Thursday, November 27, 2008

Assure Model Lesson/ Mold on Bread Experiment

November 12, 2008

Winda C. Espulgar
Assure Lesson Plan #2
Ed 451, Dr. Jacqui Cyrus

Context of Lesson:
This lesson is to help fifth-grade students understand how fungi develops. Bread mold is a common and relatively harmless fungus, but we would rather not see it grow on our bread, or in any food for that matter. In this lesson, students are encouraged to be more actively involved in fact-finding, thus developing an understanding of scientific inquiry. The materials in this lesson have been simplified.
In this lesson, students investigate under what conditions bread mold grows fast or slow. Students vary the environments of each of four slices of bread, with guidance from the teacher, to see which groups have the least and the most bread mold growth. Students also collect data and report their findings. This lesson stresses the different results that can be obtained through variations in the experiment.

A Analyze Learner:
· Number of students: 20
· Gender : 11 boys and 9 girls
· Age Group : 10 to 11 years old
· Ethnicities : 9 Chamorros, 7 Filipinos, 3 Chuukese
· Disabilities : 1 SI (Speech Impairment)
· Class’ Prior Knowledge : A. Generally knows how to use basic excel spreadsheet
B. Knows how to blog
C. Knows how to use power point
D. Knows how to utilize digital camera
E. Knows how to conduct a scientific experiment
· Learning Styles : 20% kinesthetic, 20% visual, 60% audio
· Accommodations: Computer with assistive technology capabilities for the speech-impaired student. This student will use the computer to communicate and be part of the group and conduct the experiment.


S State Objective:
Conduct a variety of scientific investigations including observing what things are like, describing what is happening, conducting controlled experiments and interpreting data.
At the end of this activity, students will be able to:
1. Conduct an experiment to observe the growth of mold on bread under different conditions.
2. Collect observations and come to a conclusion about the factors that affect bread mold growth.
3. Record data for one week and put it on a Cozi.com.
4. Operate digital camera appropriately to take pictures of the different stages of growth of the mold on bread.
5. Utilize the computer program excel to input the size of the growth of the mold daily using centimeters on the ruler.
6. Prepare the data using database or spreadsheet and then make a presentation for others to see.


S Select Instructional Method, Media, and Materials:
1. Technology Used:
· Computers and computer-assistive technology
· Internet
· Power point
· Word Excel
· Digital Camera
· Cozi.com
· Projector


2. Materials:
· One loaf of wheat bread containing 20 slices
· Ziploc bags ( 6.5 x 6.5 )
· Distilled water
· Sanitized Children Medicine dropper
· Permanent marker
· Dust mask (found at home improvement stores)
· Handout with tables to record the observation
· Materials on bread mold experiment.docx


Websites:
www.usepa.gov/iaq/moldmoldbasics.html “A brief guide to mold”
www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/ts/IAQ/GOT_Mold.html “Frequently Asked Questions About Mold”
www.sciencefairadventure.com/ProjectDetail.aspx?ProjectID=77 contains an experiment that demonstrates the presence of fungus everywhere.

U Utilize Media and Materials:
1. Technology:
· Computer/ Internet – Online use for research, computer use for data-gathering
· Word Excel – for inputting the measurement of the mold on bread and to collect data
· Digital Camera - for taking pictures of the mold on bread
· Cozi- for posting information of the mold on bread and encouraging students to share their observations with others
· Projector - for presentation of the students to the class
· Power point - for presentation of students to the class
2. Materials:
· Twenty slices of wheat bread (exposed to air for half an hour and from the same loaf) to grow the mold
· Ziploc bags (6.5 x 6.5) used for safety measure
· Distilled water- to be applied on the bread
· Children’s medicine dropper (sterile)- used to apply the water
· Permanent marker- used to label the bag

R Require Learner Participation:

Day 1
· As mentioned above, the teacher will introduce the project to class, giving oral pretest by asking questions to see if the students have a basic idea of how molds grow.
· The class will brainstorm and make a list of objectives for experiment on molds.
· Students should suggest which conditions will be better for growing molds.
· For example: What conditions make bread mold grow the fastest, or what slows down the growth of molds?
1. Moisture
2. Refrigerated temperature
3. Room temperature
4. Heat and direct sunlight exposure
· Students will be divided into four groups with five students in each group.
· After the group is assigned, students within their group will then introduce each other, and start their group discussion.
· Using the Internet, they can start their research about molds.
· Each of the four groups will be asked to create a shared account on friends and family networking site www.cozi.com. The site will allow each group’s members to communicate their ideas on how to go about the experiment and their thoughts as the experiment progresses.
· The teacher will also post on www.cozi.com the materials that the students will need to gather, as a group, for the experiment.
Day 2
· Based on their research online, the students as a group will present gathered information, and will have class discussion about how to go about growing mold.
· The students in the group will make their hypothesis for the experiment.
· bread mold from youtube.docx

· Teacher will ask the students to help prepare the materials, and will discuss the safety issues. (For the students with allergic reaction to mold, a mask should be worn.)


Procedure:
1. Based on the instruction from the teacher on www.cozi.com, each group will bring the materials for the experiment to class on Day 3, Monday. The experiment will be conducted in the classroom to ensure each group is following the same procedure.
2. With the materials brought to class, each group will have four Ziploc bags and four slices of wheat bread.
3. Each group will mark each of the four Ziploc bags according to the four different conditions assigned to each of the loafs. One loaf will be in a Ziploc marked ref temperature. A second loaf will be in a Ziploc marked moist, a third loaf will be marked room temperature and the fourth loaf will be marked direct sunlight.
4. Each group will have one loaf each that will be moistened with water using a sterile dropper. Each group must use an equal amount of water in the children’s medicine dropper, which will be full and fully emptied on the loaf.
5. Each group will place the loaf s accordingly, as marked. The ref temperature loaf from each group should be in one refrigerator.
6. The moist loaf from each group will be placed next to each other inside a darkened cabinet
7. The loaf for room temperature from each group will be placed on a countertop without direct sunlight. Students from the different groups can agree on where to place on the countertop.
8. The loaf needing direct sunlight will be up to each group to decide whether they want it in the dashboard of a car or outside a window sill.
9. Each group will make a data table to record observations daily. To do this, they will use an excel spreadsheet. They also must use a digital camera to keep a daily snapshot of the mold growth. Each group will measure the growth of the mold using a centimeter measurement from a ruler. This will be done on a daily basis during class. mold experiment graph 1.docx
10. The different groups can also compare and discuss observations on a cozi as the week progresses and they have more data from the mold measurements.
11. After seven days, each group will have a conclusion. But before reaching a conclusion, each group can compare each other’s results.
12. Each group will prepare for their presentation on the eight week.

E. EVALUATE AND REVISE

Using the data from the spreadsheet, each group will present and compare their findings. The students can use a power point presentation with charts and graphs to visualize the results.
A projector can be used to present the power point presentation.
The students can add the daily pictures of the mold growth as part of their presentation using a media projector.
Each group can then share whether they have similar results.
The students’ presentation should also include comments about whether their online research supports the result of the experiment, which is that mold grows fastest in a moist environment.
If the results from each group vary, and not each group ended up with the moist bread as having the fastest mold growth, the teacher can ask each group to discuss what could have caused the different results?

PRE-ASSESSMENT:
After the discussion the teacher will ask students to write a reflection about how the lessons from the experiment can then be used at home. For example, they might say they’ve learned from the experiment that leaving food in room temperature will cause food to go bad fast and waste Mom and Dad’s money. They might also add that making sure food is kept in the refrigerator helps to protect the health of family members because they lessen the chance of eating mold contaminated food.


POST-ASSESSMENT:
After reading their reflection letter from cozi.com, 11 students said that they will be very careful on the left over food. 7 students said that they will make sure that food must be kept on the refrigerator. 2 students said that their mothers always make sure that food does not get contaminated with mold.

Each student will evaluate the lesson at the end. Teacher will upload the rubric at cozi.com.
Rubric on Bread Mold Experiment.htm

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