Yeast Fermentation Lab

Yesterday in class, students got the opportunity to see fermentation in action!  Since we have been studying fungi, we have discovered that yeast is a unicellular fungi that is able to break down sugar to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.  Our experiment allowed us to see the carbon dioxide produced by combining warm water (a moist environment for yeast's ascospores to become active), yeast, and sugar in a test tube.  We capped off the test tube with a deflated balloon and watched as fermentation took place!  We were able to see bubbles rising in the test tube to indicate the fermentation was taking place, and eventually, the balloons started to inflate!  Students were excited to see the balloon inflate and even started thinking of different experiments and ways you could observe fermentation in action!  I was very proud of their hard work and responses to this lab.  Here are some pictures of our time in lab:

We started out by adding equal amounts of warm water to each of the 4 test tubes.

Then, we added equal amounts of yeast to each of the 4 test tubes.

Our next two steps were to add sugar to test tubes 1 and 2.  Test tubes 3 and 4 did not get sugar.  They served as our control group.  After mixing the solutions together, we capped the test tubes off with balloons to catch any carbon dioxide gas that was made.

Our last task was to observe fermentation in action!  If all went correctly, test tubes 1 and 2 should have had tremendous growth in theirs balloons as carbon dioxide was created as a by-product of fermentation.  Test tubes 3 and 4 should have had no air in them other than what may have still been in the balloon from the atmosphere before it was attached to the test tube.  No growth should have occurred.  Here are pictures of our results!

I hope everyone really enjoyed this experiment!  It was fun for me for sure!

Quick reminder that you have a Chapter 21 (Fungi) Test tomorrow!  Please study and be prepared!

~Mrs. Lawson~