by Diane Cretin
I wanted to do some kind of science activity with Olivia this week. I decided on an easy yet fascinating activity where you make a mushroom spore print. (You will see how to do this at the end of the blog post.) This made me think about what kind of "spore" or impressions I leave behind when I go somewhere or interact with people.
Out in nature, I believe it is important to leave things as you found them unless you can do something to make things better. Definitely do not litter! In fact, it is good to pick up trash if you find some if a not-so-thoughtful person was there ahead of you.
Psalm 19:14 says:
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Do we question if what we are doing or saying is pleasing to God? How do people feel after they see you or talk to you? These days it may be that people interact with you from a distance - via facetime or zoom or 6 feet apart outside. Do people feel better after these times? Do they feel encouraged, joyful, excited, or more hopeful? Do they feel less isolated? What message or action can we do to leave a positive wake behind us? Also, remember that we leave impressions even when we don't show our face. We can call someone who is struggling or write a note to someone who lives alone or whom we appreciate. I received a note from someone several weeks ago and I still feel appreciated every time I think of it. I also kept it so I can read it again whenever I get discouraged.
If you live with family members or roommates, do they feel better or worse after your interactions? I think we are not always as careful with those we live with as compared to how we act with friends or co-workers as we are not trying to impress them. However, I think we do each of us a disservice if we don't give priority to what happens when we are with our family or roommates. They should actually be the ones we care about the most. Other people may come and go, but if we are lucky, our family will be around for a long time. Since we will leave an impression with either our words or actions, let's make them be good ones.
Now for the experiment - Mushroom Spore Prints
My reference book was The Biology of Bananas - Discover and Learn with 22 Experiments by Katie Steckles. This is a Kane Miller book, available from Usborne Books.
Mushrooms are considered a vegetable, but they are very different than most other plants we eat. Mushrooms are fruiting bodies of fungi, which means they are created by fungi in order to spread their spores, which they use to reproduce.
The spores are tiny, consisting of a single cell and forming a powder-like substance. This drops from the underside of the mushroom. It is carried away by water evaporating from the mushroom and by the wind, so it can land elsewhere and grow into a new plant. Scientists use this natural property of the spores to make a picture, called a spore print, which they can use to identify mushrooms based on the shape and color of the resulting image.
You will need:
- One or more mature flat mushrooms (I got portabella mushrooms)
- Blank white paper
- Hair spray or other spray fixative (optional)
What to do:
Get one or more large mushrooms at the store. I opted to get two in order to have two chances to have this experiment work correctly. Olivia and I each worked with one.
The underside of any mushroom used should have visible black spores. You should remove the stem to help allow the mushroom to lie flat.
We also peeled back the edge of the mushroom to help it have a better chance to lie flat. When I pulled off the stem, a little of the mushroom spore area came off with it despite me being careful.
After prepping your mushroom, you want to put it spore side down on a blank piece of paper. We used printer paper. The book suggested you cover the mushroom with a bowl to make sure it is not disturbed. Since we put ours in a safe place, we did not do this.
Leave your mushroom in place for at least several hours, but overnight if possible. We left ours overnight.
When your time is up, carefully lift the mushroom off of the paper. Tiny black spores falling from the underside of the mushroom will have created an image of the mushroom on paper. Be careful not to smudge the image. You can use hairspray or other spray fixative (sprayed from far away, so you don't disturb the spores) to set the picture so it can be kept.
Here are our first results.
Mushroom 1 Mushroom 2
We realized that mushroom 2 (Olivia's mushroom) was more domed in shape than mushroom 1, which is why the print was lighter. We decided to try again with a few changes to see if we could still get a darker print. I pushed down fairly hard on mushroom 2, which actually broke it apart. Then I set a big container of apple juice on top of it. We left it overnight again.
We liked the darker print we got this time. We used the same paper in order to see the contrast. Below is a close up.
I hope you enjoy making a mushroom spore print and that you take some time to think about what kind of impressions you leave behind you.
Continued blessings,
Diane