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A great, simply activity to do with
children that is educational and entertaining is learning about mold.
Learning about mold and how it grows on food can be a good way to make
children aware of how things grow, as well as food safety awareness. You can
use the kinds of foods listed below, or try different varieties.
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What You Need:
-a selection of air tight containers (such as Tupperware or disposable
versions at grocery store; something air tight)
-masking tape or duct tape;
-scraps of food such as bread, cheese, oranges, apples, etc;
-drawing paper;
-markers, pens and crayons;
-a couple of weeks
-optional magnifying glass
Directions:
-Have the child or children select one of the chosen foods. They can then
place the piece of food in one of the airtight containers, as is. Have them
seal the container further with the duct tape; you want to make sure that as
little air as possible can get in to the container. Have them place another
batch of food pieces in containers that are not well sealed.
-The child or children should do the same with a variety of food pieces.
Have them dampen some of the pieces first.
-After the individual items are sealed sufficiently in the containers and
with the duct or masking tape, make a label for each container. They should
try to make the label as detailed as possible; i.e. they should include
things like the name of the item, the date, whether any water was applied,
etc.
-Place some of the sealed containers in a dark, cool place, such as a
closet. Have another group of containers placed somewhere with a lot of
direct light, such as a patio or sun room.
-Explain to the child or children that the experiment does take a little
time. Have them get out a calendar and count out one week from the day's
date and mark it with an X. Tell them that when that day arrives, it will be
time to look at what has happened to the pieces of food.
-When the time comes, have the child(ren) gather up all of the containers.
Also, have them make a chart on some paper. The chart should include such
things as: item name, sealed or unsealed, wet or dry, location (dark or
light), and description. Have the child(ren) examine each item closely so
they can make excellent and detailed observations.
Have the child(ren) fill out the chart for each of the items. Then you can
help them make some deductions based on their observations. For example, you
could ask them whether the food in the sealed container has as much mold as
the food in the unsealed container? What does this tell you about how mold
grows? You can ask the same kind of questions about whether the item was
damp or not, and what that means about water and mold growth. |
