Effect of sound on fungi - HELP

[Mibi]

I've never done a science fair, but I'm going to do one this year. It's a bit overwhelming because it's all new and I'm not sure what I'm doing right or wrong exactly. Please check my pdf of what I have so far :S

[deleted-143565]

Hello,
You have obviously prepared a very interesting experiment. One thing you may need to consider is the length of time you are exposing the fungi to the soundwaves. Unfortunately fungi do not grow that quickly to measure any type of noticeable change. Microorganisms have what is called a growth curve that consists of a lag, log, deceleration and stationary phase. The lag phase is just that, a phase where the organism is "lagging" or preparing to grow 0r divide. The log phase, is where the actual growth is occurring, and may take hours,not minutes. The deceleration phase is where growth declines and the division is ending. Finally the Stationary phase is like a non-dividing dormant phase. I have attached a link about S.cerevisiae and its growth cure, I know you are not making beer but the basics still apply. Also try doing some more research on the cell cycle of fungi. Maybe extending the period of your exposure of your organism to hours or days will give more "accurate" results that will be more applicable to the science fair and more fun for you.

Also if you have access to a light spectrophotometer(your school lab?) , measuring the change in Optical Density (turbidity) is very easy(basically before and after) and gives results that are "measurable and analytical"

You are on the right track.
Good luck.

http://www.biotek.com/resources/article ... rowth.html


T.choate

[deleted-143565]

Hello,
I think I may have misunderstood your project. Your project stated the effect of sound on Growth, which is a measure of cell division , or increase in population. By using the balloons and measuring the increase in diameter you are in effect measuring the amount of carbon dioxide produced by fermentation of the sugar most likely sucrose , table sugar. This is actually a measure of Metabolism not growth. I would restate your hypothesis. Also like I mentioned before this may take additional time , longer than minutes. Look into metabolism of yeasts.

Also with the balloons you may be introducing an additional factor, an anaerobic environment. Different sugars are metabolized differently or not at all under this condition. Sucrose may not be an optimal sugar for this condition .


Let me know what you find.

Good luck

Teresa Choate

[Mibi]

Hello,
I think I may have misunderstood your project. Your project stated the effect of sound on Growth, which is a measure of cell division , or increase in population. By using the balloons and measuring the increase in diameter you are in effect measuring the amount of carbon dioxide produced by fermentation of the sugar most likely sucrose , table sugar. This is actually a measure of Metabolism not growth. I would restate your hypothesis. Also like I mentioned before this may take additional time , longer than minutes. Look into metabolism of yeasts.

Also with the balloons you may be introducing an additional factor, an anaerobic environment. Different sugars are metabolized differently or not at all under this condition. Sucrose may not be an optimal sugar for this condition .


Let me know what you find.

Good luck

Teresa Choate

Hmm, well I couldn't think of another way to measure the growth and that was all I could find. I would really like to work on the growth, not metabolism, but I could change it. Thank you

[deleted-143565]

Hello,

I think you can still work on growth in your experiment you may just have to modify your hypothesis and experimental design a bit. You will most likely need to establish an aerobic environment, use plastic jars maybe with tiny holes to allow oxygen? test it on your control for a bit so you know it works. Try other sugars, say fructose which you can get from squeezing fruit juice ...if you want to keep an anaerobic environment . You can try a hypothesis something like measuring the effect of sound on growth by observing metabolism. More metabolism, over a longer time would mean more growth (a larger population would metabolize more). You would essentially be running a double experiment (2 factors sound and metabolism) but you are really measuring growth ....See if you can come up with a design for this.

It will be interesting.

T.choate

[deleted-143565]

one more thing, in lieu of this , the most direct way of measuring growth is colonies on an agar plate. You would have to consult your teacher about the efficacy of this type of experiment. Activating the yeast, plating it, exposing it to sound, and all in a sterile, safe, and controlled environment. This would have to be done at school ....ask about this method if your other experiment seems too complex.

t. choate

[Mibi]

one more thing, in lieu of this , the most direct way of measuring growth is colonies on an agar plate. You would have to consult your teacher about the efficacy of this type of experiment. Activating the yeast, plating it, exposing it to sound, and all in a sterile, safe, and controlled environment. This would have to be done at school ....ask about this method if your other experiment seems too complex.

t. choate

I was thinking of doing this in the beginning, but when I asked my teacher, she said that I was supposed to research how to measure the growth of the colonies on the agar plate, which I didn't know how. This seems to be a little out of my reach.

[deleted-143565]

I have attached an article that addressed plating of yeast, with an introduction about bacteria, just for reference. It may seem a little complex at first but give it a read and see if you cant extract some basic information about measuring growth. It specifically uses your chosen organism as an example, so I thought that might help a little. You basically count growth by counting the number of colonies that appear. This can be done manually. The biggest issue for you is where you can do this experiment. Is there a local college that would cooperate with you an let you use their lab for a few days to run the experiment. Try speaking with your teacher about this too.