Have You Had Your Bacteria And Fungi Today?

We spent last week studying bacteria and fungi. We read about it, looked at it under a microscope, and even ate it! The kids were amazed to learn that both of them are helpful to us as well as harmful.

On Monday we collected ditch water in a dish and looked at it under a microscope. It was cool to see it up close, especially when we spotted tiny things swimming around. I managed to snap a picture through the microscope lens.

We also started our mold growing contest. Each one of us took a slice of bread and prepared it in whatever way we chose. We then put each one of them in separate Ziploc bags and chose where we wanted to store them. We are going to see which one will grow the most mold in a given time.

On Tuesday we had some fungi for lunch.....fried mushrooms. Patrick and I are the only ones in the family who really like mushrooms, but I wanted Madison and Carter to try them cooked a new way. Patrick ate four of them. He said he prefers them cooked into a dish. Madison thought she wanted to eat them, but stopped after one. Carter wouldn't even try them. I ate more than anyone, but they aren't something that I would cook very often! I served something everyone would like on Wednesday...sour cream disguised in ranch dip. I guess they like bacteria better than fungi!

We didn't get around to making our homemade yogurt until yesterday. We followed the recipe and put it in a warm, dark place to incubate for 12 hours. It was to be put into the refrigerator for another 12 hours at 5:30 this morning. I waited a little longer to see if it would firm up more, but it didn't. I went ahead and refrigerated it at 10:00...we'll see what happens. So far, Madison's bread has the most mold on it. We will finish the competition on Friday, then look at the mold under our microscope. We've added rice to our ditch water to see if anything will grow in it and will look at it under the microscope again in a few days.

Next, we will be eating...I mean studying...roots!