What food does yeast like?

By: Enoc Flores, Aaron Gray, and Tess Mosley

Abstract:
Various sugars were added to different samples of yeast to determine if they are
living and if so, what reacts with them the most. Brown sugar, cane sugar, sucralose, and
plain water were used and in the end, it was concluded that cane sugar has the largest
effect on the amount of CO2 produced by the yeast. This was decided by placing a
balloon over the test tube and measuring which balloon was filled most with carbon
dioxide.

Problem: Is yeast a living organism and if so, which sugar variation will cause the yeast
to produce more carbon dioxide?

Research:
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as bakers yeast, are from the
Kingdom of Fungi. There are about 1,500 known species, which is approximately 0.1%
of the Fungi species (about 5.1 million). Saccharomyces cerevisiaes size varies from 5 to
10 micrometers in diameter. Yeast reproduces by a process called budding, a type of
asexual reproduction where the new yeast is attached to the parent yeast until it has fully
matured. Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide which is
useful in baking. Yeast is also used in winemaking and brewing.
The various sugars used on the yeast had different reactions to it based on the
contents in the sugars. Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar combined with molasses which
makes up about 10%. This is what causes its brown color. When molasses is added to the
sugar, it causes it to be more moist. This may make it harder for the yeast to use it.
However, yeast reacts very well with raw sugar.
Raw sugar is extracted from sugar cane, a bamboo-like grass. After a very lengthy
process, the sugar cane is converted into the more commonly known raw sugar. This
sugar is made up of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, unlike Sucralose. Instead, the carbon
is replaced with chloride.
Sucralose is an imitation sugar (artificial sweetener) made up of hydrogen,
oxygen, and chloride. A Duke University study found that Sucralose caused rats to fatten
up. This shows evidence that sucralose has a negative effect on living organisms, which
is mirrored in how the yeast reacts to it. Sucralose is an imitation sugar that, when
introduced to the yeast, cant be recognized.This confuses the system, causing the yeast
to react poorly with it.
raw sugar:

sucralose:

LABEL PICTURES



Hypothesis:
If yeast are fed with various types of sugar, then the yeast fed with Cane Sugar will
produce the most carbon dioxide.

Variables:
Independent: Different sugars
Dependent: Amount of CO2 produced by the yeast
Control Group: Yeast and plain waterEXPLAIN HOW


Procedure:
1. Measure out four separate but equal amounts of yeast.
2. Do the same with warm water and sugar.
3. Pour one thumbnails worth of yeast into each of the four test tubes
4. Pour ten mL of the warm water into each of the four test tubes
5. Pour ten mL of sugar into the test tube, we chose to leave one tube without sugar
in order to see how it reacts to plain water.
6. Shake each test tube to combine then quickly put a balloon over the lip of the tube
7. Observe and take note of how each balloon grows. Measure the amount of CO2,
either by measuring the foam or diameter of balloon.
Data:
What was used in each test tube: 5 mL of yeast was used for each test tube
10 mL of yeast was used for each test tube WHERE IS THE DATA TABLE???
Sugar caused the yeast to grow the most and water caused the yeast to grow the least
Amount of CO2UNITS=???


LABEL PICTURES.
Results: GRAPH GOES IN RESULTS SECTION
The data table shows the findings of this experiment. We determined that out ????? of the
foods we experimented with, cane sugar had the best result. This is because cane sugar is
the most natural food that we used therefore yeast reacted better to it. Brown sugar and
Sucralose had less of a reaction because they are imitation sugars which makes it harder
for yeast to break down. Lastly, plain water had a poor reaction because it doesn't have
all the minerals OR??? that yeast need.

Conclusion:
In order to determine if yeast are living organisms various sugars were added to
different samples of bakers yeast. The original hypothesis was that cane sugar would
have the largest effect on it, causing it to produce more carbon dioxide than the others.
This was assumed due to the fact that cane sugar is the most natural of the sugars
therefore yeast would naturally feed off of it. This hypothesis will not be rejected as cane
sugar caused the yeast to produce more carbon dioxide than any other sugar did. Because
of the yeast production of carbon dioxide, it can also be concluded that it is a living
organism. Although, there are possibilities of flaws in the experiment. SUCH AS.
While its important to make an experiment as accurate and reliable as possible ,
there is still the possibility of error. The water added to the tubes was generally the same
temperature but it wouldve lost heat as it was moved to the next one. Also, the amount
of shaking or combining couldve been different and the amount of carbon dioxide lost
between shaking and adding the balloon couldve affected the measurements we could
take. If this experiment was to be done again, more measurements and more precautions
should be taken in order to achieve more accuracy and in order for the result to be more
reliable.
Cane sugar was the best reactant because its the most natural. Out of all of them,
its the least processed and is the closest to what would be found in yeasts natural
environment. Splenda is a imitation sugar, which is harder for the yeast to recognize and
therefore confuses it. Natural sugar is made up of three main elements: hydrogen,
oxygen, and carbon. The difference between sugar and sucralose is that sucralose is made
up of hydrogen, oxygen, and chloride. Yeast dont know how to react to the carbon being
replaced by the chloride. Brown sugar is just raw sugar and molasses combined. Both
brown sugar and cane sugar came close, which is expected considering they are similar.
Brown sugar is cane sugar and molasses mixed together.
The next step in this study would be to decide what natural sugar feeds yeast the
best. Its been determined that the more natural sugars are the best, but other sugars can
be tested. Possible independent variables are fruits (i.e peaches, apples, or watermelons),
honey, and cane syrup. In this case, if fruits, honey, and cane syrup were used, then the
fruit would cause the yeast to produce the most CO2.
GREAT START AND VERY GOOD CONCLUSION BUT THE MIDDLE
PARTS NEED WORK STILL {B+} SEE ME TO FIX ISSUES IF YOU WANT MORE
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