Is Yeast Alive?

Problem: Can you provide evidence that yeast is living or nonliving? (Copy this onto your paper)
Background: Part I: Look at the yeast at your table and answer the below questions:
1.) You can buy yeast in the grocery store. This yeast consists of little brown grains. Do you think
that these little brown grains of yeast are alive? Why or why not?
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2.) To find out whether yeast is alive, we first need to think about what makes something alive.
With your group members discuss and list the six characteristics of living organisms. (You may use
your notebooks as a resource)
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Part II: Background Reading and questions:
To begin to answer the question Is yeast alive? You will test whether the grains of yeast have one
characteristic of living thingsthe ability to use energy (referred to as metabolism). We will carry
out an indirect test for metabolism. In other words, we will be testing whether yeast can use
energy, which is one of the characteristics of living organisms.

When yeast, humans, and other living organisms use energy, they break down high-energy
molecules like sugar to get the energy they need and give off a gas called carbon dioxide as a by-
product of this reaction.
Respiration is the process by which cells take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide and
energy. It is the step-by-step breakdown of high-energy glucose molecules to release
energy.

It takes place day and night in all living cells. All cells carry out the process of cellular
respiration in order to meet their energy needs.
Energy, produced from glucose by cellular respiration, is required for the survival of all
living things. The organelle where cellular respiration takes place in the cell is the
mitochondrion. The mitochondrion is the organelle that makes energy from food for the
cell's activities. When living things respire they produce heat energy.

We will test whether yeast can metabolize sugar and produce a gas which we will presume is
carbon dioxide. Specifically, we will test whether yeast produces a gas when it has sugar available
as a food vs. when no sugar is available.

The chemical equation for respiration is:
Glucose (C6H12O6) + Oxygen (6 O2) Carbon dioxide (6CO2) + Water (6H2O) + Energy

On your notebook paper answer the following questions:
1. When an organism uses food for energy what happens?
2. What organelle is used to convert food into energy?
3. When an organelle converts food into energy, what gas is given off?
4. Do plant cells have a mitochondria, even if they make their own food through
photosynthesis? Explain.
5. What are the reactants needed for cellular respiration? What does the word
reactants mean?
6. What are the products? What does the word products mean?

Hypothesis: Make a hypothesis using If then based on the above problem (record
this on your notebook paper).
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Experiment: See procedures on page #4
Data Analysis: (copy the data table onto your paper)
Yeast with Sugar
time 0 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes
Qualitative
observations







Quantitative
Observations
(circumference)


Yeast without Sugar
time 0 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes
Qualitative
observations







Quantitative
Observations
(circumference)









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Experiment:

Materials: 15g sugar, paper towels, 200 mL warm water, 2 plastic zip-top bags, 10g
yeast
Procedure:
1.) Label your bags with your group number and: Yeast with Sugar and Yeast without
Sugar
2.) Pour 100 mL water into each baggie. Gently massage the baggie to dissolve the
yeast and sugar. Squeeze out the excess air and seal the bag.
3.) Place both bags under a lit lamp.

4.) Check the bags at regular intervals- every 5 minutes for 20 minutes.

5.) Make qualitative and quantitative observations at each interval.

6.) While you are waiting during the intervals work on the Yeast Reading Assignment
with your shoulder partner. Underlining using the expo marker, evidence showing
that the yeast is living or non-living.

Conclusion questions:
1.) What quantitative changes did you observe? Support your answer with numerical data.
2.) What qualitative changes did you observe?
3.) Compare and contrast the end results of the two bags.
4.) Provide evidence from the lab that supports your hypothesis (is yeast living or nonliving).
5.) What was some evidence you underlined in your reading to support yeast as living, or
nonliving?
6.) When you make bread, if you just mix flour, sugar and water, the dough does not rise, and the
bread will be flat and hard. Using evidence from this lab explain why bakers add yeast to the
dough.


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