Materials:

• Cardboard
• Tag Paper (Sticky white paper)
• Mushroom
• 4 straight pins
• Bowl

Procedure:

1. Place tag paper on cardboard.
2. Break off stem from mushroom, or cut it just above the cap’s height.
3. Press 4 straight pins into the outer rim of the mushroom.
4. Press pins through the paper and into the cardboard.  Do not let the mushroom touch the glue.
5. Place the bowl upside down over the mushroom.
6. Remove the bowl after 24 hours.
7. Carefully lift the mushroom off of the paper.
8. 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.