LIFE PROCESSES
Liz Holden shows the importance of
introducing children to fungi
Why fungi?
Something is seriously lacking in our
educational system when 150 out of
170 year 10 children (ages 14/15)
questioned at a recent summer
school thought that fungi are
bacteria. The emphasis on plants and
animals in the curriculum means that
our children can leave school
knowing next to nothing about the
fungi, arguably the largest kingdom
of higher organisms.
The fungal kingdom is neither
plant nor animal. With their own
unique lifestyles, fungi are crucial
to the functioning of every food
web on the planet and a vital
component of many human
commercial activities. Without
fungi the supermarket shelves
would be bare and many of our
medicines would disappear. Most
higher plants would not survive
without fungi and the carbon cycle
would be severely compromised.
Fungi are far more than just
mushrooms, yeasts and moulds and
it is time to give them the attention
that they deserve. What better
place to start than in our primary
schools?
How can we do it?
Anybody who has ever been on a
‘fungus foray’ knows that young
children are fascinated by fungi;
they love finding them and are
delighted with the range of shapes,
colours, textures and smells
involved. Mushrooms and
toadstools are indeed the perfect
‘hook’ for further study of fungi.
Lack of knowledge and therefore
confidence is however a real issue
for teachers and most would feel
challenged in tackling the fungi,
particularly in an outdoor context.
The British Mycological Society is
very conscious of these issues and
has been busy producing
educational materials to suit
children at both primary and
secondary levels. A wide range of
these resources are now available
as a free download from its Fungi 4
Schools website (see end); one
example is described below.
The good, the bad and the
fungi
This downloadable resource
provides a full day of interactive
and fun activities, originally
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way to warm up and introduce
concepts that will be further
considered during the day. Most
adults find it hard to grasp that the
mushroom or toadstool is only the
tip of a hidden ‘iceberg’ – how do
you explain a mycelium in a
meaningful way? We decided to
work backwards from the toadstool
and use spore prints to introduce
the function of the toadstool. If the
only purpose of the toadstool is to
produce and disperse spores, how
is it getting the energy to do that?
Let’s see what happens when a
spore germinates…
Figure 1 Children
act out making a
mycelium
Figure 2 The ‘Build a
tree’ activity
Figure 3 Using an
identification key
focuses attention
designed as a field excursion. The
supporting teacher’s notes include
activities that can be done as previsit preparation and follow-up
work and the leader’s notes give
detailed information about the
content and suggested running
order of the activities. The day is
aimed at children aged 10–11,
although it can be used for younger
and older children as required. If it
is not possible to attempt the
outdoor element of the programme,
many of the activities and concepts
can be adapted for classroom
teaching. The objectives of the day
include:
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having an enjoyable and
informative day out;
demonstrating how all parts of
the natural world are interrelated;
finding out how flowering
plants and fungi differ;
finding out why fungi are
important in the forest habitat;
seeing where fungi fit into food
chains;
finding out how people use
fungi today;
practising the use of a simple key.
From spore to mycelium
The day begins with parachute
games, a non-threatening and fun
Make a mycelium
The ‘body’ of a fungus is called a
mycelium. This is a network of
branching filaments, each of which
is called a hypha. The children act
out the developing hyphal network
(mycelium) using rolls of string as
the hyphae. Working from a central
point – ‘the germinating spores’ –
they collect ‘food items’ as they
wind their way through the
‘woodland’. Strategically placed
wooden posts (trees) act as food
sources and direct the formation of
the network (Figure 1).
Once enough ‘food items’ have
been collected, the hyphae make
their way to an outer ring of posts
and once there they can look back
at the mycelium that they have
created. This can be discussed and
then the mycelium allowed to
produce ‘toadstools’. They can do
this by, for example, using cocktail
umbrellas, making their own
‘mushroom hats’ before they come,
or by each blowing up a red
balloon, initially wrapped in tissue
paper and sprinkled with water –
try it sometime! The children
become a perfect fairy ring – a nice
way to link into our own folklore.
Fungal food sources
The children are introduced to the
three main strategies that fungi use
to obtain their food. Two activities
(Build a tree – a Joseph Cornell
activity adapted with his
permission and Mushroom murder
mystery) are used to introduce the
ideas of mycorrhizal (food
exchangers), saprotrophic
(recyclers) and parasitic fungi.
‘Exchanging’ and ‘recycling’ are
both ideas that children are
familiar with. The latter is of
particular interest because the
process of recycling by humans is a
LIFE PROCESSES
part of the curriculum – so it is
important for the children to
understand that recycling is of
major importance in the natural
world as well.
But the idea of fungi as ‘parasites’
needs handling with care. There is
nothing that children like better
than a good ‘murder mystery’. The
idea that one of the trees in their
game is going to die is a wonderful
‘hook’. Care must be taken
however, that the whole activity
does not revolve around ‘the
dreadful deed’, however much fun
is generated by it! The leader must
explain that in the wild wood, the
parasites have an important role to
play in taking out the weaker trees,
opening up the canopy and
providing a wonderful habitat for
other fungi, invertebrates, birds
and so on up the food chain.
Using keys
The children are encouraged to
Glossary
Fairy ring – a ring of fruit bodies
formed at the active outer edge
of a single mycelial network.
Some rings can be hundreds of
years old and visible from space.
Hyphae – fungi are composed of
minute, thread-like strings of
cells called hyphae (singular –
hypha).
Mycelium – the hidden network
of hyphae, forming the ‘body’ of
the fungus and from which the
fruit bodies arise.
Mushroom or toadstool –
there is no scientific distinction
between the two names – both
refer to umbrella-shaped fruiting
bodies whose function is to
produce and disperse spores.
Mycorrhizal – describing a
symbiotic association between a
fungus and a tree or higher plant,
involving the mycelium of the
fungus and the root system of
the plant – exchangers.
Parasite – a fungus that is
gaining nutrition at the expense
of another living organism.
Saprotroph – a fungus that is
gaining nutrition from alreadydead plant material – recyclers.
Spore – the reproductive cell of
a fungus.
look closely at real toadstools
growing in the site used for the
activity. They work in small groups,
each with an adult. Using dental
mirrors (or you can improvise your
own), the children can see
underneath the cap, usually finding
enough information to answer the
questions in the illustrated key
provided (see below), without
having to pick every toadstool. The
children seem to particularly enjoy
this activity; they are focused and
interested and learn a lot about the
different parts of the toadstool and
some of the different shapes that
fungi can take. Using keys to
identify living things, a curriculum
requirement, often presents a
challenge to schools. The key that
was developed for this activity The
fungi name trail: a key to commoner
fungi (jointly published by the
British Mycological Society and the
Field Studies Council) offers a
simple, brightly illustrated,
dichotomous key (see FSC
Publications website).
Fungi come in all shapes and sizes
Fungi and people and fungi and
food chains
Some time should be spent indoors
where the children can look at
different displays and find out
about the ways that people use
fungi in their everyday lives; for
instance how do fizzy drinks,
bread, marmite, chocolate and
instant coffee involve fungi in their
production, and where do fungi fit
into food chains?
Health and safety matters
Aberdeenshire Council Health and
Safety Unit have assisted in the
production of a set of risk
assessments, which accompany
each of the activities listed in the
teacher’s notes. In general, always
carry out a risk assessment before
working outside the classroom,
always wash your hands after
handling fungi and never eat
anything that you have cultivated
or collected as a part of the
educational process. There are
several sources of further
information and reassurance
available, including the
Microbiology in Schools Advisory
Committee (MISAC), The
Consortium of Local Education
Authorities for the Provision of
Science Services (CLEAPSS) and, in
Scotland, the Scottish Schools
Equipment Research Centre
(SSERC). Health and safety
awareness is all about allowing
children to experience activities
such as these safely by
understanding the risks and
dealing with them appropriately.
How does all this fit into the
curriculum?
The activities described above and
in the other available resources for
this age group, such as the British
Mycological Society publication
How the mushroom got its spots – an
explainer’s guide to fungi by Sue
Assinder and Gordon Rutter, can
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easily be integrated into the
National Curriculum for England,
Wales and Northern Ireland and
into the Scottish guidelines. For
example, recording fungal form
and habitat using a worksheet
involves a simple scientific study
with children evaluating and
presenting evidence – a central
theme of Scientific enquiry (Sc1).
In Scotland the guidelines for the
science component of Environmental
Studies 5–14 include an attainment
outcome on Living things and the
processes of life. At the earliest stages
of primary school, studies of the
local environment are encouraged,
to allow children to appreciate how
living things depend upon each
other; whilst in later stages of
primary (P4–P7) the importance of
conservation and recycling should
be introduced.
The resources are now available
to enable fungi to take their place
in science teaching throughout a
child’s school career; if primary
schools are prepared to lay sound
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foundations, then future graduates
of our education system should
have a clearer idea of what fungi
are and the important contribution
they make to our world.
Liz Holden is a freelance field
mycologist working on fungal
distribution and ecology, with a
particular interest in education.
Email: [email protected]
Websites
British Mycological Society (BMS) Fungi 4
Schools: www.fungi4schools.org
Consortium of Local Education Authorities
for the Provision of Science Services
(CLEAPSS): www.cleapss.org.uk
FSC Publications: www.field-studiescouncil.org/publications/
Microbiology in Schools Advisory
Committee (MISAC):
www.microbiologyonline.org.uk/
what.htm
Scottish Schools Equipment Research
Centre (SSERC): www.sserc.org.uk