A group of seventh graders from Sheila Smith’s classes at Blue Ridge Elementary School were treated to a program all about fungi and mushrooms. They learned that mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungus that produces spores. It grows from underground mycelia.
The students were led in activities using a key to identify locally foraged mushrooms. They then set up a mushroom bucket layering straw and mushroom spawn to grow blue oyster mushrooms in their classroom. The students also plugged shitake logs to grow outside on the school campus.
The program was led by Southwest Piedmont Master Naturalists Norma Bozenmayer, Julie Currier, Dayna Gibson and Clint Gibson.
