Grade School Science Fair

Hypothetical.

Your child is in need of a Science Fair project and turns to you for assistance. The school will provide any needed technical equipment provided it exists on their campus.

Alcohol production is strictly prohibited!




So, what aspect of brewing do you and your child examine in depth and build your project around?

I am thinking of Lactic Acid bacteria sudy or more obviously yeast reproduction but, the latter teeters on the brink of alcohol production.

Isomerization of alpha acids.

Or

CO2 + H2O = H2CO3 (everyone sniffs and burns their nostrils)

Or

Saccrification

Malting...

Mashing....the conversion of grain starch to sugars.....

Revvy said:

Mashing....the conversion of grain starch to sugars.....

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Has enzymes and everything!

Revvy said:

Mashing....the conversion of grain starch to sugars.....

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Take that a step further to mashing as a means to produce alternative fuels

Various steps of yeast culturing.

Revvy said:

Mashing....the conversion of grain starch to sugars.....

Click to expand...

Had thought of that too but, photographic or visual supports are always nice.

Are enzymes even visible via optical microscopy? Like with yeast cells or bacterium.

Would be interesting to "watch" an enzyme cleave starch chains but I figured an electron scope is needed for that.

What grade is your kid in? That makes a difference.

I think yeast propagation and cell growth have infinite possibilities, especially exponential cell growth where yeast can increase a thousand-fold (3 log) in 24 hours.

Production of biofuels would be pretty cool, too.

Chad

GilaMinumBeer said:

Had thought of that too but, photographic or visual supports are always nice.

Are enzymes even visible via optical microscopy? Like with yeast cells or bacterium.

Would be interesting to "watch" an enzyme cleave starch chains but I figured an electron scope is needed for that.

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You would need an electron microscope. Just to see starch granules, you need 800 to 1000X and the starch needs to be stained with iodine.

I think a simple mash would be cool. Just converting starches to sugars via enzymes and verification by iodine testing.

Fermentation would be good too. Yeah, it's producing alcohol, but adding some yeast to a few mL of wort shouldn't be a big deal. You could just focus on bio-fuels or something instead of beer. I've tried to watch fermentation under a microscope. At work we have a decent microscope with micrograph capabilities (still photographs and movies). It wasn't very exciting. It was more exciting watching the contaminating rods of lactobacillus bouncing around! That was at 1000X.

Chad said:

What grade is your kid in? That makes a difference.

I think yeast propagation and cell growth have infinite possibilities, especially exponential cell growth where yeast can increase a thousand-fold (3 log) in 24 hours.

Production of biofuels would be pretty cool, too.

Chad

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Ha, Daycare but, I am thinking ahead to grade school for the lad.

Well, you could take the approach that yeast helps to breakdown multicelled organisms & return/recycle the nutrients/energy that would otherwise be "wasted." Maybe something about symbiotic relationships with yeast? You could also incorporate some stop-motion video, or even microscopic stop-motion video for a reasonable price. I've seen video adaptable microscopes that were desinged to be used by kids of about 12 & up.

Molds are really good for visual decomposition though, stop motion video doesn't need to be microscopic & they're a bit more dramatic on screen. The decomposition of a bowl of fruit is actually kind of fascinating to watch when you compress 30 days into 30 seconds. Or maybe stop-motion video of growing hops? And how hops help the world now & in the past. I seem to be sorta stuck on the stop-motion video thing for some reason, but ya gotta admit, it is cool to watch. Maybe something about how yeast allow for a multibillion dollar, global industry that provides millions of people with both employment & enjoyment. That's just my 2 cents worth. Regards & kudos for thinking about this sort of thing so far in advance.