Day 3: Research Team
The team were invited to take part in a mushroom and mycelium growing course. During this, we learned about the conditions in which mushrooms grow and how mycelium is grown in house. We helped prepare various growing mediums such as agar solution - which involved heating water, agar, and glucose together - and straw - which involved shredding hay with an electric shredder and sterilising it with boiling water. After pasteurising the straw, we added mycelium strains which created a substrate for mushroom growing bags which we got to take home.
The course was a great opportunity to learn more about the growth, accessibility, and wide use of mycelium, but also helped us understand what courses like these mean to the community from the other local students who were in attendance.
The course will continue at the Boiler House tomorrow and we are eager to continue learning!

Day 7:

On day 7 the research team were cracking on with research on mycelium insulation, its life cycle and its uses compared to the unsustainable alternative PIR.
There was a lot of collective research into the production sequence and the thermal properties of the relevant insulation via wordy journal articles.
It was also an opportunity to share around software knowledge and graphic design ideas as each member had their own pages to contribute.
It may be more of the same the next day but at least snacks can help with motivation.