Homeschooling: Bread mold and penicillin

I love homeschooling, and online learning. I want to get away from the textbook and get hands-on. This is one of my favorites — it’s a lab and lesson on how we found out about penicillin. I’ve got a list of materials and where you can can get them. Bread is easy to find, and letting it get moldy — well I hope you know how to do that. But there’s some tips in the video. Get your kids a blank lab book for taking notes and drawing pictures. But first, watch this video produced by MIT for grades K-12, and you will see what to do and how much fun you can have with this science lesson. Then get the materials and watch the video again with your kids.

Goal: To understand how penicillin was first discovered and how it kills bacteria. Other uses of penicillium are noted as well.

These are the items you will need to do this science lab:

Petri Dishes with Agar (see notes on sources for these at the bottom)
Wooden popscicle sticks
Bread and a plastic bag or jar with water (or let it mold naturally in the bag)
Lab book for taking notes and drawing pictures of the experiment.

Watch this video which demonstrates the experiment you will be doing on how bread mold (penicillin) kills bacteria.

Teaching Ideas to share with your kids:

The bread mold, Penicillium consists of a network of filaments (hyphae) known as a mycelium (white). It has numerous reproductive spores which are the green/grey areas. The mold is penetrating the bread, using the moisture and nutrients to grow. Share this picture with your kids and have them draw it in their books. Notice that it is very blue-green on the bread.

This is a magnified view of penicillium that is used to make the antibiotic penicillin.

Penicillium

penicillium conidia

Other Uses of Penicillium

Penicillium molds are used to make cheese:

Penicillium candida used in making Brie cheese and Camembert cheese (its in the rind)

Penicillium roqueforti used in making Roquefort and Danish Blue cheese

Sources for materials:

Petri Dishes and Agar: Fischer Scientific
Home Training Tools: Petri Dishes and Agar
Wooden Craft Sticks: Amazon

Goal: To understand how penicillin was first discovered and how it kills bacteria. Other uses of penicillium are noted as well.

These are the items you will need to do this science lab:

Watch this video which demonstrates the experiment you will be doing on how bread mold (penicillin) kills bacteria.

Teaching Ideas to share with your kids:

Other Uses of Penicillium

Penicillium molds are used to make cheese:

Sources for materials:

Reading Materials: