Yeast Feast

By Vincent

My topic is “Yeast Feast” The reasons why I chose “Yeast Feast” is that it sounded like fun, growing yeast into a feast might be exciting and I liked that any age students could do the experiment. As I worked on my investigation, I found all three things to be true.

My question was, “What would yeast do in a coffee cup mixed with water and flour?” I also considered the question “Would adding food dye effect the results of the yeast mixture?”

I found out about yeast by looking in the book called Mostly Moldy, Fizzy, Fuzzy, Swelling, Growing Science which is published by Scholastic. I learned that sometimes yeast can become a messy monster because it grows so much. It can take over the container it is in. Yeast is a living organism that when combined with warm water will eat flour and grows. As it grows it gives off carbon dioxide and this makes it get bigger. It also has a terrible smell.

I did several trials with my experiment. I used active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast in different tests. The rapid rise yeast made the mixture puffier than the active dry yeast. I mixed the yeast with two mixtures of food coloring and it did not change the results.

These are the steps to “Yeast Feast”. First, I put 6 tablespoons of flour into a coffee cup and 1 tablespoon of yeast into the cup. Next, I put 8-10 drops of warm water into the cup. I stirred until it was as thick as peanut butter. Later, I put this mixture into a glass baking pan. I waited for five minutes and then checked the results every five minutes until I had recorded the results for 35 minutes. During the second trial I recorded the results every ten minutes.

No matter what type of yeast I used or dye I added the results remained almost the same. The mixture expanded wider with lots of bubbles. I learned that yeast is a living organism and that it actually eats its way to expand.

I would suggest that if you try this experiment, you watch the results at different times to see how it changes the results. You could try this experiment with baking soda by adding it or replacing it with one of the other ingredients.

Another question you could investigate is: “Would using different types of flour such as wheat or rice flour, change the reaction?”