A game to teach the life cycles of fungi

Abstract

Three difficulties encountered by students studying the life cycles of fungi are discussed: (a) Correlating photomicrographs, which sometimes include artefacts, with schematic drawings; (b) Correlating the life cycles of parasitic fungi with those of their hosts and the symptoms of fungal disease; (c) Understanding the cyclic development of fungi, which may have alternating micro- and macro-cycles. A game, developed to help students to overcome these difficulties, is described. Pictures of fungi, as seen by students through microscopes and in their textbooks, have to be correlated in the game with drawings of the fungi. An identification sheet allows students to check their results. Students then have to place cards, on which there are drawings of the different stages in the development of various fungi and their hosts, on a board, so that the parallel stages of host and parasite are next to each other and the photomicrograph drawings form a cycle. In the case of rusts, two cycles have to be produced, and...