the 5:05 post

in this website http://ezinearticles.com/?Bread-Mold-Science-Fair-Projects-Ideas&id=308382
it says "Mold commonly grows on bread faster in warm, dark, moist conditions. However, mold can grow in light, and some molds can even grow on frozen foods. Molds grow in varying conditions, at varying speeds, in every color you can think of."

That is pretty cool that you can have mold in any colour you want like it can be a RAINBOW :D

so i was thinking for my experiment i cant really find a place that is warm constantly but i can put it into a dark place. My house is considerably moist so i hope my mould will grow.

the 4:59 post literally

okays just got home and ran in the door to turn on my computer and i have just made it on time.
i just want to add that in the similar experiment done by someone else, she saw a change and mold started to grow in 27 days so i am going to let my mold grow for 27 days and record my last results then.

Aim, Hypothesis, Material, Method

Aim: to investigate how much longer it takes bread with preservatives to grow mold than it bread without preservatives

Hypothesis: the bread without the preservatives will grow the mold the fastest.

Materials:

• 2 bread loaves- with preservatives and without
• cotton swab
• dropper
• zip lock bags
• gloves
• knife
• low tray
  

Method:

1. Buy the same type of bread with and without preservatives of the same brand.
2. Cut 10 slices of 10x10x2 cm of bread from the center of the bread loaf without preservatives.
3. place 5 cuts of the non preservative bread in sealed, labelled zip lock bags
4. Get a cotton swab and collect some dust and swab on each slice of bread and then add 5 droplets of water, using a dropper, to each slice of non preservative bread
5. do this to 5 slices and place in sealed, labelled zip lick bags.
6. Check every day at approx. the same time and record observations and results if any.
7. Place all samples in zip lock bags in a low tray away from the light.
   
8. Repeat steps 3-7 with bread that contains preservatives.
9. Repeat experiment with a new batch of breads.

MOLD- isn't it colourful

according to this site: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/bread-mold-growth.html
"Dust that was put on the bread carried spores to the bread which led to the bread mold growth on it." and they also put droplets of water on each slice of bread as mold grows best in moist conditions.
i was thinking i could combine this as part of my experiment to quicken up the process of the mold growth.

i found that this experiment has already been done as a science fair project and i'm going to use this as a reference for my experiment;
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2006/Projects/J1305.pdf
but of course my one will be different :D

the decision

i have decided to do (with the help of my fellow classmate Mary and some research) How Much Longer Does It Take Bread with Preservatives to Grow Mold Than It Takes Bread without Preservatives?

The variables are:

• independent variable- the type of bread used (with and without preservatives)
• dependent variable- the time and how much mold grew
• controlled variable- the size of bread used -the storage of the bread slices -the environment where the bread are placed -results to be taken at the same time -the amount if light (heat) they reaceive
  

i think i can also create a valid and conclusive result from this

CHANGE

i think i am going to change my experiment because i don't think i will have time to do my reaction time experiment. The only time i can conduct the experiment is at lunch and as many people know during lunch i am very busy.

i was talking to my mum the other night how if i should change my experiment and she asked me why i didn't do an experiment on bread as she owns a bakery. So i followed her advice and looked for experiments relating to bread. The only thing i could find using bread is something to do with mold and i think that looks do-able and interesting.
The 2 topics that caught my eye was
How Much Longer Does It Take Bread with Preservatives to Grow Mold Than It Takes Bread without Preservatives?
and
Does temperature affect the growth of mold?

I'm going to do some research and come up with a decision..

CLIMATE GRAPH

I DID IT FINALLY!! i tried everything from excel to photoshop and in the end i gave up and went back to good old paint and it was so much easier.

Reaction Time

i have decided that i will use the ruler test to test the reaction time as i read through the online reaction time tester (the site i posted before http://getyourwebsitehere.com/jswb/rttest01.html) and it says its not accurate and its not a scientific tool:

i researched a bit on reaction time and according to this site http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_p009.shtml

"Reaction time is the time that elapses between a sensory stimulus and the response to that stimulus. Thus, it is a measure of the total time necessary for a chain of internal events:

• the stimulus activates one or more sensory receptors,
• the receptor(s) send a signal to the central nervous system (CNS),
• the CNS processes the incoming signal and elicits a neural response,
• which must then travel to the appropriate muscles in order to generate the physical response.

"Under optimal conditions of attention, we can respond to a sensory stimulus in 120 to 150 ms." (Ghez, 1991) The shorter time (120 ms) is for proprioceptive or auditory stimuli. (Proprioceptive stimuli result from mechanical displacement of the muscles or joints. An example is when your doctor taps your knee to test your reflexes. Your doctor is checking your reaction time.) The longer time (150 ms) is for visual stimuli, due to additional synapses in the retina. Reaction time will be even longer if we need to decide between several alternative choices of response (Ghez, 1991). "

i did some research on the different methods of the ruler drop experiment to test reaction time and came up with one my self:
1. the sitter should be seated with her arm resting on the table with just the hand over the table.
2. The top of the 1m ruler is held between the outstretched thumb and index finger.
3.. the bottom of the ruler is dangling in between the testers thumb and index finger.
4. the tester is to keep watch the top of the ruler
5. When the ruler is dropped the tester is to grab the ruler as fast as possible
6. Measure and record the reaults
7. Analyse resluts (i.e. conver to m/s using the formula d = vt + ½at² where; d = distance in metres, v = initial velocity = 0, a = acceleration due to gravity = 9.81m/s², t = time in seconds)
8. Repeat steps 1-7 three times and calculate the average for each.