Sawdust, Spawn, and Shiitake
Van T. Cotter, Carol J. Lanphear-Cook February 1988 The Science Teacher p 45-48
This journal article introduces a high school exercise that deals with shiitake, a fungus that plays an important role in the forests of Asia as a decomposer of recently dead trees and in agriculture as an important edible mushroom. The objectives of this exercise are for students to learn how to grow edible mushrooms on a small scale and to discover some basic aspects of fungal biology, such as the differences between the vegetative state and the reproductive state of the fungus. The article includes an easy-to-follow protocol and illustrative figures to demonstrate the activity.
