Eighth Grade, Microbiology Science Projects (14 results)

There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh-baked bread to make your mouth water! As any baker can tell you, you cannot bake bread without yeast. Yeast actually eat sugar so that they can reproduce and make more yeast, and make bread dough rise. But can they use sugar substitutes to do this? In this science project you will get to investigate how well yeast grow with sugar substitutes as a food source. Pass the butter, please! Read more

Have you ever heard that nanoparticles can kill bacteria? You may have even seen some consumer products advertise that they contain antibacterial nanoparticles. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter long. Nanoparticles are usually just a few nanometers in diameter — really, really tiny! So how can something that small kill bacteria which are approximately 700 - 1400 nanometers across? Are they really effective? In this science project you will grow some E. coli bacteria and… Read more

The Pilobolus fungus has an interesting way of making sure the next generation has a good start on life. At high speed, the fungus shoots a sac that contains spores toward a light source. Why toward a light source? Because that is where it is most likely to find an open area with grass. Once the spore is placed on grass, it is eaten by a cow or a horse, which is a critical step in its life cycle. The spore passes through the animal's digestive track and ends up in a pile of manure. For a fungal… Read more

Crown gall is a plant disease caused by the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This project uses tomato plants to investigate whether garlic extract can prevent crown gall infection. Read more