Here’s How to Use Mushrooms to Teach STEM

What Is STEM?

We celebrated National STEM Day on November 8! The STEM acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These are the areas of study that future citizens will need to understand in order to be creative and contributing members of society.

This week, teachers around the world are highly focused on delivering quality STEM education to students of all ages. 

Start your journey with a Fantastic Fungi Field trip, part of Fungi Day 2020.

It’s possible to teach STEM lessons via virtual lessons as well as in a real-life classroom. The natural world provides immeasurable opportunities to explore how math and science affect the world around us. Teachers are heroes who are constantly innovating and researching new ways to teach kids. 

In an age where climate change is poorly understood by many adults, it’s critical that the next generation builds the skills necessary to understand and combat harmful environmental activities. Kids as young as five can begin to learn about science with simple experiments and research trips to the backyard. Older children can explore physics and chemistry, or build marshmallow houses to understand engineering. 

How To Teach STEM

Mushrooms and other fungi are a wonderful way to showcase the power of nature to young children. Here are some resources to help parents and teachers with STEM lesson plans for children. 

  • The Fantastic Fungi curriculum is available online. It provides lesson plans, videos, and other content inspired by the popular documentary. Teachers and students can access content about mushrooms, natural habitats, experiment outlines, and inspirational content that uses fungi to teach ecological interconnectedness to children of all ages.
  • If you’ve got kids who are into icky and yucky stuff, mold-based experiments could be a great way to sneak in some STEM lessons. Anyone can complete these lesson plans at home with just a bit of expired food and some time.

Education can be fun! As we celebrate National STEM Day this month, say a big thank you to the educators in your life. Look to the natural world for inspiration and commit to helping kids advance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Let’s all your free dis family know that it’s National STEM Day!

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