EDUCATIONAL SUBJECT INTEGRATION POSSIBILITIES WHILE CONDUCTING PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONSIN PRIMARY SCHOOL CLASSES: “CAPPED MUSHROOM VARIETY AND CHANGE OBSERVATIONS IN VISAGINAS CITY”

We are participating in the projects by environmentalist schools for few years now and conducting phenological observations. For the past year and the half, together with the students, we performed a practical work – the observation of capped mushroom variety and change in Visaginas city. We created an educational film based on our practical work “Capped mushroom variety and change observations in Visaginas city”. Observation goal: To observe the capped mushrooms in the chosen area, to fixate (photograph) their species, to fill the weather calendar. The hypothesis is: the mushroom abundance and variety is determined by weather temperature and humidity. The duration of the observation: • 2016 September, 2017 April, May and September. The course of observation: • We chose the observation area and measured it by square meters; • Every day we observed and fixated growing capped mushrooms in the chosen area (we used smart phones); • We learned to indicate the varieties of the capped mushrooms; • We sorted out the trees under which the mushrooms were growing; • We learned to identify the trees and bushes by their leaves (we organized a contest-game “Find your tree or bush” in the class and in the observation area); • The weather calendar was filled; • We visited Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant's laboratory of observation and radiology; • We analysed the results of the observation and concluded the results; • We participated in the environmentalist camp; The results of the observation: • The chosen observation area's size is 168 m2 • There were 11 tree and bush varieties in the observation area; • We identified 26 capped mushroom varieties; • The educational leafs were prepared in order to identify trees, bushes and mushrooms; • The educational game “Identify the Mushroom!” was created; • It was concluded, that mushrooms growing in Visaginas are not radioactive; The interesting fact is, that on 2017 September (compared to the last year's September), new varieties of the mushroom were found. Such finding lets to conclude the hypothesis, that weather temperature and humidity determines the variety and abundance of mushrooms. The weather observation calendar logs verify, that 2017 September weather was warm and humid. That led to favourable conditions for a more varied variety of mushrooms and populated area sizes. The teaching of the subject of world cognition is strengthened by the integration of other subjects like: mathematics, Lithuanian language, arts and technologies, human safety.