Do you get the privilege of teaching about fungi and implementing some fungi activities in your middle school classroom? It’s SUCH a neat topic to teach to your students. I mean, you can make medicine with fungi, eat fungi, use fungi to clean up oil spills, and more. However, at the same time, fungi can be pretty bad too…eww mold and zombie fungus!!
Well, maybe your students don’t think fungi is as cool as I think it is, but don’t worry, we will get them there using the WOW Factor!
Here are 7 ways to WOW your students and help them to learn all about the fungi kingdom, why it’s different from plants, animals, bacteria, etc., and will get them excited to learn even more!
Fungi Activities for Introduction
I’m a firm believer in giving students some type of hook to get them excited about a topic. All topics in science are interesting because, hello, it’s real world! However, you just got to get students to the same place you are in. Here are three fungi activities you can try out before you dive into the fungi lesson. You can do just one or you can even do all three!
Fungi Sort : Real or Fake
Well, before your students learn more about the fungi kingdom, give them a shot at guessing what fungi is! See if they can determine what real fungi is and what might be fake.
- Find images of fungi – real ones. They can be intriguing ones like the zombie fungi, glow in the dark fungi, truffles, and more. You can also find images of yeast, molds, mushrooms, and the works.
- Create some “fake fungi” images using AI.
- Either print these images or post them onto slides to present to students.
- See if they can guess which are real fungi and which are fake!
This will give them an idea of all of the unique organisms out there in the fungi kingdom.
Fungi Food Party
I’m not going to lie. This WONDER strategy is a little out of my comfort zone. Why? Because I’m a picky eater, but as a middle school teacher, I love this idea, and your middle school students will too!
So, what is a fungi food party? This is where you have a little taste testing of some fungi or a food that was created using fungi.
You can bring:
- Bread that was made with yeast
- Mushrooms (of course)
- Blue cheese
I, personally, can only stomach the bread, but you can do whatever you want in your classroom!
Zombie Ant Video
Don’t have time to do the fungi activities above? If you are looking for a quick and simple hook, you can show this video about the “zombie” parasite Cordyceps fungus. This will surely grab your students’ attention.
This parasitic fungus infects ants and begins to control their behavior. It’s so wild!
Fungi Interactive Lesson
Now that you’ve done some super cool WONDER fungi activities to get your students excited about the topic, it’s time to dive into the lesson!
I LOVE interactive lessons because they use the 7 steps to help students RETAIN information.
Interactive lessons are set up to where students learn a bit of material, then there is a formative assessments question, they learn more, and so on!
The fungi interactive lesson teaches all about the fungi and its characteristics: eukaryotic, heterotrophic, filamentous body structure, storage carbohydrate – glycogen, cell wall made of chitin, reproduction by spores, and that it lives in diverse environments. This lesson also dives into the types of fungi: mushrooms, molds, yeast, and lichen.
Throughout the lesson, students will do activities such as an anticipation guide, vocabulary matching, drag-and-drop true/false, and more! All of these activities are to help students slow down and process what they are learning.
It makes it more engaging too!
This lesson can be done by direct instruction with guided notes, in a flipped classroom, and more! It’s made to meet various teaching styles.
As of now, this lesson can only be found in the Bright in the Middle Membership!
Fungi Activities to WIDEN Knowledge
So, you’ve taught the lesson about fungi. What’s next? Well, if time allows, I highly suggest a WIDEN activity so that students can learn even more about fungi!
Here are some ideas!
Cannon Fungus
This WIDEN activity does cost and takes some time, but if you have the time and funds, it can be worth It. You will need to order a Pilobolus culture kit online, so this activity will require some advanced planning.
Also, this fungus is grown in rabbit dung, so there’s that. Be sure you have a strong stomach!
All of the info is on Science Buddies, so take a look! If you don’t have the means to do this activity, check out the next two WIDEN activities!
Fungi Trading Card Creation
Here’s an easy and fun way to explore more about the different fungi. In this activity, students will create a “trading card” with a particular fungi species.
- Either assign students a fungus or allow them to choose their own.
- Give them a trading card template or allow them students to draw their own with guidance.
- On the front of the card, students can draw a picture of the fungus. They also need to put the name of the fungus (scientific name too for bonus points!).
- On the back of the card, they can list information such as Kingdom: Fungi, the type, where it lives, how it obtains energy, is it helpful or harmful, weird facts, and more!
- Once they are finished, they can share them with the class.
Mushroom Dissection Lab
Another cool hands-on activity is to dissect a fungus – a mushroom to be exact! Suburban Science has a great video explaining this!
Bonus: National Donut Day Lab
Whether it’s National Donut Day, close to it, or nowhere near that time, this is still a fun lab! In this lab, students explore yeast (fungi) and cake donuts, really focusing on the yeast. Students watch what happens when yeast and sugar are mixed and learn all about what yeast is, and that it’s alive AND helps us make delicious donuts!
You can learn all about it here.
[…] Looking for a particular kingdom lesson, like fungi? […]