Total Lesson Time: 120 - 242 minutes (2 hours - 4 hours, 2 min) plus 1 day to reveal spore prints
Introduction
Have you ever wondered what happens to all the leaves falling off the trees in the forest? (Hint, no one's out there raking them up...) Why have our parents and teachers always told us never to touch mushrooms? Did you know that one species of mushroom can withstand heat and actually allowed our early cavemen ancestors to become nomads because they could transport their fires in this mushroom?! Come along on a mushroom adventure to learn about this super FUN(gi) forest organism!
In this lesson, we will become mycologists (scientist who study mushrooms!). You will learn about safe mushroom handling, learn the anatomy of a mushroom, learn how to make spore prints, consider all the ways to observe a mushroom in order to identify it, and learn about the largest organism on the planet (hint: it's a mushroom!). Let's GO!
Spend 5-15 minutes journaling in your field journal on these reflection questions:
Where have you seen mushrooms growing?
What do you think of when you see mushrooms?
What questions do you have about mushrooms?
Watch Mycelium Irwin's video to learn the vocab words to describe the anatomy of a mushroom
Let's learn more about Humongous Fungus! Visit PBS Oregon Field Guide to watch the Humongous Fungus video. Take this quiz after the video to see what you've learned.
Wow! Mushrooms, er, mycelium sure can get BIG! Did you know that the largest living organism in the world is in Oregon?? And it’s a fungus!!!
Mycelium
Wrapping your mind around the “Mycelium” can be kind of hard, especially because it’s underground and we can’t see it! It can be helpful to compare new vocabulary to something you already know. Think about an apple tree. How does that apple tree reproduce and grow a new apple tree?
Right, fruit trees produce fruit that has seeds in it. When an animal eats that fruit and poops out its seeds, bam-new tree! Pine trees are similar with their pinecones. Consider the Mycelium like the “tree” of a mushroom, and the mushroom itself like the fruit it produces to spread its “seed!” (spores!)
Alright friends, let’s test our knowledge and see what we’ve learned! Write your answers in your Field Journal or print out the “Mushroom Anatomy Labeling worksheet” and fill it in.
Watch some final words from Mycelium Irwin to answer these questions (write your answer in your Field Journal)!
How do mushrooms age?
Where can I find mushrooms?
Foraging
Watch this video from Bee to get a few final tips before your go out to forage on your own *with adult permission!"
Go Forage Students!!! The greatest part of mushroom foraging is that they will grow anywhere and everywhere! With a parent or guardian's permission, go outside and look in the grass in your backyard, in the pine needles at the base of trees, on stumps and logs, in a local park on the edges of the lawn, in apartment complexes in any patch of dirt or grass, along the sidewalk on the median of dirt/grass… You just have to go out and look! Be patient, mushrooms can be very camouflaged, and they’re often not fully emerged from what they’re growing out of (sometimes a layer of dirt or leaves will be pushed up in a mound, when you move the dirt, there’s a mushroom!).
When you do find a mushroom, make some observations first. Is it the only mushroom growing there, or are there several? If there are several, it’s okay to pick: carefully dig a finger an inch or so below its base, and pull it up out of the ground. If it’s the only one, leave it to grow, but still make these observations:
Create a rough sketch of it in your nature journal
What color is it?
How big is it (use a measuring tape or ruler)?
Describe its smell, (For example: no smell, earthy, wet, cinnamon…)
How is it shaped?
Where is it growing? (on a log, in the grass, etc.)
Anything you notice! Does it remind you of anything? Does it make you wonder anything?
If you picked it, store it in your paper bag or basket and keep looking for more! Every time you find a mushroom, be sure to make those observations.
If you can’t find any mushrooms, and you’ve given it your best shot for at least 17 minutes, then you can use this Mushroom Photos documentfilled with a ton of pictures of a great variety of mushrooms. Look through the entire thing, then pick your favorite, and make all the above observations about the mushroom in the photo in your field journal.
Spore Prints!
Watch this video of Bee to learn how to make spore prints, and then you'll try it!
Taking Spore Prints:
If you weren’t able to find a mushroom on your first try looking, I suggest waiting a day and looking again in a new spot. Or wait a week and look again in the same spot! Or wait for a rainstorm and go foraging as soon as it subsides (or during!). I guarantee if you give it your best shot, you will find a mushroom.
Once you do find a mushroom (or a few!), you get to make a spore print!
Spore prints tend to work best with the cap-and-gill variety mushrooms like this oyster mushroom:
Spore prints aren’t so good with other types of mushrooms like these: Turkey Tails, Jelly Fungus, Coral Fungus
It’s always good to experiment, so work with what you got! And try to find a cap-and-gill to see a classic “control” spore print. When you have a cap-and-gill style mushroom, separate the cap from the stem (I just use my finger to pinch the stem off as close to the cap as possible). Set the cap gill-side-down on a sheet of white paper. If you have black paper around too, even better. Set it half on white, and half on black. If you don’t have black paper, you can color a stripe of black with a marker on your white paper, (Having some black background just enables you to see the spore print if it turns out white!).
Once you’ve laid out all the mushrooms you’re spore printing, find a bowl or box and cover the paper they’re sitting on, then leave the whole set-up in an less-trafficked area of your home. Spores are extremely delicate, the slightest breeze or bump will disturb them--so the less disturbance, the clearer print you’ll get! Leave the mushrooms for a full 24 hours.
After 24 hours, lift up the caps and see what spore prints have been left behind!
Cut and paste your spore print in your field journal. How did it turn out? What color is it? Can you clearly see gill lines, or is it too faint or too thick?
Identification
Identification:
Once you’ve made spore prints, you should now have the answers to all the questions you’ll need in order to identify your mushroom:
Describe the shape of your mushroom (cap and gill, or other)
If it had a cap, describe the shape of the cap (bell, round, flat, other…)
Describe the coloring of the mushroom
Describe the coloring of the spore print
Describe the size of the mushroom
Consider where it was growing (on a log, in the dirt, in manicured grass, in wild grass…)
Describe its smell
Any other observations!
You can get a mushroom ID book from your local library or bookstore: “All that the Rain Promises and More” by David Arora is my personal favorite because it walks you right through the identification process by asking questions whose answers lead you to the next question, until eventually it tells you which mushrooms your sample could be. I got mine as a used copy at Powell’s for $5.99
If you were unable to find any mushrooms or get quality spore prints, check out these mushroom photos and spore prints . You can observe a variety of species and use them in the AI Identification Tool, by screenshotting photos you like to save locally on your computer for upload.
Or, you can use an online identification tool. The next video is a tutorial on how to use this online ID tool!
Wondering how Mushrooms can be used in our society?
Well, they may be one of the tools we use in the coming decades to combat climate change! The mycelium structure can be used in extremely creative ways. For thousands of years, humans have harnessed the amazing properties of yeast, a type of fungus that breaks down sugar molecules into new chemical structures. This process is called Fermentation. Humans have used fermentation to create beer, wine, cheese, and bread! Without fermentation, THERE’S NO PIZZA! Fermentation has also been used to create medicine, fuel, and fragrances. Fermentation, to put it broadly, is the process of breaking down molecules into smaller pieces and building them into new molecules. Think of it like Lego sets: If you tore apart Hogwarts Castle and reassembled it into Hyrule Castle, that would make you like a giant fungus! Yeast can only assemble microscopic structures; structures that you cannot see with your naked eye.
Mycelium is another type of fungus that is able to make macrostructures! Earlier in this lesson you went outside and found one of these macrostructures, they’re called mushrooms! Mycelium breaks down molecules from sugar, wood, or plants and assembles them into a dense network of long, microscopic fibers they form into something that resembles a highway system. From there, the mycelium begins building the fibers into a mushroom. This is where humans can intervene: by controlling temperature, CO2, humidity and airflow, scientists can ‘hack’ mycelium, and make them form predictable structures. Mycelium can be used to replace plastic packaging or for growing artificial leather and meat. It can even be used to create the scaffolding upon which we can grow human organs for transplant!
Watch these final words from Bee and think about what you've learned in this lesson. Then, answer the reflection questions below and fill in the Mushroom Mania Crossword Puzzle.
Spend 5-15 minutes journaling in your field journal on these reflection questions:
What is the most interesting thing you learned from this lesson about mycology?
Describe in your own words how mushrooms help the forest ecosystem.
What is 1 thing you’re still wondering about mushrooms?
