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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 4 – 6 |
| Time required | Long (a couple of weeks) to Very Long (several weeks to months) |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Material Availability | This project requires access to a place where mushrooms grow wildly (and you have permission to harvest them) or the purchase of a mushroom growing kit from an online vendor. |
| Cost | Low ($20-$50) |
| Safety | Do not eat any mushrooms that you find growing in the wild. |
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Sponsor
| Sponsored by a generous grant from Monsanto Fund |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
Mushrooms are not plants, but are fungi. Fungi include mushrooms, molds, and lichen. They do not produce seeds to reproduce like some plants. Fungi produce spores, like more primitive plants do. The spores of a mushroom are contained in the tiny folds around the stem underneath the mushroom cap. Different species of mushrooms have different types of spores, with different colors and different patterns of folds. You can make mushroom prints by removing the stem from a mushroom and placing the cap on a white piece of paper, leaving it undisturbed overnight. In the morning you can carefully lift the cap to see a design left by the release of the tiny spores. What do the spore patterns from different species of mushrooms look like? You can collect the spores from different species and try to propagate them in a nutrient rich humus or manure. Which species are easiest to propagate? Do mushrooms need the same things as plants to grow? (Gardner & Webster, 1987, 42)Bibliography
Gardner, R. and Webster, D. 1987. Science in Your Backyard. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Plant Biology Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2008-11-11 12:25:39
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