The Kennedy Food Fundamentals class has done a moldy bread experiment at the beginning of each semester ever since Jessica Rose, the new Food Fundamentals teacher, came in the 2023-2024 school year. Rose started this experiment back when she taught at a middle school.

“I wasn’t sure how it would go over with high school students but I gave it a try and it seemed to be a good conversation piece,” Rose said. 

During this experiment, students are instructed to take a piece of fresh bakery bread and wipe it on a variety of surfaces, including the side of a trash can, the floor and even Principle Jason Kline’s head.

“I rubbed my piece of bread on the inside of a microwave,” sophomore Allison Goodall said. 

This experiment usually stays up between 6-8 weeks. Second semester’s moldy bread experiment started on Jan. 30 and was taken down March 22.

“We typically see mold start to grow after 7-10 days but it evolves from there and a lot more mold will grow over time,” Rose said. 

This experiment is meant to show the importance of washing your hands. Germs, the same ones that cause mold to grow, can be found on a variety of surfaces and can cause you to get sick.

“It is a good visual to see what surfaces have bacteria. We can’t usually see bacteria so it’s a good demonstration to see which bread has mold growth from bacteria exposure on various surfaces,” Rose said. “I hope it helps students realize all the surfaces we touch can have bacteria and it is really important to wash our hands, especially when it comes to preparing food.”

First semester the location of the experiment was out in the hallway between the gym and the classroom, this semester the location changed to directly outside of the classroom. 

“I saw it everyday after gym. I thought it was cool at first, but then I remembered that there was green and black mold growing like two feet away from me with a thin layer of plastic in between,” Goodall said. “I like the change of location because now it’s hidden.”

Rose also experienced problems with where the experiment was displayed, which helped influence her decision to move it.

“There were a few issues with people poking holes in the bag or some bags falling off. [There were] no complaints, I had a few questions about when it would be coming down, but I think that was just out of curiosity,” Rose said. 

There was also a change in some of the results between the two semesters. Rose speculates that this time, the bread had come into contact with something else. 

“This semester the control piece of bread grew mold much quicker,” Rose said. “I always expected it to eventually but it shocked me that within a week it had mold this time. I buy bakery fresh bread so there are less preservatives and the bread is expected to just go bad on its own but I’m wondering if this control bread actually had some contamination.”