Materials:
- Cardboard
- Tag Paper (Sticky white paper)
- Mushroom
- 4 straight pins
- Bowl
Procedure:
- Place tag paper on cardboard.
- Break off stem from mushroom, or cut it just above the cap’s height.
- Press 4 straight pins into the outer rim of the mushroom.
- Press pins through the paper and into the cardboard. Do not let the mushroom touch the glue.
- Place the bowl upside down over the mushroom.
- Remove the bowl after 24 hours.
- Carefully lift the mushroom off of the paper.
- Discuss what you see. What part of the mushroom made a mark? Mushrooms release spores from pockets in ridges beneath the cap. This mushroom did this at night. The spores stuck to the paper and left a “mushroom print.” The spores are like little seeds for baby mushrooms.