GRADE 11

LEARNER’s NAME: ____________________________________________________________

CLASS : __________________

TOTAL: 30

Total

30

This question paper consists of 6 pages.

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Bread mould is a fungus which has had many different uses over the years.

We know that food seems to become mouldy more quickly in the summer than
in winter when it is colder. Food in refrigerators seems to last longer than food
left out in the sun. Is this true? Does temperature really affect the rate at which
bread mould grows?

A group of grade 11 learners carried out an investigation to prove that bread mould
grows quicker at higher temperatures than at lower temperatures.

State the aim of this investigation.

______________________________________________________________ (2)

This investigation was done at school during a practical session. Their investigation
was plaaned and designed as follows: read the instructions and then answer the
questions:

MATERIALS / APPARATUS

• 15 slices of bread
• 15 sealable sandwich bags / sandwich bags with ties.
• 1 piece of film or clear plastic with a 10x10cm grid drawn onto it.
• Clean knife
• Chopping board
• Marker pen
• Mask
• Gloves

METHOD

1. They labelled the bags as follows:

A1, A2, A3, A4, A5

B1, B2, B3, B4, B5
C1, C2, C3, C4, C5

2. They cut the bread into 10 x 10 cm squares using the chopping board and knife.

3. They put a moist slice of bread into each bag and sealed the bags tightly.

4. They put the 5 ‘A’ bags into the freezer, the 5 ‘B’ bags into the refrigerator and the
5 ‘C’ bags somewhere safe in a warm room, because the bags in the freezer and
fridge would not be getting much light. It was best to cover the ‘C’ bags to make
sure that light is a constant.
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5. Every 24 hours, preferably at exactly the same time every day, using the plastic
grid, they counted the number of square centimetres of mould on each slice of
bread. If the mould covered more than half a square, they counted it as 1cm, if
less than half a square, they counted as 0 cm. They made sure that they never
opened the bags.

6. They repeated these counting processes for 10 days or until there are significant
measurable results.

7. They carefully kept note of their results for each slice of bread for the entire
duration of the experiment. They even took pictures and drew the slices to be
really scientific!

8. They determined the average of the results for sample types A, B and C.

9. Once finished, they safely disposed all of the bags without opening them.

PRECAUTIONS

They noted that some people are allergic to mould. They always wore gloves and a
mask, washed their hands, and never ate or drank whilst they were performing this study.

OBSERVATIONS

The number of squares covered by mould on each slice of bread.

RESULTS

Because each square of bread is 100 cm2, they expressed their results as a percentage.
For each of the bread types, A, B or C they got the average amount of mould grown over
the ten days and wrote these figures into a table.

The following table shows possible results obtained from their investigation.
It indicated the percentage mould coverage for each bread type over a period of 10 days.

Percentage of bread covered with mould

Bread
Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 Day8 Day9 Day10 Average
type

A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0%

B 0 0 0 0 2 5 13 15 19 24 X

C 0 4 12 23 32 46 55 64 70 76 38,2%

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QUESTIONS

1. Calculate the average percentage mould that covered the bread type B.
Show your working.

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________ (2)

2. Which ONE of the bags A , B or C has shown the highest

percentage of mould growth?

___________________________________________________ (1)

3. Draw line graphs to show the growth for bread types B and C over
the period of ten days (Use the same system of axes)

(6)

DISCUSSION

4. Why are the results of this investigation important?

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________ (3)

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 CONCLUSION

5. Name TWO other examples of fungi beside bread mould.

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________ (2)

6. List THREE favourable conditions for bread mould to develop.

__________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________ (3)

7. Where does mould come from? (How did it get onto the bread?)

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________ (2)

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Question 8 is based on the following micrograph:

8. Use the scale line and the following formula to calculate the actual length of the
structure labelled A as it appears on the question paper. Show all working.

𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑨 (𝒎𝒎) 𝒙 𝑳𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 (µ𝒎)

𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 (𝒎𝒎)

= __________________________________________

= ________________ (4)

9. Rhizopus sp. (bread mould) is a fungus with particular characteristics.

Complete the following table about these characteristics:

Structure/characteristic Absent Present (indicate

(indicate with X) with )
True roots
Rhizoids
Heterotrophic
Chlorophyll
True leaves
(5)

TOTAL: (30)
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