This video presents mushroom fiber coffins as a sustainable alternative to traditional coffins.
Students learn about mycelium, mushroom coffins, and why they are more suitable for the environment.
Teaching Tips
Positives
It explains the concept simply and is easy to understand.
Engaging visuals accompany this video.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should know about mushrooms.
Students should know that many bodies, especially in the West, are injected with chemicals like formaldehyde and glycerin for preservation.
The video contains text, but no audio narration.
Differentiation
English or art students could watch this video when discussing the theme of death in literature or art.
Science teachers could use this video to introduce the chemistry of body decomposition or the role of fungi as decomposers.
Teachers could use this video to explain the circle of life (humans feed on mushrooms and mushrooms are aiding human body decomposition).
Scientist Notes
The resource attempts to quantify the impact of the human body on groundwater and soil quality. Mushroom coffins are tested as a good alternative to neutralize toxins from the human body after burial. This research if scaled up could restore forest and natural ecosystems to a large extent. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
