Of Microscopes & Men

OK, so maybe 'men' was pushing it. After all, Lionel is only 13, but it was a catchy title, don't you think? =)

We are still learning about Kingdom Fungi, and this week we've been having fun with experiments! 'Yeast'erday Yesterday we worked with yeast...a unicellular fungi that does not need sunlight to grow. They have the ability to ferment carbohydrates, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide in products such as wine and bread. It wasn't only gross to work with (as it grew), the smell was enough to make my stomach churn!

Our supplies:

• Microscope
• Dry packet of yeast
• Clear glass
• Warm water - 2 cups
• Methylene Blue
• Clear slides
• Slide covers
• Eye dropper

We simply put a packet of dry yeast powder in warm water, let it sit a while and then looked at it as it began to grow under a microscope. We added Methylene Blue to one of the slides to see it clearer. Fascinating stuff!!

Here is Lionel looking for the cells


What he was looking at - low power


Medium power - you can clearly see the cells. T hey were moving and attaching to one another - pretty fascinating stuff (but again - the smell was horrible!)


This is the view with Methylene blue added - it's so much easier to see now!


We waited an hour... check out what happened to the yeast mixture in the glass!! It was so disgusting!


Again, Lionel prepared the slides and looked under the microscope.


Low power with the Methylene blue added


On high power check out the cells...WOW! They got a whole lot bigger in just 1 hour - which is exactly why bread rises when you use yeast!


Besides performing the experiment, Lionel had to draw and label his cells. He's having more fun in Biology than I ever did in public school, that's for sure! Now, if I can get that yeast smell out of my nose, I'll be all set!