1. Use films or slides to show students what protoctists look like and how they move and reproduce.
2. Discuss how the parasitic forms of kingdom Protoctista have adapted to their life-style.
3. Discuss whether all the organisms placed in the kingdom Protoctista are really closely related to each other (they probably aren't) and whether it might be more reasonable to separate them into different kingdoms (some have suggested that it would be more reasonable to have as many as nineteen kingdoms).
4. Discuss the importance of the algae as the base of the food chain in both freshwater and marine environments.
5. Point out that lichens can be made up of fungi and either green algae or cyanobacteria, and examine how they could be symbiotic and how the fungus could be parasitic on the alga or the bacterium.
6. Discuss the industrial and commercial uses of
protoctists (mainly algae).