High School

Anaerobic respiration, carbon dioxide production

Download Student Handout

Fermentation is a process that converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. This process happens in the absence of oxygen, making it an anaerobic process.  In this experiment, students investigate the effect of sugar concentration on yeast’s anaerobic respiration rate.

Learning Objectives

Students will know

  • Chemical reactions
  • Limiting reactants

Students will understand

  • Sugar concentration is directly correlated to anaerobic respiration rate
  • Sugar is required for respiration to occur

Students will be able to

  • Measure the respiration rate of yeast in four different sugar concentration solutions.

How to Run the Experiment

Materials You Will Need

From the Anaerobic Respiration Lab bag

  • Yeast
  • Sugar
  • Balloons

From the Box

  • 4 large tubes (50mL)

From Home

  • Cup of warm water

Safety Information

Learning Undefeated is dedicated to bringing authentic laboratory science experiences to students, even while they’re learning at home. To maintain regular laboratory protocol, you will find all materials are labeled with a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Safety Diamond. This is used to quickly tell users about the hazards that a material possesses including health, flammability, and instability hazards. Though all of the materials contained in the kit are deemed very safe (a 0 or 1 on each category), we thought providing this information was important for students to see and begin learning about.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are provided as well.  Below you will find the MSDS for the reagents supplied in our Anaerobic Respiration Lab kit.

Material Safety Data Sheets

Below are the links to the Material Safety Data Sheets for each provided reagent.