Slime mold reminds me of both eggs and those infectious disease balls you buy at gift shops..
Anyway! I listened to Peter's brief explanation of slime molds and read articles/watched videos of slime molds. There were many, many "time lapse" videos of slime molds doing their thing, because whilst they are very animated it's over a very long period of time. They grow/change at about 1mm an hour. For the sake of viewing and people not getting bored this is probably the best way to go about showing them.
Most descriptors of Slime molds tend to be positive. "Super-intelligent and harmonious" rather than destructive or dangerous. When it's described to people it's done so in a way that personifies the slime mold instead of being "just cells that destroy everything".
Fact building:
Does not like the cold. (Slows down growth process)
Is intelligent enough regardless of being a single-cell organism.
It will eat everything in it's way but in practical observation cleans up forests by eating decay and mulch.
Splits and reforms together.
Likes White Fungus.
Very active in Autumn.
My favourite idea about slime mold is that they are more helpful than dangerous. Whilst in massive quantities slime mold wouldn't be too healthy for someone to be around, they aren't toxic to walk past. Just don't eat them. When looking at time-lapses it could look quite terrifying as it seemingly spreads everywhere and eats everything in it's path, however it is an essential part of "cleaning up" forests during autumn so we aren't buried by leaves or decaying matter!
I'd like to aim my target audience towards early Keystage 2. (Or a little lower, even?!) I feel as if it's the age where kids are able enough to take information from imagery whilst not needing to be tied down to cold hard numbers or strings of information on a complex level compared to that of A-Level students.
As for slime mold itself, it isn't as serious as the 3 other choices, and so the story will probably be much more lighthearted!
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