#474: Hyphae and other fungal vocabulary

Merlin Sheldrake's book 'An Entangled Life' explores the world of fungi, and provides some very useful additional information on key words linked to this organism.

A hypha (from Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ) 'web'; pl.: hyphae) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium.

In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium.

These run beneath the ground, and fungi are the fruiting bodies.

A reminder that developing new vocabulary will be part of any new GCSE... what vocabulary makes the list remains to be seen.

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared on Flickr under CC license

#57: Fabulous Fungi Learning

A resource shared on the Linnean Society website.

Fabulous Fungi explores the hidden strands that connect fungi together beneath the ground. 

Fungi play a vital role in nutrient cycling in woodlands and would certainly form part of the investigations which students would be asked to complete when exploring UK woodlands, which are likely to be used for fieldwork by many schools. 

Identifying some fungi might also form part of the specification as well.

Check out the full set of activities and notes for teachers on the Great Science Share for Schools website.

There are separate activities for:Key Stage 1 (age 5-7)
Key stage 2 (age 7-11)
Key stage 3 (age 11-14)

Each enquiry provides teachers notes, teaching slides, a supporting video and links to resources guiding pupils to work scientifically and find out more about Carl Linnaeus.

Here is one of the videos:

Image: Mushroom, Litcham Common, shared under CC license

The main organisation here is the British Mycological Society.

They have a Mycokids section, which is perhaps aimed at slightly younger children than GCSE age.