Fungi

For the wedge, are fungi plants or animals? If you said plants, pass the dice over, my friend. With the help of two teens and friendly narrators, Fungi, one of four titles in the Simple Organisms in Action series, takes viewers on an excellent foray into Kingdom Fungi, revealing the way mushroom and molds reproduce, thrive, and ultimately benefit humans in many ways (including penicillin), while also putting misconceptions to rest. Combining lively, humorous segments ("Micro Hero" and "The Secret Life of Hyphae") with a hands-on demo of how yeast makes bread rise, the program also features great graphics, good attention to vocabulary, and lots of information related to "real life" (in fact, students will never look at the mushrooms on their pizza in quite the same way again). The other titles in the series are: Bacteria, Protists and Viruses. Highly recommended. Aud: I, J, P. (E. Gieschen)