Science Gone Wrong

Justin's science fair experiment ran into a few snags this year. He was testing to see which was more effective at cleaning the floor: Pine Sol or a homemade cleaner. He did his research, found a recipe and mixed it up, and got to his testing. He used bread to swipe the dirty floor; then he washed one tile each with one of the cleaners and swiped another piece of bread. Into a ziploc baggie they went to grow mold.

Except the mold didn't grow! After 2 weeks, he decided the bread he used had too many preservatives.

Take 2: he used the mostly natural, whole wheat bread we eat at home. Same procedure. 10 days later, just a few specks of mold. Yikes!

Take 3: he made his own bread from scratch and repeated the procedure. 5 days later he had a healthy amount of mold growing.

And then Koty snatched one of the samples off the table and ate it while we were gone. It was now 3 days before the science fair: too late to start over!! Not only that, but the piece of bread that grew the most mold was one of the samples from the CLEAN floor! What?!?!

So his teacher suggested he switch gears and demonstrate instead what can go wrong while doing science! He had a great time putting the display together and received great feedback from the judges and other parents and students.

Just doing our part at keeping it real 😁

Justin talking with the judges about his Science Gone Wrong

The proud scientist

Justin and a friend enjoying the ice cream social just before the judging

This super moldy piece of bread was the sample from the CLEAN floor!

Koty, feeling guilty (maybe?) about eating part of Justin's experiment