bread mold experiment introduction

Bread Mold Experiment

Categories STEM Activities

We love classic science fair projects, which is why we have always wanted to try the classic bread mold experiment.

Although not as flashy as some of our other classic science fair projects, it was probably more educational than some others.

The students enjoyed seeing how long it took for mold to grow on various forms of bread. There is something really magical about those classic science experiments that have been done for generations! It’s fun to see each new generation learn something new each time they do the experiment.

Classic Bread Mold Experiment for Kids!

Follow along with these instructions to make your own version of the bread mould experiment!

Bread Mold Experiment Hypothesis Ideas

Kids should come up with their own hypothesis for the mold experiment. Have the children create a hypothesis something like this:

• Bread with preservatives will take longer to mold
• Bread in a sunny location will take longer to mold
• Warm bread will mold faster
• Wet bread will mold faster
• Bread will mold faster in the open air than in a plastic bag

Our experiment was simple. We placed bread in various conditions (we had dry dark, dry light, wet, open, and in a closed bag) and Monkey came up with a hypothesis for which piece of bread would mold first.

She predicted it would be the bread we placed in the paper bag in the pantry.

Mold Facts for Science Projects

When doing your bread mold science fair project, here are some fun mold facts for kids to include:

• Mold is a type of fungus.
• Mold grows in the shape or multicellular filaments called hyphae.
• Mold grows from spores that float in the air.
• There are thousands of types of mold, some good and some bad.
• A lot of cheese and antibiotics are created with a mold as a base.
• Mold is usually fuzzy.
• Mold is considered a single organism.

Bread Mold Experiment Materials

• Bread (fresh bread from a bakery will produce much faster results than bread with preservatives)
• Various bags
• A permanent marker to label each piece of bread

What You Need for a Science Fair

You’ll want to have these supplies on hand before doing your science fair project. Shop the included Amazon storefronts to make things easier and don’t forget to download the free science fair planning checklist before getting started!

Science Fair Project Planning

When you’re planning your project, you want to keep everything organized. Click the image below to get my free science fair project checklist so you can start organizing your project from the start.

You may also want to check out this list of science fair project research supplies.

Supplies for a Science Fair Project

There are so many supplies for science fair projects that are individual to each project, but if you want a general list of possible supplies and inspiration for your project, check out my selection of science fair experiment supplies on Amazon.

Supplies for a Science Fair Presentation

Your science fair presentation is important! It should look presentable and eye-catching. Check out this list of my favorite science fair presentation supplies.

Bread Mold Science Fair Project Directions

Divide your bread into as many pieces as you want to test. We used around five pieces.

We only put water on one of our bread pieces, but for the best “scientific” results, you should put water on one piece in a dark place and one in a light place.

In all, we had:

• Bread in a plastic bag in the light
• Bread in a plastic bag in the dark
• Bread in a paper bag in the dark
• Bread on a paper plate with no bag
• Wet bread in a plastic bag

My kids thought the dry bread in the paper bag would mold first.

You can take this project further by measuring how much mold is on each piece of bread after a certain number of days.

We just wanted to see which bread piece would mold first, so we did not do any mold measuring.

Bread Mould Experiment Results

It took about two days for the first mold to show up- which was on the wet piece.

We waited weeks for any mold to show up on any of the other pieces, but it didn’t. This is why we recommend using fresh bread without preservatives.

We finally gave up on waiting for any more mold to grow and threw it out.

The kids were surprised that the wet bread grew mold first, but she thought it was interesting that mold grows faster in damp, warm conditions.

More Science Fair Projects for Kids

20+ Science Fair Projects with LEGOs that are Educational and Fun

Super Fun and Easy Crystal Science Fair Projects

Science Fair Projects for Active Kids Who Need to Move

Science fair projects for kids

Share this project with a friend!

Science Project Ideas

Bread Mold Experiment

This biology experiment requires you to gather some background information before starting with the research. Once you know what the organisms called molds are, understanding the activity would be easy.

How to Do Mold Bread Experiment

A piece of bread kept under moisture and high temperature develops mold on its surface.

Materials Needed

• Slice of bread
• Plastic zipper bag
• Masking tape
• Camera (optional)
• Sprinkle water on the slice of bread.
• Put the bread in the plastic bag and zip it.
• Use the tape to secure it further.
• Write today’s date on the tape with the marker.
• Leave the bag undisturbed for 7 days in a warm place outside the house.
• Track the growth of the mold by checking the sample every day. Collect data in the notebook on the size and color of the colony. You can also take a photograph of the bread each day.
• In the end, throw away the bag with the moldy bread without consumption or inhalation near it.

You Can Also Try Out

• Instead of just 1 slice, take 3 slices of bread and mark them as A, B and C with the marker on the masking tape. Repeat the process by placing one in the refrigerator, one in a dark room and the last one in a sunny place. Observe and analyze the rate of mold growth under the different conditions of temperature and light.
• Check the results by keeping one of the variables like temperature constant for the 3 samples mentioned above but altering the type of bread in the different samples.
• Instead of adding moisture to the 3 slices as indicated in the steps above add different amounts of lemon juice or sugar to the slices. How does that affect the molding on the bread? What happens if you add salt?

For accurate measurements, you can take the help of a plastic grid to check how many squares or cm of it gets covered by the mold. While creating the lab report for your science experiment you can plot that data along the Y-axis and the no. of days along the X-axis on a graph paper.

Mold on Bread Project Video

What is happening a conclusion.

Mold is a fungus that best grows in dark, moist and warm conditions. It feeds on organic matter like bread while decomposing the same. Hence it is harmful to consume the moldy bread or even inhale the smell as mold spores could enter the body in that way. Adding salt inhibits the development whereas sugar enhances the method. Types of bread with high moisture content like rye, oat, Boston and other dark breads mold faster than the drier and denser varieties.

Some Interesting Facts

Many food industries depend on molds to produce food materials like soy sauce, country cured ham, certain types of cheese, etc. They need to know the favorable conditions for fast culture. On the other hand, there are other food industries that take measures to preserve the produce from molds. They utilize the knowledge of the unfavorable situations of infestation.

If you are planning to demonstrate molds growing on bread at a science fair, it is best to perform the experiment beforehand and exhibit the resulting samples for all to see with due explanation of the method adopted.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to footer

Science Struck

A Simple Experiment to Grow and Study Bread Mold

Bread mold experiment is a fun science project, where one can observe the growth of a live organism on household bread! Here is a detailed guide that will help you in conducting this experiment.

Like it? Share it!

Many people tend to find mold growing on bread disgusting. But, did you know that mold is also one of nature’s cleansers , that breaks down dead organic materials and recycles these nutrients back to the soil, which makes it essential for the ecosystem?

Mold is a type of fungi, which grows on any plant or animal material. Mushrooms and toadstools are a type of fungi. Mold grows on food and other organic matter, and thus, breaks it down into slime by which it extracts nutrient for its growth. This is many times studied in school with a simple experiment.

Bread Mold Project

To study the growth of mold on bread samples every alternate day, for a course of 2 weeks.

If you are allergic to mold, then avoid performing this experiment or use mask and gloves for safety. Seek permission from your parents and teacher before you start with the experiment. Also, after you are done noting down the results of the experiment, dispose off the bags containing moldy bread safely, without opening them.

Here is a list of materials you will need to perform the experiment.

• 5 slices of bread
• 5 transparent sealable bags
• Sticky labels
• Magnifying glass
• 5 – 7 cotton swabs
• A tablespoon
• Lemon juice/water/apple juice/salt/sugar (at least two of these items are required)

Growing mold can be a simple experiment, and performed on a slice of bread. However, to make it interesting and more detailed you can work on 5 samples of breads rather than just one. So, gather the above equipment and follow the below steps.

• Take the cotton swabs and run them over areas which have dust, like under a table, bed, or basement.
• Then rub the dust from cotton swab over the first bread slice.
• Repeat steps 2 for the other four bread slices.
• Seal three bread slices inside three transparent sealable bags.
• Put sticker on the three bags, and write down using a marker on them.
• On the first sticker write “Sample #1 – Dark Closet”; on second write “Sample #2 – Refrigerator”, and on the third write “Sample #3 – Under Light”.
• So, keep the first sample in a dark closet, second in a corner of the refrigerator where it doesn’t gets disturbed, and the third one in an area of the house which is most of the time brightly lit.
• Now, take the remaining two samples. Before you seal them in the bags and mark them with sticker add one of the above mentioned five items to them. For example, on the fourth bread sample you can add some salt, while on the fifth you can add 2 tablespoons of water. Keep these two sample in a place where they don’t get disturbed.

Observations

Wear mask and gloves whenever observing the bread mold samples. Make sure you observe the five bread samples every alternate day at a fixed time of the day, say 2 pm. It is important that you observe them every alternate day without fail, and note down your observations in a table. You can note down their physical appearance like color, shape, amount of growth per day, texture, etc. Another column of your table can be observations of the mold under the magnifying glass. If you want, you can take videos or pictures of the mold every alternate day. This will help in concluding your experiment.

If you are performing this experiment at home, then you might not have access to a microscope. However, when this experiment is performed in school many times the students are asked to observe the mold under a microscope. Note down, the appearance of the mold under the microscope, this can form a part of the observation. Usually, one sees thread like structures on top of which there is a circular shape. Here is a diagram of bread mold in detail.

You will observe different conclusions for different samples. The mold which was kept in a warm, dark, and moist condition will grow the best. However, the sample that was in the refrigerator will have a slower growth. Also, substances like salt tend to slow down the growth of bread mold. Conclusion is an important part of the experiment, so make sure you read your observations carefully before you put down the appropriate conclusion of the project. Here are pictures of mold growth on different types of breads.

Further Experimentation

Once you have tried out this experiment, you can try out further experiments using different materials. You can try growing mold on different types of breads, while maintaining the same temperature. You could also try adding more moisture to the slices of the bread, or use different amounts of lemon juice and sugar on the slices. This way you can vary one element, and note down various observations of the mold growth. So, select a hypothesis and using the appropriate materials perform the experiment again. You can also consider growing mold on soft fruits. Here are pictures of mold growing on a lemon, few strawberries, and a tangerine.

Interesting Mold Facts

The above experiment will help to study bread mold in detail. Here are some fun facts about mold that will add to your knowledge.

Mold is used by various companies to make food and medicine.

Did you know that mold is added to flavor certain cheeses? You can observe blue-gray veins on a piece of blue cheese, which appear due to the mold added to it.

Lichens are formed due to an awesome partnership between fungi and algae.

There are over 10,000 species of mold!

Did you know that outdoors, mold is almost everywhere?

To prevent mold from growing on foodstuffs, the food industry spends a lot of money on refrigeration.

I hop you enjoyed reading the above facts on mold. So, gather the equipment necessary for the experiment, perform the experiment, note down the observations every alternate day, and draw the appropriate conclusion. Good luck!

Get Updates Right to Your Inbox

Privacy overview.

• Foundations
• Write Paper

Search form

• Experiments
• Anthropology
• Self-Esteem
• Social Anxiety

• Kids' Science Projects >

Mold Bread Experiment

What makes mold grow.

We are going to perform a mold bread experiment to grow our own mold and find out whether mold does indeed grow faster at higher temperatures.

This article is a part of the guide:

• Kids' Science Projects
• Paper Towel
• Salt Water Egg
• Fruit Battery

Browse Full Outline

• 1 Kids' Science Projects
• 2 How to Conduct Science Experiments
• 3.1 Mold Bread
• 3.2 Popcorn
• 3.3 Salt Water Egg
• 3.4 Corrosiveness of Soda
• 3.5 Egg in a Bottle
• 3.6 Fruit Battery
• 4.1 Pendulum
• 4.2 Paper Towel
• 4.3 Paper Airplane
• 4.4 Charge a Light Bulb
• 4.5 Lifting Ice Cube
• 4.6 Magic Egg
• 4.7 Magic Jumping Coin
• 4.8 Invisible Ink
• 4.9 Making-a-Rainbow
• 4.10 Oil Spill
• 4.11 Balloon Rocket Car
• 4.12 Build an Electromagnet
• 4.13 Create a Heat Detector
• 4.14 Creating a Volcano
• 4.15 Home-Made Glue
• 4.16 Home-Made Stethoscope
• 4.17 Magic Balloon
• 4.18 Make a Matchbox Guitar
• 4.19 Make Your Own Slime
• 5.1 Heron’s Aeolipile
• 5.2 Make an Archimedes Screw
• 5.3 Build an Astrolabe
• 5.4 Archimedes Displacement
• 5.5 Make Heron’s Fountain
• 5.6 Create a Sundial

In ten days you will be able to answer this important question and make a contribution to science!

But what is mold? What makes it grow?

What is Mold?

Mold is something that we often take for granted, as something that makes us have to throw the bread away or the cheese smell bad.

Mold is, in fact, a fascinating organism which has had many different uses over the years and our lives would not be the same without it.

Most of us know that food seems to become moldy more quickly in the summer than in the winter when it is colder. Food in refrigerators seems to keep longer than food left out in the sun. Is this true? Does temperature really affect the rate at which mold grows?

Important Note

Please note that some people are allergic to mold; ask your doctor or parents. If this is the case, do not pick the Mold Bread Experiment. Always wear gloves and a mask, wash your hands, and don’t eat or drink whilst you are performing this study.

Performing the Mold Bread Experiment

In the Mold Bread Experiment we are trying to prove that;

"Mold grows quicker at higher temperatures."( Hypothesis )

What You Need for the Mold Bread Experiment

• 15 slices of bread. Any sort will do but it is perfectly fine to use cheap white sliced bread as then you will know that all of the slices are a similar size, weight and thickness. You must make a note of the brand and use-by date so that anybody else wanting to repeat the Mold Bread Experiment can use the same type.
• 15 sealable sandwich bags
• 1 piece of film or clear plastic with a 10x10cm grid drawn onto it
• Clean knife
• Chopping board
• Sticky labels
• Mold Spores - if you can’t get these from your school don’t worry. There are mold spores all around us in the air which will eventually grow on the bread but your experiment will take longer.
• Using the sticky labels and the marker pen label the bags. Mark 5 bags as ‘A’, 5 as ‘B’ and 5 as ‘C’. You also need to label each set of bags 1 to 5.
• Cut the bread into 10 x 10 squares using the chopping board and knife.
• Inoculate the bread thoroughly with the mold solution. Try to coat each slice with a similar amount of the culture although this can be difficult.
• Put one slice of this bread into each bag and seal the bags tightly.
• Put the 5 ‘A’ bags into the freezer, the 5 ‘B’ bags into the refrigerator and the 5 ‘C’ bags somewhere safe in a warm room. Because the bags in the freezer and fridge will not be getting much light it is best to cover the ‘C’ bags to make sure that light is a constant.
• Every 24 hours, preferably at exactly the same time every day, using the plastic grid, count the number of square centimeters of mold on each slice of bread. If the mold covers more than half a square, count it as 1cm, if less than half a square, count as 0 cm. You must never open the bags.
• You should repeat these counting processes for 10 days or until there are significant measurable results .
• Keep a careful note of your results for each slice of bread for the entire duration of the experiment. You can even take pictures or draw the slices if you want to be really scientific!
• Average the results for sample types A, B and C.
• Once you have finished, throw out all of the bags without opening them.

Because each square of bread is 100 cm2, you can express your results as a percentage. For each of the bread types, A, B or C average the amount of mold grown over the ten days and write these figures into a table.

You can then plot this information onto a graph and begin to explore your results. You can plot the amount of mold on each bread sample and compare it to the number of days, like in the diagram below. This can be done with a sheet of graph paper and colored pens or on a computer.

Is the Graph Correct?

Could you replicate the graph below or is your graph different? We have done this, but will not give you our answer, so you can test for yourself!

Why are the Results Important?

The food industry spends millions of dollars every year on refrigeration and it is very important that they know what temperature they need to stop mold from growing. Moldy food must be thrown away and this costs restaurants and manufacturers a lot of money.

For companies using mold to make food or medicine they need to know at which temperature mold grows best. The faster the mold grows, the quicker they can sell their product and make money.

Further Experiments

Now that you have finished and obtained some results, maybe you want to see if other variables affect the rate at which mold grows. Maybe you could keep the temperature the same for all of the samples but use different types of bread.

You could try adding moisture to the slices or putting different amounts of sugar or lemon juice onto the slices. As long as you only vary one thing at a time, you can make some interesting studies about mold.

Temperature is not the only thing that affects the rate of mold growth so feel free to try and find out more about this interesting organism.

Facts About Mold

• Mold is not a plant but a fungus like mushrooms and toadstools. It grows on food and other organic matter, breaking it down into slime and extracting nutrients for growth.
• Alexander Fleming discovered that a common type of mold fungi kills germs. From this, he made a medicine called penicillin which has saved millions of lives over the last 80 years. Many other life-saving drugs are made from chemicals obtained from mold.
• Mold is one of nature’s cleaners. It breaks down dead organic material and recycles the nutrients back into the soil. It is essential in nearly every ecosystem in the world.
• We use molds for flavor in some foods such as blue cheese, soy sauce and Quorn (TM) .
• Psychology 101
• Flags and Countries
• Capitals and Countries

Martyn Shuttleworth (Nov 24, 2008). Mold Bread Experiment. Retrieved Aug 18, 2024 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/mold-bread-experiment

You Are Allowed To Copy The Text

The text in this article is licensed under the Creative Commons-License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) .

This means you're free to copy, share and adapt any parts (or all) of the text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this page.

That is it. You don't need our permission to copy the article; just include a link/reference back to this page. You can use it freely (with some kind of link), and we're also okay with people reprinting in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, course-material, papers, wikipedia and presentations (with clear attribution).

Related articles

Paper Towel Experiment

Paper Airplane Experiment

Pendulum Experiment

Experiments with Popcorn

Want to stay up to date? Follow us!

Get all these articles in 1 guide.

Want the full version to study at home, take to school or just scribble on?

Whether you are an academic novice, or you simply want to brush up your skills, this book will take your academic writing skills to the next level.

Download electronic versions: - Epub for mobiles and tablets - For Kindle here - PDF version here

Save this course for later

Don't have time for it all now? No problem, save it as a course and come back to it later.

Footer bottom

• Privacy Policy

• Subscribe to our RSS Feed
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter

Get Your ALL ACCESS Shop Pass here →

Bread Mold Experiment

Ever ended up with a loaf of moldy bread at home? It’s not something you want to eat! Instead, grow mold on bread for science, and investigate how moisture, temperature, and air affect mold growth. A fun and easy way to observe the mold life cycle for a hands-on biology experiment for kids .

Bread Mold Experiment Variations

Extend the learning by varying your experiment:

Remember only to change one variable for each experiment!

• Add the same amount of water to different types of bread.
• Place the same type of bread in light or dark conditions.
• Use the same type of bread and vary the amount of water on each.
• Place the same type of bread in a warm area and one in a cold area. Use a thermometer to work out the temperature.
• Place the same type of bread in a bag and one directly exposed to air.

Why not use extra slices of bread and set up this germ science experiment !

• 2 slices of bread

Instructions:

STEP 1: Label the plastic bags to identify each slice.

TIP: Don’t forget to make one or two predictions before you start. What do you think will happen to each slice?

STEP 2: Add 10 drops of water to one slice and seal.

STEP 3: Now add a dry piece of bread to the second bag.

STEP 4: Place the slices in a warm, dark place if possible. Observe and record.

Tip: Make observations every 2nd day over the course of 2 weeks depending on how fast the mold is growing.

Which piece of bread had the most mold on it? Make sure to read the science of mold to find out why.

The Science of Mold

Explores the fascinating world of fungi, like Rhizopus stolonifer, that often grow on bread with simple bread mold experiments. These tiny organisms love damp places so bread, with its moisture, is like a paradise.

Mold spores, everywhere in the air, land on the bread. When it’s warm, and there’s enough air and moisture, these spores grow into visible mold.

They grow quickly using special substances that break down the bread’s sugars. The fuzzy stuff you see on moldy bread is made of tiny threads called hyphae, which join together to form a network called mycelium. This helps the mold take in food from the bread.

Understanding bread mold helps us to see how fungi grows and shows how important conditions like warmth, air, and moisture are for these microorganisms to spread.

Turn It Into A Bread Mold Science Fair Project

Science projects are an excellent tool for older kiddos to show what they know about science! Plus, they can be used in all sorts of environments including classrooms, homeschool, and groups.

Kids can take everything they have learned about using the scientific method , stating a hypothesis, choosing variables , making observations and analyzing and presenting data.

Want to turn this experiment into an awesome science fair project? Check out these helpful resources.

• Science Project Tips From A Teacher
• Science Fair Board Ideas
• Easy Science Fair Projects

Free Printable Science Journal Worksheets

Create a science notebook with these easy-to-use science worksheets to accompany any experiment. Grab your free science process journal pack !

More Fun Biology Science Experiments To Try

• Investigate seed germination with a seed jar .
• Set up a mini-greenhouse .
• Make a model of your heart or of your lungs .
• Learn with animal cell and plant cell coloring sheets .
• Try this easy strawberry DNA lab.
• Set up a germ experiment.
• Explore the life cycles of various animals and plants .
• Candy DNA and coloring sheet.

Helpful Science Resources

Here are a few resources that will help you introduce science more effectively to your kiddos or students. Then you can feel confident yourself when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

• Best Science Practices (as it relates to the scientific method)
• Science Vocabulary
• 8 Science Books for Kids
• All About Scientists
• Science Supplies List
• Science Tools for Kids
• Join us in the Club

Printable Science Projects For Kids

If you’re looking to grab all of our printable science projects in one convenient place plus exclusive worksheets and bonuses like a STEAM Project pack, our Science Project Pack is what you need! Over 300+ Pages!

• 90+ classic science activities  with journal pages, supply lists, set up and process, and science information.  NEW! Activity-specific observation pages!
• Best science practices posters  and our original science method process folders for extra alternatives!
• Be a Collector activities pack  introduces kids to the world of making collections through the eyes of a scientist. What will they collect first?
• Know the Words Science vocabulary pack  includes flashcards, crosswords, and word searches that illuminate keywords in the experiments!
• My science journal writing prompts  explore what it means to be a scientist!!
• Bonus STEAM Project Pack:  Art meets science with doable projects!
• Bonus Quick Grab Packs for Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry, and Physics

Subscribe to receive a free 5-Day STEM Challenge Guide

~ projects to try now ~.

This dialog contains the full navigation menu for this site.

Science Story Time Experiment: Bread and Mold - Video #51121

Participate in Penn State Behrend's popular Science Story Time —from home! This experiment will help children learn about germs, mold, and cleanliness.

All Science Fair Projects

1000 science fair projects with complete instructions.

Bread Mold: The Experiment

Science fair project description.

Bread mold will grow more quikcly in warm and damp environments.

Bread Mold If a slice of bread were to be left exposed for a few days, ligh- colored patchy or furry growths will be observed on its surface. This growth is called bread mold. Bread mold is actually a kind of fungus. Bread mold spores that are suspended in the air will eventually reach the surface of the bread. Once the spore lands on the bread surface, it will start to consume nutrients and moisture in the bread resulting in growth. The spores of the fungi that grow on the bread are quite commonly found in our surroundings. There are several types of spores and they exist in different colors and shapes. This is why bread spoils very quickly. Some of the common types of fungi that grow on bread are Penicillium, Fusarium, Rhizopus, Aspergillus and Monasus. Once the mold starts to grow on the bread, it should not be eaten. The roots of the mold will grow very deep into the bread and they will grow again even if the mold is scrapped off. The only way to prevent the bread from spoiling for a longer period of time, is to prevent the mold from growing on the bread surface in the first place. That's why refrigerating your bread is a good idea, in order to prevent the bread from getting moldy too quickly.

Scientific Terms

The materials required for this science fair project: - 5 slices of bread - Some water - An airtight plastic bag - A refrigerator - A magnifying glass

1. For this science fair project, the independent variable is the environment in which the slices of bread are kept. The dependent variable is the rate of growth of bread mold. This is determined by inspecting the bread with a magnifying glass. The constants (control variables) are the room temperature, the age of the bread and the handling of the bread. 2. The 5 slices of bread are prepared as follows: a. a few drops of water  are placed on the first  slice of bread and it is kept in a dark and damp place, b. the second slice of bread is kept unattended under normal room conditions, c. the third slice of bread is kept under the hot sun, d. the fourth slice of bread is kept inside an air tight plastic bag, e. the fifth slice of bread  is kept in a refrigerator. 3. The bread slices are observed daily to ascertain if there  are any signs of mold growing. The results are recorded in the table below.

It is observed that the first slice of bread with a few drops of water and which was kept in the dark place, was the first to exhibit signs of mold. The fifth bread slice that was kept in the refrigerator, took the longest for the mold to appear.

The hypothesis that  bread mold will grow more quickly in warm and damp environments is proven to be true. Mold will grow quickly on bread in humid and warm conditions. Bread should be kept in dark, dry and cool places for it to last longer. Bread can also last longer if stored in the fridge or in airtight containers. Adding a small amount of edible chemicals like acetic acid or prop-ionic acid to the bread will also help to preserve it longer.  Mold is a nuisance when it comes to storing food, but it has its usefulness too. Molds help in the decomposing of decaying animals and plants. Penicillium is used produce medication. 

Also consider

This science fair project may be repeated, this time, by baking the bread at high temperatures again before starting the science fair project? Modify the science project experiment,  using different types of food like biscuits or cooked rice.

Bread mold - http://ezinearticles.com/?Bread-Mold&id=405845 Bread storage to prevent spoilage - http://www.ehow.com/way_5746731_bread-storage-prevent-spoilage.html

Related video

Related Science Fair Project Ideas

Moldy Bread Science Experiment Is a Gross Reminder of How Many Germs Are on Our Hands

Have you ever wondered how many germs are lurking on your laptop? Or what happens when you don’t wash your hands? Educators Jaralee Metcalf and Dayna Robertson conducted an experiment, found through the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital website, that will open your eyes to just how much bacteria is on your hands and devices if left uncleaned.

The experiment uses sliced bread to illustrate the accumulation of germs, and the teachers used five pieces to each represent a different phase of cleanliness. One slice (the control) was left untouched. The other pieces were handled by all of the students in the following states: with unwashed hands, hands cleaned with a sanitizer, and hands washed with warm water and soap. In addition, a piece of bread was rubbed on all of their classroom laptops. They then left the bread alone for a few days to watch how the slices reacted.

The results of the experiment will remind you that you should always wash your hands. Aside from the control piece, the soap and water slice was the only piece of bread that had no mold on it. Even hand sanitizer, which we might think as a substitute for hand washing, showed evidence of mold. But the most disgusting outcomes—by far—were the bread slices touched by unwashed hands and wiped on the computers. The unwashed hands had yellowish mold spread across its surface with some green patches starting to show. The laptop slice was even worse and had turned almost completely green.

Metcalf and Robertson’s moldy bread exercise was documented in a series of photos and they now serve as a powerful classroom tool to remind their students to always wash their hands. And in Metcalf’s now-viral Facebook post , it is reminding people from around the world to do the same.

Educators Jaralee Metcalf and Dayna Robertson conducted a moldy bread science experiment that is a powerful reminder for you to  always wash your hands.

The teachers and their students each touched four slices of bread in different states of cleanliness. One piece of bread was untouched and was the control for the experiment.

The bread touched with hands cleaned with soap and warm water didn't have any mold, but the other slices…

… were gross! Especially the piece that had been rubbed on classroom computers.

Jaralee Metcalf: Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Jaralee Metcalf.

Related articles:.

This Teen Invented an Ingenious Solution to Eliminating Blind Spots in Cars

Miss Virginia Breaks Stereotypes by Performing a Science Experiment as Her Talent

Felted Fungus Art “Growing” in Petri Dishes Shows the Unexpectedly Cute Side of Mold

Get Our Weekly Newsletter

Learn from top artists.

Related Articles

Sponsored Content

More on my modern met.

My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.

• Photography
• Architecture
• Environment

RAISING BRAIN

Secular Learning Enrichment Center & Microschool 

Dirty hands bread experiment.

This was a really neat experiment to do to learn about germs and how they spread! It was really interesting and GROSS at the same time! If you have little ones that hate washing their hands, this experiment is a great visual aid as to why it is important!

Here is what you will need:

Start with three pieces of bread – one will be the control , one will collect unseen stuff (bacteria, viruses, mold spores) from dirty hands, and one will collect that stuff from clean hands. For this experiment, we picked bakery fresh bread that had no preservatives, which would slow down the mold formation.

Did you say mold? That’s right. Throughout this experiment, we will be growing mold spores on each piece of bread. While mold spores aren’t a virus or bacteria (they’re actually fungi!), they are what we use in this experiment to show us just how dirty our hands can become throughout the day. According to the CDC, mold is everywhere , even in the air and on common area surfaces. Remember, illness causing bacteria and viruses are also found on common surfaces that we touch throughout the day, so by the end of this experiment, we’ll be able to see just how much gross particles are on dirty and clean hands. Now, let’s get back to the experiment!

The first piece of bread will be your control, which you’ll place in a sandwich bag using plastic gloves later on in the experiment. If you've forgotten a few things from science class, a control is something that is used as a standard comparison to check the results of the experiment. In this case, we want to see the pace and types of mold that grow on a piece of bread that was not exposed to skin contact as compared to the other pieces of bread that were touched with clean and dirty hands.

The next piece of bread will be the one you touch with dirty hands. Make sure to not wash your hands for a few hours before you touch this piece of bread – and by all means, touch the bread all over with your hands. We went a little further by touching things we thought would have the most germs, trash cans, door knobs, toilet, and sinks!

The last piece of bread will be the one you touch after you have thoroughly washed your hands.

Before placing each piece of bread in its own sandwich bag, spritz the bread with water from a misting bottle. If you remember from your high school science classes, mold needs water to grow and cannot survive without a source of water. In addition to water and moisture, warm temperatures, oxygen, and particular pH levels also create a favorable environment for mold growth. Once each slice is spritzed with water and placed in their bag, seal the bags tightly and label each piece accordingly.

Now for the best part, we wait. If you’re following along at home, take pictures now to mark Day One of your experiment.

For this experiment, we recommend checking in on your pieces of bread every other day for more apparent results. When Day Three came around, we had yet to notice any visible growth. Day Five was a different story.

By the time day ten rolled around, we noticed mold growing on the dirty hands sample. We used white bread, which was probably why it wasn't a huge amount of mold as compared to the original experiment (the bleaching process during baking make it a little more difficult for germs / mold to thrive. )

We also used a "Germ Mapping" and "My predictions" journal worksheet to really explore germs, open discussion and record our hypothesis, and results.

Here is a great video we watched by Scishow Kids on youtube:

In the end, we have a much better appreciation for hand washing :) This is a perfect back to school activity!

Reference link: https://www.medexpress.com/blog/better-health/why-you-need-to-wash-your-hands.html

Featured Posts

What Mixed Age Learning Looks Like at Raising Brain

Activities for Teaching about Leaves

Recent Posts

Fun Multiplication Math Game!

Discovering Magic in Nature: A Day at Rappahannock Nature Camp's Open House

Garden Unit Study - Project Based Learning Curriculum with Resources

Colorful Discoveries: Empowering Children Through Artistic Freedom

Inviting Spaces - How Our Environment Can Influence Learning

Speak Less, Solve More: The 5 Word Secret to Effective Communication and Problem Solving

Alien Teacher Escape Room Setup and Puzzles

Punny Science - Biology - Anatomy - Printable Valentine's Day Cards

Our Favorite Podcasts for Kids

• The Open University
• Accessibility hub
• Guest user / Sign out
• Study with The Open University

My OpenLearn Profile

Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning

About this free course

Become an ou student, download this course, share this free course.

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

2 Your bread mold experiment and yeast

How did you get on with your bread experiment from Week 2 [ Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. ( Hide tip ) ] ? Did you take some photographs over the days which showed the growth of mold?

In case you were unable to do it, we also carried out this experiment. Watch Video 2, which shows how a loaf of bread changes over several days.

You can see that, as the mold starts to grow and spread, bubbles of gas and liquid form in the plastic bag containing the bread. This plastic bag then starts to collapse in on the loaf of bread.

In Section 1, you met the term fungi (singular: fungus). Fungi are carried in the air as spores . When these spores land on bread, they germinate and start to grow as a fungus.

What does this fungus need to grow?

It needs a food source (the bread) and an environment containing moisture. Humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air, so it’s now definitely worth watching the weather forecasts!

What happened to your bread? Why does it change? Would you have believed that the environments you chose had moisture in the air? But why does the bread change?

It goes through a chemical change. The mold ‘eats’ the sugar, water and minerals in the bread. At the same time, another chemical change takes place: the bread is decomposing. As a result of both of these changes, gases are emitted and heat is produced.

In Week 2, you saw how research in a microgravity environment is key to establishing how space can affect astronauts’ health. Are you wondering how your bread experiment and fungi are relevant to a microgravity environment? Well, in your experiment, you saw how mold is gradually created over a period of time. In space, it has been found that yeast cells, from bread, grow much more quickly than on Earth. But why is yeast a good organism for research in a microgravity environment? Read this article on microscopic astronauts (NASA, 2007) to find out and then complete Activity 3.

Activity 3 Yeast in a microgravity environment

Choose the correct options to complete the following statements.

Question 1a

2. The genome of yeast has been:

partially mapped

completely mapped

The correct answer is c.

Question 1b

4. Yeast also has some genes in common with

The correct answer is a.

You will now look at ‘space bugs’.

White Bread Mold Experiment Teaches the Importance of Washing Hands

An elementary school teacher used an experiment with white bread to show how important is to wash your hands. turns out soap and water do the trick.

Donna Fuscaldo

Jarale Metcalf/Facebook

Flu season is around the corner and Jaralee Metcalf, a behavioral specialist who works with autistic students in elementary school wanted to teach the importance of washing hands to stave off the influenza virus.

The experiment goes viral on social media 

Little did he know the science experiment he used to send the message would go viral. 

Using an experiment he found on the website of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital , Metcalf took five slices of white bread and placed them in separate sandwich bags. One was placed in the bag untouched, while the second one was touched by children who didn’t wash their hands. The third was touched by hands washed with soap and water and the fourth with hand sanitizer. The fifth piece of bread was rubbed over the students’ Chrome books. 

The bags were labeled and prominently displayed on the wall. The students’ job was to track how quickly mold show up on the bread. Metcalf posted his results on Facebook for the world to see. The mold started forming right away with the Chromebook by far having the most mold. 

Source: Jaralee Metcalf.

Source: Jaralee Metcalf

Dirty hands weren’t much better than the Chromebook in terms of the amount of mold it caused. 

Source: Jaralee Metcalf 

While hand sanitizer helped, it did do as well as one would have thought in fighting mold. 

Turns out good old soap and water does the trick. There was little in the way of mold when clean hands touched the bread. 

“As somebody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Wash your hands! Remind your kids to wash their hands! And hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing hands!! At all!.” wrote Metcalf in his Facebook post . 

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

The blueprint daily.

Stay up-to-date on engineering, tech, space, and science news with The Blueprint.

By clicking sign up, you confirm that you accept this site's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Donna Fuscaldo <p><span>Donna started her career as a journalist at Dow Jones Newswires, where she got a crash course in stocks, technology and investing. After years of covering semiconductors, computers and tech companies for major publications she embarked on a &nbsp;freelancing career, providing readers with valuable information on everything from technology to finding a job. Her work appears regularly in Forbes where she covers the intersection of technology and finance among other things.&nbsp;</span></p>

POPULAR ARTICLES

Ultra-cool quantum breakthrough achieved in a 1st can transform aircraft navigation, is silicon valley ready for the big one, lamborghini temerario debuts with 211 mph top speed, 907 hp hybrid v8 engine, magnetic monopoles exist cern’s large hadron collider pipe comes close to finding out, related articles.

This temperature monitoring tech to prevent fire, make lithium batteries safer for EVs

Hydrosat’s payload to measure land surface temperatures can help military

Wet blocking and sport sleep tape, the best of IE this week

In a first, Chinese-led study shows black hole’s role in galaxy’s life, death

List of Topics

SfC Home > Science Projects and Experiments >

Biology Experiment: Control Growth of Mold on Bread

by Ron Kurtus (updated 21 November 2022)

You may have noticed some mold growing on a piece of bread that has been in the refrigerator or in the package for a long time. This may get you curious as to the reasons causing that mold to grow, as well as how to prevent that growth.

Examining mold on bread can be an idea for a science project in the area of biology . Take some bread and expose pieces to different conditions to determine what is the most influential on the growth of mold. Then minimize those conditions to verify that the growth of mold can be stopped or at least diminished.

Questions you may have include:

• What is the purpose of the experiment?
• What research must be done?
• What is the experiment?

This lesson will answer those questions.

Purpose of experiment

The purpose of the experiment is to study factors involved in bread getting moldy in order to find a solution to this problem.

Do not make a guess of the solution, since that may bias your results.

Research and factors

Do research on bread and mold to determine possible factors involved in bread getting moldy. List the information and your resources in your log book.

Possible factors include:

• Temperature
• Type of bread
• Access to air (versus air-tight container)

Pick one factor to vary, keeping everything else constant. For example, you could see how the amount of light affects the growth of mold.

Keep records

If this is going to be an experiment for a science fair, you will need to record your activities in a log book.

Draw conclusions

You can draw conclusions on the effect of one factor has on the growth of mold and show how using this result will reduce the growth. Or you can vary several factors, one at a time to see which one has the most influence.

Write report

Write up a report to summarize your results and your proposed solution to the problem.

You can satisfy your curiosity about mold growing on bread with an experiment. Take some bread and expose pieces to different conditions to determine what is the most influential on the growth of mold. Then minimize those conditions to verify that the growth of mold can be stopped or at least diminished.

Don't get stuck with moldy ideas

Resources and references

Ron Kurtus' Credentials

Experiments Resources

(Notice: The School for Champions may earn commissions from book purchases)

Top-rated books on Science Fair Projects

Top-rated books on Experiments

Students and researchers

The Web address of this page is: www.school-for-champions.com/experiments/ biology_control_mold_on_bread.htm

Please include it as a link on your website or as a reference in your report, document, or thesis.

Copyright © Restrictions

Where are you now?

School for Champions

Experiment topics Biology Experiment: Control Growth of Mold on Bread

Science Projects and Experiments

Project preparation.

• Science Project Definition
• Types of Science Projects
• Parts of a Science Project
• Factors in Getting an Idea for a Science Project
• Determine Reasons Students Get Poor Grades
• Control Growth of Mold on Bread
• Overview of Experiments with Fluids
• Volume of Irregularly Shaped Object
• Show Weight in Water is Less than in Air
• Compare the Density of Different Liquids
• Water Pressure verus Depth
• Spigot Size versus Fluid Velocity
• Overview of Experiments with Friction
• Measure Coefficient of Friction with a Scale
• Measure Coefficient of Friction with a Ramp

Static Electricity

• Overview of Static Electricity Experiments
• Causing a Balloon to Stick to Things
• Electrical Attraction of a Comb
• Bending Flowing Water
• Control Static Cling
• Make an Electroscope
• Creating Sparks
• Make an Electromagnet

States of Matter

• Overview of States of Matter Experiments
• Temperature versus Changing State
• Use Mpemba Effect to Freeze Hot Water
• Physical Science

Let's make the world a better place

Be the best that you can be.

Use your knowledge and skills to help others succeed.

Don't be wasteful; protect our environment.

You CAN influence the world.

Live your life as a champion:.

Take care of your health

Seek knowledge and gain skills

Do excellent work

Be valuable to others

Have utmost character

Be a Champion!

The School for Champions helps you become the type of person who can be called a Champion .