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Real Science Teaching. Real Classroom Experience.

I’m Amy Brown, a veteran high school biology and chemistry teacher, wife, and mom who understands the daily reality of lesson planning, grading, meetings, and everything in between. I know what it feels like to have too much to do and not enough time to do it.

After decades in the classroom, I’ve created rigorous, classroom-tested biology and chemistry resources that save you planning time while still delivering strong, meaningful science instruction. Every lab, activity, and lesson is designed to move students beyond memorization and into real scientific thinking.

If you want your students excited about science and thinking deeply without spending your entire weekend planning, you’re in the right place.

Amy Brown Biology and Chemistry Teacher

“I just love getting kids hooked on science.”

Let's Make a Mold Terrarium!


Yucky!
Ooey!
Gooey!
This was a new activity for me, and I have to say, my students really enjoyed it!  I wanted to do something different this year as I neared the point in my course where I teach the fungi.  So I decided to have my students build a mold terrarium.  I wasn't exactly sure how the idea would go over with my students, but I decided to give it a go anyway.  MY STUDENTS LOVED IT!  

No fancy materials are required.  You only need a glass jar, some water, and some left over foods.  In order to get some good pictures for this blog post, I used a large plastic tray that had a clear lid on it.  And I used quite a few foods as a test to see which would be good suggestions to the students for which foods they should choose for their terrarium.  

From start to finish, I would allow at least 12 days.  Nothing much happens at first, but when the molds start to grow....  WOWEE!...they really take off.


Enjoy these pictures!!


Day 1:  Set Up Day!  These are still good enough to eat!

Day 3:  The cucumber was the first to go!
Day 4:  The cheese is getting a bit "iffy".

Day 11:  Very nice, huh??
Day 11:  Wow!  What a hairy monster!  
And there are several different kinds of mold visible.
Believe it or not, the smell was not too bad.  The only time I really noticed the smell was when I removed the lid to take these cool pictures.  TIP:  Do not use any foods that have eggs, meat or fish!  YUK!

I also prepared (IMHO) a pretty good set of handouts to go along with this activity.  One of my students commented, "Why can't we ever do anything just for fun?"  The handouts included a procedure page, a pre-lab sheet where I asked the kids to make predictions about which food would mold first, etc, a data table for recording daily observations, and 2 pages of final observation and analysis questions.

I created two different versions of the activity, one for high school students and one for upper elementary/middle school students.
Click picture to see the high school version
in my store on TeachersPayTeachers.com



Happy Teaching!
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 19, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    Being an English Teacher...I have to say GROSS, yet CREATIVE! :)
    Ann Marie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy BrownNovember 19, 2011 at 8:16 PM

    Haha Ann Marie! Biology is always great fun!!

    ReplyDelete

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