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Iron Chef Ingredient: organic and conventional strawberries

Questions

What kind and how much pesticides are on straw?Are the pesticides on the strawberries or are they included in the soil?

Do pesticides have any effect on the cheek cells? 

Will the molds look different on the different types of strawberries?

Will the type of strawberry affect the type of mold that grows? Do pesticides effect mold?

Purpose

     The purpose of this lab was to find out if strawberries that are organic have more botrytis cinerea on them than conventional strawberries and to infer the cause of these results.

Hypothesis

     If a lab technician swabs an organic and a conventional strawberry and transfers it into in an agar plate and then an incubator then the organic strawberries’ agar plate will grow more botrytis cinerea than the agar plate with the swab from the conventional strawberry because the organic strawberries are not allowed to use pesticides to prevent mold.

Procedure

1. Make Regular Agar and pour into 6 petri dishes.
2. Make PDA and pour into 6 different petri dishes
3. Refrigerate for 3 days
4. Swab the outside of organic strawberries and place into 2 PDA dishes and 2 RA dishes 
5. Swab the outside of conventional strawberries and place into 2 PDA and 2 RA dishes 
6. Leave 2 RA dishes and 2 PDA dishes alone as a control
7. Put all 12 dishes into an incubator 
8. After 1 week of incubation Take out 1 dish from each group (conventional pda, control pda, organic pda, conventional ra, control ra, organic ra) and use the ocular loop to scrape off a sample from each dish.
9. Transfer these samples to individual slides and cover them with slide covers.
10. Place the slides under microscopes and examine them for botrytis cinerea.
11. If it is a positive id then mark it as such in the data table.
12. Repeat steps 7-10 at 1.5 weeks for the other set of petri dish samples.
13. Repeat steps 7-10 again at 2 weeks for the first set of petri dishes.
14. Repeat steps 7-10 again at 2.5 weeks for the second set of petri dishes

Materials

• 1 box of strawberries (organic)

• 1 box of strawberries (non organic)

• Potato Dextrose agar

• Basic Agar 

• Petri dishes

• Microscope

• Slides

• bvSlide covers

• Swab

• Iodine (staining as needed)

• Incubator

• Ocular Loop

Skills Acquired

• Fungus identification

• Microscope usage

• Incubator usage

• Agar plate making

Works Cited

Citation

Ellis, David, Dr. "Slide Culture Preparations." Mycology Online. N.p., 15 May 2001.

Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Preparing Slides of Microorganisms." Preparing Slides of Microorganisms.

N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Viticulture & Enology." Microscopy for the Winery.

N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Kung'u, Jackson. "Home." Mold Bacteria Consulting Services.

N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Knight, Andrew. "The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Concern About Food Safety Issues." The Journal of Consumer Affairs 38.1 (2004): 107-20. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

            World-Class Support For Science & Mat. Techniques for Studying Bacteria       and Fungi (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.                                              

Iron chef Documentation

Ashley Fields a question from a judge about her group's results.

Derek outlines and guides us through the procedure of his group's experiment.

Ariah describes her group's experiment.

Corn

Team 1

The group’s hypothesis

If human teeth are placed in a cup of coca cola, green juice, water, coffee and lemon juice (3 for each beverage) for 14 days, then the tooth that was in the cup of coca cola will have the largest increase in weight because the coca cola contains the most corn syrup, which can cause a lot of plaque and buildup on teeth if not brushed frequently.

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

• Know how to use a scale
• Know how to read nutrition labels of each drink

What would the group do differently

• Dry the tooth in a way that removes the water and keeps the water of scale

Questions and/or comments about the group’s lab.

Did the tooth decay because your data makes it seem like some get bigger?

Team 2

The group’s hypothesis

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

Corn

Team 1

The group’s hypothesis

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

• How to extract bpa from a water bottle
• How to use a microscope
• How to make a slide

The results of the lab

Not enough change and magnification to get results. 

What would the group do differently

• Have a stronger microscope

Questions and/or comments about the group’s lab.

 

How does the corn itself relate to this experiment?

Team 2

The group’s hypothesis

Sugars

Team 1

The group’s hypothesis

If bacteria is exposed to 3 different types of sugars: light fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, and honey on 15 individual Petri dishes for a period of 1 week, then the bacteria with the light fructose corn syrup will grow a substantial amount of bacteria compared to the plates with the cane sugar and the honey because the light fructose corn syrup is full of the added chemicals from the production of corn and when the unhealthy sugars are added to the corn syrup, it will cause a greater reaction because it stimulated the bacteria.

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

• Know how to evaluate bacteria and how to see it underneath a microscope 

• How to evaluate bacteria  growth

• How to grow bacteria effectively using sugar as a main factor of the growth. 

The results of the lab

Honey promoted the most bacterial growth out of all 4 of the petri dishes which denies our hypothesis.

What would the group do differently

• Factor in  the granulation of the sugar

Questions and/or comments about the group’s lab.

Why did they cut off the tips of the swabs?

Team 2

The group’s hypothesis

If six students, three boys, three girls, get their glucose levels tested for one week on their regular diet then three more weeks while substituting in honey, sugar, and corn syrup into their diet then the corn syrup will have the greatest increase in glucose levels, because corn syrup has a higher glycemic index in it which increases the blood sugar, and the higher the glycemic index the higher the glucose levels are.

The results of the lab

The people that ate honey had higher glucose levels than those who ate the other sugars.

What would the group do differently

• Take a reading before and after eating

Questions and/or comments about the group’s lab.

Would changing the subjects' diet to only include their form of sugar?

Pesticides

Team 1

The group’s hypothesis

If we apply pesticide to basil plants and active yeast, the yeast will die before the plant sand have worse effects than the basil plants, because pesticides attack the nervous system of animal cells and claim not to harm plants.

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

• How to use a microscope

• How to collect animal and plant cells 

• Activate the yeast in order to apply the pesticide

The results of the lab

trend downward in height more in pesticides 2 and 3

What would the group do differently

• more control groups

Team 2

The group’s hypothesis

If organic and inorganic samples of ground chuck and apple are exposed to the same pesticides, then the organic food's cellular structure will be more damaged by the pesticides than the non organic foods, because non organic food has been altered to resist pesticides.

Skills and/or techniques that they used to complete their lab.

• Using agar plates

• Using microscopes

• Gloves

• Face Masks

The results of the lab

The organic meat and apples seemed to be more affected than the conventional meat and apples.

What would the group do differently

• more control groups
• a more controlled environment
• checking the dishes daily

Questions and/or comments about the group’s lab.

What did they see under the microscope?