduated cylinder. Note the time when you first start seeing bubbles in your lab notebook.
Decide how long to collect CO2 (somewhere between 30–60 minutes is probably good, but you may need to adjust for your particular conditions). Use the same amount of time for all of your tests.
When the time is up, note how much CO2 was collected.
Re-fill your gas collection cylinder, and carefully rinse out the yeast solution from the bottle. You should run at least three separate trials for each food source.
For each of the sugar substitutes, use the properly labeled bottle. When preparing your yeast solution, use the same temperature for the warm water and the same amount of yeast (2 teaspoons). Use 1 tablespoon of the sugar substitute instead of sugar.
Questions
Many commercial sugar substitutes are mixtures, not pure compounds. Check the labeling of your sugar substitute packaging carefully, and examine the ingredients. How might the additional ingredients affect the outcome of your experiment?
Variations
For another method of measuring the products of yeast fermentation, see the Science Buddies project: Rise to the Occasion: Investigating Requirements for Yeast Fermentation. You could use the method described in "Rise to the Occasion" to test yeast's ability to use sugar substitutes as a food source.
The procedure for making your yeast solutions is very similar to what many bakers do when making homemade bread. It's called "proofing" the yeast. Before the yeast is added to the dough, it is suspended in warm sugar water. If the yeast foams after a few minutes, it is added to the dough. If not, the baker tries another packet of yeast. If one of your sugar substitutes fails to produce CO2 during the allotted time, is the problem the food or the yeast? To test if the yeast is the problem, you could try adding sugar to the solution. If the yeast starts to foam after a few minutes, you've proved that the yeast was not the problem.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
original project by Scott L. Karney-Grobe
with additional material by Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
The purpose of this project is to see if yeast will reproduce using various sugar substitutes.
Introduction
Did you ever wonder how bread gets its "spongy" structure? If you've ever baked homemade bread yourself, you know that you need yeast to make the bread dough rise. Yeasts are single-celled fungi. Like the cells in your body, they can derive energy from sugar molecules. They can also break down larger carbohydrate molecules (like starches present in flour) into simple sugar molecules, which are then processed further.
Yeast can extract more energy from sugar when oxygen is present in their environment. In the absence of oxygen, yeast switch to a process called fermentation. With fermentation, yeast can still get energy from sugar, but less energy is derived from each sugar molecule.
In addition to deriving less energy with fermentation, the end products of sugar metabolism are also different. When oxygen is present, the sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and water (plus energy that the yeast uses to grow and reproduce). In the absence of oxygen, the sugar molecules are not broken down completely. The end products are alcohol (with two carbon atoms) carbon dioxide (one carbon atom), and water. Less energy is extracted from each sugar molecule: the energy that could be extracted from the alcohol molecule if oxygen were present.
As you know, carbon dioxide is a gas (at least at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, for you gas law aficionados). In bread dough, carbon dioxide produced by yeast forms bubbles that make the dough rise, and give bread its spongy texture.
OK, so yeast can derive energy from simple sugars and complex starches. What about sugar substitutes? This project is designed to find out. You will prepare several different yeast solutions, some "fed" with sugar, others "fed" with sugar substitutes and still others "fed" with only warm water. To measure the metabolism of the yeast under the different conditions, you will collect the carbon dioxide gas from each solution.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
yeast metabolism,
simple sugar, compound sugar, starch.
Questions
Investigate the simple sugar molecule glucose and each of your sugar substitutes to find out about their chemical properties. How are the substitutes similar to glucose? How are they different from glucose?
Now that you have researched yeast metabolism and the chemical properties of the various sugar substitutes, what do you predict will happen in your experiment? Which (if any) sugar substitutes will the yeast be able to use? Do you think yeast grown with sugar substitutes will produce more, less or the same amount of carbon dioxide as yeast grown with sugar?
Bibliography
You may wish to choose different sugar substitutes than the examples we chose. This Wikipedia Category page has links to many possible choices:
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Category: Sweeteners," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Sweeteners&oldid=33822221.
Here are Wikipedia articles on several different sweeteners (including both sugars and sugar substitutes):
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Acesulfame potassium," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acesulfame_potassium&oldid=34490285.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Aspartame," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aspartame&oldid=34422683.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Glucose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glucose&oldid=34642934.
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Saccharin," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saccharin&oldid=33009492.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucralose," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucralose&oldid=34548918.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucrose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucrose&oldid=34571913.
Materials and Equipment
For this project you will need the following items:
dry yeast (buying a whole jar is probably more economical than individual packets),
sugar,
sugar substitutes, for example:
saccharin,
sucralose,
aspartame (commercial name: NutraSweet),
acesulfame potassium (also known as: Ace-K);
warm water (typically 110°F–115°F, but consult the recommendations on your yeast package),
thermometer to measure water temperature,
at least 6 empty plastic bottles (1-pint water bottles are good),
1 cap (must fit all bottles)
plastic tubing,
epoxy or silicone sealant,
graduated cylinder (an empty plastic bottle can be substituted, if necessary),
plastic tub or bucket,
packing tape,
water.
Experimental Procedure
Do your background research.
You will be collecting CO2 from the yeast by displacing water trapped in an inverted graduated cylinder. Here's how to set it up:
Fill your plastic tub (or bucket) about one-third full with water.
Fill the graduated cylinder with water.
If your tub is big enough, fill the graduated cylinder by tipping it on its side inside the tub. Allow any bubbles to escape by tilting the cylinder up slightly, while keeping it under water. Keeping the opening of the cylinder under water, turn it upside down and attach it to the side of the tub with packing tape.
If your tub is not big enough, fill the graduated cylinder completely and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Quickly invert the cylinder and place the opening in the tub, beneath the surface of the water. Remove the plastic wrap. Attach the cylinder to the side of the tub with packing tape.
The graduated cylinder should now be upside down, full of water and with its opening under the surface of the water in the tub. It is ready to trap CO2 produced by your yeast.
Next, you need a way to bring the CO2 from the yeast to your gas collection apparatus. You'll attach some plastic tubing to the bottle cap to do this.
Make a hole in your bottle cap, just big enough to insert the plastic tubing. Get help from an adult if needed.
Insert the plastic tubing through the hole in the cap so that it sticks out about 2 cm.
Seal the tube to the cap with epoxy or silicone sealant so that it is air-tight. Allow the epoxy or silicone to cure fully before conducting your experiment.
You'll attach this cap to your yeast bottle, and place the other end of the tubing inside the inverted graduated cylinder. Any CO2 produced by the yeast will bubble up inside the cylinder, where it will be trapped. You can measure how much CO2 is produced by seeing how much water is displaced.
You can test your gas collection apparatus by blowing gently into the tube. The bubbles you create should be captured inside the cylinder. (You'll need to re-fill the cylinder before starting your experiment.)
When your gas collection apparatus is ready, you can start the actual experiment.
Label each of the bottles with the type of solution you'll be feeding the yeast (e.g., sugar, nothing, saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium).
You'll be making one solution at a time (unless you decide to set up more than one gas collection apparatus). It is important to use the same water temperature each time you make a solution, since yeast activity is temperature-dependent.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (110°F–115°F). When the sugar is fully dissolved, add 2 teaspoons of yeast (this is about the same amount as 1 packet of yeast), mix and pour into the appropriate bottle. Be sure to note the actual temperature of the water in your lab notebook.
Cap the bottle tightly with your "tube cap," and place the open end of the tube inside your gas collecting cylinder. Note the starting time in your lab notebook.
Within 5–10 minutes, the yeast solution should start foaming, and you should see bubbles collecting in the graduated cylinder. Note the time when you first start seeing bubbles in your lab notebook.
Decide how long to collect CO2 (somewhere between 30–60 minutes is probably good, but you may need to adjust for your particular conditions). Use the same amount of time for all of your tests.
When the time is up, note how much CO2 was collected.
Re-fill your gas collection cylinder, and carefully rinse out the yeast solution from the bottle. You should run at least three separate trials for each food source.
For each of the sugar substitutes, use the properly labeled bottle. When preparing your yeast solution, use the same temperature for the warm water and the same amount of yeast (2 teaspoons). Use 1 tablespoon of the sugar substitute instead of sugar.
Questions
Many commercial sugar substitutes are mixtures, not pure compounds. Check the labeling of your sugar substitute packaging carefully, and examine the ingredients. How might the additional ingredients affect the outcome of your experiment?
Variations
For another method of measuring the products of yeast fermentation, see the Science Buddies project: Rise to the Occasion: Investigating Requirements for Yeast Fermentation. You could use the method described in "Rise to the Occasion" to test yeast's ability to use sugar substitutes as a food source.
The procedure for making your yeast solutions is very similar to what many bakers do when making homemade bread. It's called "proofing" the yeast. Before the yeast is added to the dough, it is suspended in warm sugar water. If the yeast foams after a few minutes, it is added to the dough. If not, the baker tries another packet of yeast. If one of your sugar substitutes fails to produce CO2 during the allotted time, is the problem the food or the yeast? To test if the yeast is the problem, you could try adding sugar to the solution. If the yeast starts to foam after a few minutes, you've proved that the yeast was not the problem.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
original project by Scott L. Karney-Grobe
with additional material by Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
Yeast Reproduction in Sugar Substitutes
Objective
The purpose of this project is to see if yeast will reproduce using various sugar substitutes.
Introduction
Did you ever wonder how bread gets its "spongy" structure? If you've ever baked homemade bread yourself, you know that you need yeast to make the bread dough rise. Yeasts are single-celled fungi. Like the cells in your body, they can derive energy from sugar molecules. They can also break down larger carbohydrate molecules (like starches present in flour) into simple sugar molecules, which are then processed further.
Yeast can extract more energy from sugar when oxygen is present in their environment. In the absence of oxygen, yeast switch to a process called fermentation. With fermentation, yeast can still get energy from sugar, but less energy is derived from each sugar molecule.
In addition to deriving less energy with fermentation, the end products of sugar metabolism are also different. When oxygen is present, the sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and water (plus energy that the yeast uses to grow and reproduce). In the absence of oxygen, the sugar molecules are not broken down completely. The end products are alcohol (with two carbon atoms) carbon dioxide (one carbon atom), and water. Less energy is extracted from each sugar molecule: the energy that could be extracted from the alcohol molecule if oxygen were present.
As you know, carbon dioxide is a gas (at least at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, for you gas law aficionados). In bread dough, carbon dioxide produced by yeast forms bubbles that make the dough rise, and give bread its spongy texture.
OK, so yeast can derive energy from simple sugars and complex starches. What about sugar substitutes? This project is designed to find out. You will prepare several different yeast solutions, some "fed" with sugar, others "fed" with sugar substitutes and still others "fed" with only warm water. To measure the metabolism of the yeast under the different conditions, you will collect the carbon dioxide gas from each solution.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
yeast metabolism,
simple sugar, compound sugar, starch.
Questions
Investigate the simple sugar molecule glucose and each of your sugar substitutes to find out about their chemical properties. How are the substitutes similar to glucose? How are they different from glucose?
Now that you have researched yeast metabolism and the chemical properties of the various sugar substitutes, what do you predict will happen in your experiment? Which (if any) sugar substitutes will the yeast be able to use? Do you think yeast grown with sugar substitutes will produce more, less or the same amount of carbon dioxide as yeast grown with sugar?
Bibliography
You may wish to choose different sugar substitutes than the examples we chose. This Wikipedia Category page has links to many possible choices:
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Category: Sweeteners," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Sweeteners&oldid=33822221.
Here are Wikipedia articles on several different sweeteners (including both sugars and sugar substitutes):
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Acesulfame potassium," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acesulfame_potassium&oldid=34490285.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Aspartame," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aspartame&oldid=34422683.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Glucose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glucose&oldid=34642934.
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Saccharin," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saccharin&oldid=33009492.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucralose," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucralose&oldid=34548918.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucrose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucrose&oldid=34571913.
Materials and Equipment
For this project you will need the following items:
dry yeast (buying a whole jar is probably more economical than individual packets),
sugar,
sugar substitutes, for example:
saccharin,
sucralose,
aspartame (commercial name: NutraSweet),
acesulfame potassium (also known as: Ace-K);
warm water (typically 110°F–115°F, but consult the recommendations on your yeast package),
thermometer to measure water temperature,
at least 6 empty plastic bottles (1-pint water bottles are good),
1 cap (must fit all bottles)
plastic tubing,
epoxy or silicone sealant,
graduated cylinder (an empty plastic bottle can be substituted, if necessary),
plastic tub or bucket,
packing tape,
water.
Experimental Procedure
Do your background research.
You will be collecting CO2 from the yeast by displacing water trapped in an inverted graduated cylinder. Here's how to set it up:
Fill your plastic tub (or bucket) about one-third full with water.
Fill the graduated cylinder with water.
If your tub is big enough, fill the graduated cylinder by tipping it on its side inside the tub. Allow any bubbles to escape by tilting the cylinder up slightly, while keeping it under water. Keeping the opening of the cylinder under water, turn it upside down and attach it to the side of the tub with packing tape.
If your tub is not big enough, fill the graduated cylinder completely and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Quickly invert the cylinder and place the opening in the tub, beneath the surface of the water. Remove the plastic wrap. Attach the cylinder to the side of the tub with packing tape.
The graduated cylinder should now be upside down, full of water and with its opening under the surface of the water in the tub. It is ready to trap CO2 produced by your yeast.
Next, you need a way to bring the CO2 from the yeast to your gas collection apparatus. You'll attach some plastic tubing to the bottle cap to do this.
Make a hole in your bottle cap, just big enough to insert the plastic tubing. Get help from an adult if needed.
Insert the plastic tubing through the hole in the cap so that it sticks out about 2 cm.
Seal the tube to the cap with epoxy or silicone sealant so that it is air-tight. Allow the epoxy or silicone to cure fully before conducting your experiment.
You'll attach this cap to your yeast bottle, and place the other end of the tubing inside the inverted graduated cylinder. Any CO2 produced by the yeast will bubble up inside the cylinder, where it will be trapped. You can measure how much CO2 is produced by seeing how much water is displaced.
You can test your gas collection apparatus by blowing gently into the tube. The bubbles you create should be captured inside the cylinder. (You'll need to re-fill the cylinder before starting your experiment.)
When your gas collection apparatus is ready, you can start the actual experiment.
Label each of the bottles with the type of solution you'll be feeding the yeast (e.g., sugar, nothing, saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium).
You'll be making one solution at a time (unless you decide to set up more than one gas collection apparatus). It is important to use the same water temperature each time you make a solution, since yeast activity is temperature-dependent.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (110°F–115°F). When the sugar is fully dissolved, add 2 teaspoons of yeast (this is about the same amount as 1 packet of yeast), mix and pour into the appropriate bottle. Be sure to note the actual temperature of the water in your lab notebook.
Cap the bottle tightly with your "tube cap," and place the open end of the tube inside your gas collecting cylinder. Note the starting time in your lab notebook.
Within 5–10 minutes, the yeast solution should start foaming, and you should see bubbles collecting in the graduated cylinder. Note the time when you first start seeing bubbles in your lab notebook.
Decide how long to collect CO2 (somewhere between 30–60 minutes is probably good, but you may need to adjust for your particular conditions). Use the same amount of time for all of your tests.
When the time is up, note how much CO2 was collected.
Re-fill your gas collection cylinder, and carefully rinse out the yeast solution from the bottle. You should run at least three separate trials for each food source.
For each of the sugar substitutes, use the properly labeled bottle. When preparing your yeast solution, use the same temperature for the warm water and the same amount of yeast (2 teaspoons). Use 1 tablespoon of the sugar substitute instead of sugar.
Questions
Many commercial sugar substitutes are mixtures, not pure compounds. Check the labeling of your sugar substitute packaging carefully, and examine the ingredients. How might the additional ingredients affect the outcome of your experiment?
Variations
For another method of measuring the products of yeast fermentation, see the Science Buddies project: Rise to the Occasion: Investigating Requirements for Yeast Fermentation. You could use the method described in "Rise to the Occasion" to test yeast's ability to use sugar substitutes as a food source.
The procedure for making your yeast solutions is very similar to what many bakers do when making homemade bread. It's called "proofing" the yeast. Before the yeast is added to the dough, it is suspended in warm sugar water. If the yeast foams after a few minutes, it is added to the dough. If not, the baker tries another packet of yeast. If one of your sugar substitutes fails to produce CO2 during the allotted time, is the problem the food or the yeast? To test if the yeast is the problem, you could try adding sugar to the solution. If the yeast starts to foam after a few minutes, you've proved that the yeast was not the problem.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
original project by Scott L. Karney-Grobe
with additional material by Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
The purpose of this project is to see if yeast will reproduce using various sugar substitutes.
Introduction
Did you ever wonder how bread gets its "spongy" structure? If you've ever baked homemade bread yourself, you know that you need yeast to make the bread dough rise. Yeasts are single-celled fungi. Like the cells in your body, they can derive energy from sugar molecules. They can also break down larger carbohydrate molecules (like starches present in flour) into simple sugar molecules, which are then processed further.
Yeast can extract more energy from sugar when oxygen is present in their environment. In the absence of oxygen, yeast switch to a process called fermentation. With fermentation, yeast can still get energy from sugar, but less energy is derived from each sugar molecule.
In addition to deriving less energy with fermentation, the end products of sugar metabolism are also different. When oxygen is present, the sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and water (plus energy that the yeast uses to grow and reproduce). In the absence of oxygen, the sugar molecules are not broken down completely. The end products are alcohol (with two carbon atoms) carbon dioxide (one carbon atom), and water. Less energy is extracted from each sugar molecule: the energy that could be extracted from the alcohol molecule if oxygen were present.
As you know, carbon dioxide is a gas (at least at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, for you gas law aficionados). In bread dough, carbon dioxide produced by yeast forms bubbles that make the dough rise, and give bread its spongy texture.
OK, so yeast can derive energy from simple sugars and complex starches. What about sugar substitutes? This project is designed to find out. You will prepare several different yeast solutions, some "fed" with sugar, others "fed" with sugar substitutes and still others "fed" with only warm water. To measure the metabolism of the yeast under the different conditions, you will collect the carbon dioxide gas from each solution.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
yeast metabolism,
simple sugar, compound sugar, starch.
Questions
Investigate the simple sugar molecule glucose and each of your sugar substitutes to find out about their chemical properties. How are the substitutes similar to glucose? How are they different from glucose?
Now that you have researched yeast metabolism and the chemical properties of the various sugar substitutes, what do you predict will happen in your experiment? Which (if any) sugar substitutes will the yeast be able to use? Do you think yeast grown with sugar substitutes will produce more, less or the same amount of carbon dioxide as yeast grown with sugar?
Bibliography
You may wish to choose different sugar substitutes than the examples we chose. This Wikipedia Category page has links to many possible choices:
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Category: Sweeteners," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Sweeteners&oldid=33822221.
Here are Wikipedia articles on several different sweeteners (including both sugars and sugar substitutes):
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Acesulfame potassium," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acesulfame_potassium&oldid=34490285.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Aspartame," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aspartame&oldid=34422683.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Glucose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glucose&oldid=34642934.
Wikipedia contributors, 2005. "Saccharin," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saccharin&oldid=33009492.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucralose," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucralose&oldid=34548918.
Wikipedia contributors, 2006. "Sucrose," Wikpedia: The Free Encyclopedia [accessed January 10, 2006] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucrose&oldid=34571913.
Materials and Equipment
For this project you will need the following items:
dry yeast (buying a whole jar is probably more economical than individual packets),
sugar,
sugar substitutes, for example:
saccharin,
sucralose,
aspartame (commercial name: NutraSweet),
acesulfame potassium (also known as: Ace-K);
warm water (typically 110°F–115°F, but consult the recommendations on your yeast package),
thermometer to measure water temperature,
at least 6 empty plastic bottles (1-pint water bottles are good),
1 cap (must fit all bottles)
plastic tubing,
epoxy or silicone sealant,
graduated cylinder (an empty plastic bottle can be substituted, if necessary),
plastic tub or bucket,
packing tape,
water.
Experimental Procedure
Do your background research.
You will be collecting CO2 from the yeast by displacing water trapped in an inverted graduated cylinder. Here's how to set it up:
Fill your plastic tub (or bucket) about one-third full with water.
Fill the graduated cylinder with water.
If your tub is big enough, fill the graduated cylinder by tipping it on its side inside the tub. Allow any bubbles to escape by tilting the cylinder up slightly, while keeping it under water. Keeping the opening of the cylinder under water, turn it upside down and attach it to the side of the tub with packing tape.
If your tub is not big enough, fill the graduated cylinder completely and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Quickly invert the cylinder and place the opening in the tub, beneath the surface of the water. Remove the plastic wrap. Attach the cylinder to the side of the tub with packing tape.
The graduated cylinder should now be upside down, full of water and with its opening under the surface of the water in the tub. It is ready to trap CO2 produced by your yeast.
Next, you need a way to bring the CO2 from the yeast to your gas collection apparatus. You'll attach some plastic tubing to the bottle cap to do this.
Make a hole in your bottle cap, just big enough to insert the plastic tubing. Get help from an adult if needed.
Insert the plastic tubing through the hole in the cap so that it sticks out about 2 cm.
Seal the tube to the cap with epoxy or silicone sealant so that it is air-tight. Allow the epoxy or silicone to cure fully before conducting your experiment.
You'll attach this cap to your yeast bottle, and place the other end of the tubing inside the inverted graduated cylinder. Any CO2 produced by the yeast will bubble up inside the cylinder, where it will be trapped. You can measure how much CO2 is produced by seeing how much water is displaced.
You can test your gas collection apparatus by blowing gently into the tube. The bubbles you create should be captured inside the cylinder. (You'll need to re-fill the cylinder before starting your experiment.)
When your gas collection apparatus is ready, you can start the actual experiment.
Label each of the bottles with the type of solution you'll be feeding the yeast (e.g., sugar, nothing, saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium).
You'll be making one solution at a time (unless you decide to set up more than one gas collection apparatus). It is important to use the same water temperature each time you make a solution, since yeast activity is temperature-dependent.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (110°F–115°F). When the sugar is fully dissolved, add 2 teaspoons of yeast (this is about the same amount as 1 packet of yeast), mix and pour into the appropriate bottle. Be sure to note the actual temperature of the water in your lab notebook.
Cap the bottle tightly with your "tube cap," and place the open end of the tube inside your gas collecting cylinder. Note the starting time in your lab notebook.
Within 5–10 minutes, the yeast solution should start foaming, and you should see bubbles collecting in the graduated cylinder. Note the time when you first start seeing bubbles in your lab notebook.
Decide how long to collect CO2 (somewhere between 30–60 minutes is probably good, but you may need to adjust for your particular conditions). Use the same amount of time for all of your tests.
When the time is up, note how much CO2 was collected.
Re-fill your gas collection cylinder, and carefully rinse out the yeast solution from the bottle. You should run at least three separate trials for each food source.
For each of the sugar substitutes, use the properly labeled bottle. When preparing your yeast solution, use the same temperature for the warm water and the same amount of yeast (2 teaspoons). Use 1 tablespoon of the sugar substitute instead of sugar.
Questions
Many commercial sugar substitutes are mixtures, not pure compounds. Check the labeling of your sugar substitute packaging carefully, and examine the ingredients. How might the additional ingredients affect the outcome of your experiment?
Variations
For another method of measuring the products of yeast fermentation, see the Science Buddies project: Rise to the Occasion: Investigating Requirements for Yeast Fermentation. You could use the method described in "Rise to the Occasion" to test yeast's ability to use sugar substitutes as a food source.
The procedure for making your yeast solutions is very similar to what many bakers do when making homemade bread. It's called "proofing" the yeast. Before the yeast is added to the dough, it is suspended in warm sugar water. If the yeast foams after a few minutes, it is added to the dough. If not, the baker tries another packet of yeast. If one of your sugar substitutes fails to produce CO2 during the allotted time, is the problem the food or the yeast? To test if the yeast is the problem, you could try adding sugar to the solution. If the yeast starts to foam after a few minutes, you've proved that the yeast was not the problem.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
original project by Scott L. Karney-Grobe
with additional material by Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
How Do Food Preservatives Affect the Growth of Microorganisms?
Objective
The purpose of this project is to determine the effective concentration for anti-microbial food preservatives.
Introduction
The problem of protecting food from spoilage has been with us since prehistoric times. The solutions to this problem have changed with advances in technology and knowledge about what causes food to spoil. This project will focus on retarding microbial growth, which is only one of the causes of food spoilage.
There are many ways that food can be spoiled. For example, oils in food can become oxidized, releasing free fatty acids that cause a bitter, rancid taste. Additionally, natural enzymes that take part in the ripening process of fruits and vegetables can remain active after harvest, causing spoilage. Different chemical preservatives have been developed to counteract each of these different mechanisms: "Preservatives can be categorized into three general types: antimicrobials that inhibit growth of bacteria, yeasts, or molds; antioxidants that slow air oxidation of fats and lipids, which leads to rancidity; and a third type that blocks the natural ripening and enzymatic processes that continue to occur in foodstuffs after harvest." (Dalton, 2002)
In order for an antimicrobial preservative to work, it must be used at the right concentration. Ideally, it will disrupt microbial growth while at the same time preserving most of the nutritional value of the food.
To do this project, you should first do background research on methods of food preservation. Then, select an antimicrobial preservation method to test for your experiment. As an example, this project will test one of the oldest preservation methods by adding different concentrations of salt.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
bacteria,
conditions for bacterial growth,
minimum, maximum, and optimum values for temperature, pH, osmolarity.
preservatives,
food additives,
food preservation.
Questions
What is meant by "effective concentration" for a chemical compound?
What are the effective concentrations for the additives you intend to test?
Bibliography
This article provides a general overview for methods of food preservation:
Brain, M., date unknown. "How Food Preservation Works," HowStuffWorks.com [accessed September 20, 2006] http://home.howstuffworks.com/food-preservation.htm.
These articles provide an introduction to the different types of food preservatives, and what each is used for:
Dalton, L., 2002. "What's That Stuff? Food Preservatives: Antimicrobials, Antioxidants, and Metal Chelators Keep Food Fresh," Chemical & Engineering News, American Chemical Society 80 (45): 40, available online [accessed September 20, 2006] http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/8045/8045sci2.html.
Foulke, J.E., 1998. "A Fresh Look at Food Preservatives," FDA Consumer, U.S. Food and Drug Administration [accessed September 20, 2006] http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdpreser.html.
This webpage has background information on nutritional requirements for bacterial growth. It is from an online textbook of bacteriology, which can be an excellent source of further information on bacteria:
Todar, K., 2002. "Nutrition and Growth of Bacteria," Todar's Online Textbook of Bacteriology, Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison [accessed September 20, 2006] http://textbookofbacteriology.net/nutgro.html.
Materials and Equipment
To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:
4 low-salt chicken boullion cubes,
500 mL hot water,
10 glass jars with lids,
anti-microbial preservative; for example, you could try one of the following:
salt,
sugar,
vinegar,
electronic balance,
masking tape,
marking pen,
40 nutrient agar plates.
Experimental Procedure
Dissolve 2 chicken broth cubes in 500 mL of hot water.
Divide the solution into 10 glass jars (50 mL/jar).
Following the table below, add preservative at 4 different concentrations, and add nothing for the control condition. Make two replicates of each condition (10 jars total). Be sure that the salt you add is fully dissolved. Label Amount Broth (mL) Amount Salt (g)
Control 50 0
#1 2.5% 48.75 1.25
#2 5% 47.5 2.5
#3 10% 45 5.0
#4 20% 40 10
If you use a preservative other than salt, you should do background research to come up with an estimate of the effective concentration. Make the effective concentration your #3 test condition. Condition #'s 1, 2, and 4 should be 1/4, 1/2, and 2 times this concentration, respectively.
Take samples on 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th days, and streak onto agar plates. Use the quadrant streaking method (Inoculation: How to Put the Bacteria You Desire on a Petri Dish) when plating samples.
Be sure to properly label all plates with the test solution and day number.
Tape plates closed, incubate (inverted) overnight, and count bacterial colonies.
Does the number of colonies decrease as concentration of the preservative increases?
Safe Disposal of Plates
At the conclusion of the experiment, all plates should be disinfected for safe disposal.
The best way to dispose of bacterial cultures is to pressure-sterilize (autoclave) them in a heat-stable biohazard bag.
If autoclaves or pressure cookers are not available, an alternative is to bleach the plates.
Wear proper safety equipment (gloves, lab coat, eye protection) when working with the bleach solution; it is corrosive.
Saturate the plates with a 20% household bleach solution (in other words, one part bleach and four parts water).
Allow the plates to soak overnight in the bleach solution before disposing of them.
Please note that the bleach solution is corrosive and needs to be thoroughly rinsed afterwards.
Variations
Compare refrigerated and/or frozen vs. room-temperature broth.
Try additional preservatives. What are their effective concentrations?
Try preservatives with solid food, e.g., salt meat or pickled vegetables. See the Science Buddies project, Minimizing Bacteria in the Thawing and Cooking of Meat for a method of pureeing solid food in order to assess bacterial content. Be sure to establish baseline bacterial content by pureeing samples before treatment with preservatives.
Compare starting sterile vs. not. If you have a pressure cooker, here is an experiment you can try. Follow canning procedures for three jars. For the other three, use normal conditions for cooking and left-over food storage in three separate jars. Test by plating samples from successive jars from each condition at 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
Sources
Youssefian, A., 2003. "How Do Additives Affect the Growth of Microorganisms?" California State Science Fair Abstract [accessed September 20, 2006] http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2003/Projects/J1337.pdf.
The purpose of this project is to determine the effective concentration for anti-microbial food preservatives.
Introduction
The problem of protecting food from spoilage has been with us since prehistoric times. The solutions to this problem have changed with advances in technology and knowledge about what causes food to spoil. This project will focus on retarding microbial growth, which is only one of the causes of food spoilage.
There are many ways that food can be spoiled. For example, oils in food can become oxidized, releasing free fatty acids that cause a bitter, rancid taste. Additionally, natural enzymes that take part in the ripening process of fruits and vegetables can remain active after harvest, causing spoilage. Different chemical preservatives have been developed to counteract each of these different mechanisms: "Preservatives can be categorized into three general types: antimicrobials that inhibit growth of bacteria, yeasts, or molds; antioxidants that slow air oxidation of fats and lipids, which leads to rancidity; and a third type that blocks the natural ripening and enzymatic processes that continue to occur in foodstuffs after harvest." (Dalton, 2002)
In order for an antimicrobial preservative to work, it must be used at the right concentration. Ideally, it will disrupt microbial growth while at the same time preserving most of the nutritional value of the food.
To do this project, you should first do background research on methods of food preservation. Then, select an antimicrobial preservation method to test for your experiment. As an example, this project will test one of the oldest preservation methods by adding different concentrations of salt.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
bacteria,
conditions for bacterial growth,
minimum, maximum, and optimum values for temperature, pH, osmolarity.
preservatives,
food additives,
food preservation.
Questions
What is meant by "effective concentration" for a chemical compound?
What are the effective concentrations for the additives you intend to test?
Bibliography
This article provides a general overview for methods of food preservation:
Brain, M., date unknown. "How Food Preservation Works," HowStuffWorks.com [accessed September 20, 2006] http://home.howstuffworks.com/food-preservation.htm.
These articles provide an introduction to the different types of food preservatives, and what each is used for:
Dalton, L., 2002. "What's That Stuff? Food Preservatives: Antimicrobials, Antioxidants, and Metal Chelators Keep Food Fresh," Chemical & Engineering News, American Chemical Society 80 (45): 40, available online [accessed September 20, 2006] http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/8045/8045sci2.html.
Foulke, J.E., 1998. "A Fresh Look at Food Preservatives," FDA Consumer, U.S. Food and Drug Administration [accessed September 20, 2006] http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdpreser.html.
This webpage has background information on nutritional requirements for bacterial growth. It is from an online textbook of bacteriology, which can be an excellent source of further information on bacteria:
Todar, K., 2002. "Nutrition and Growth of Bacteria," Todar's Online Textbook of Bacteriology, Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison [accessed September 20, 2006] http://textbookofbacteriology.net/nutgro.html.
Materials and Equipment
To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:
4 low-salt chicken boullion cubes,
500 mL hot water,
10 glass jars with lids,
anti-microbial preservative; for example, you could try one of the following:
salt,
sugar,
vinegar,
electronic balance,
masking tape,
marking pen,
40 nutrient agar plates.
Experimental Procedure
Dissolve 2 chicken broth cubes in 500 mL of hot water.
Divide the solution into 10 glass jars (50 mL/jar).
Following the table below, add preservative at 4 different concentrations, and add nothing for the control condition. Make two replicates of each condition (10 jars total). Be sure that the salt you add is fully dissolved. Label Amount Broth (mL) Amount Salt (g)
Control 50 0
#1 2.5% 48.75 1.25
#2 5% 47.5 2.5
#3 10% 45 5.0
#4 20% 40 10
If you use a preservative other than salt, you should do background research to come up with an estimate of the effective concentration. Make the effective concentration your #3 test condition. Condition #'s 1, 2, and 4 should be 1/4, 1/2, and 2 times this concentration, respectively.
Take samples on 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th days, and streak onto agar plates. Use the quadrant streaking method (Inoculation: How to Put the Bacteria You Desire on a Petri Dish) when plating samples.
Be sure to properly label all plates with the test solution and day number.
Tape plates closed, incubate (inverted) overnight, and count bacterial colonies.
Does the number of colonies decrease as concentration of the preservative increases?
Safe Disposal of Plates
At the conclusion of the experiment, all plates should be disinfected for safe disposal.
The best way to dispose of bacterial cultures is to pressure-sterilize (autoclave) them in a heat-stable biohazard bag.
If autoclaves or pressure cookers are not available, an alternative is to bleach the plates.
Wear proper safety equipment (gloves, lab coat, eye protection) when working with the bleach solution; it is corrosive.
Saturate the plates with a 20% household bleach solution (in other words, one part bleach and four parts water).
Allow the plates to soak overnight in the bleach solution before disposing of them.
Please note that the bleach solution is corrosive and needs to be thoroughly rinsed afterwards.
Variations
Compare refrigerated and/or frozen vs. room-temperature broth.
Try additional preservatives. What are their effective concentrations?
Try preservatives with solid food, e.g., salt meat or pickled vegetables. See the Science Buddies project, Minimizing Bacteria in the Thawing and Cooking of Meat for a method of pureeing solid food in order to assess bacterial content. Be sure to establish baseline bacterial content by pureeing samples before treatment with preservatives.
Compare starting sterile vs. not. If you have a pressure cooker, here is an experiment you can try. Follow canning procedures for three jars. For the other three, use normal conditions for cooking and left-over food storage in three separate jars. Test by plating samples from successive jars from each condition at 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks.
For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Microbiology Project Ideas.
Credits
Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
Sources
Youssefian, A., 2003. "How Do Additives Affect the Growth of Microorganisms?" California State Science Fair Abstract [accessed September 20, 2006] http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2003/Projects/J1337.pdf.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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