Using DNA Barcoding and Educational Bioinformatics to Create Authentic Research Experiences for Science Students

In a pursuit to teach enough content to our science students, we often forget to instill the skills more generally characteristic of the scientific approach to inquiry. Here, we developed an experiential science curriculum that introduces students to modern biological research. Traditional means of studying biodiversity depend on expert knowledge from individuals with years of education and training. Recent techniques like DNA barcoding, the process of identifying species based on short fragments of DNA, can be used to quickly identify species and to provide easy access to taxonomic information.  We use DNA barcoding as the foundation of a research course that serves as an alternative to more traditional laboratories, which often have known outcomes and lack student-generated investigations. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the habits of a scientific mind, students pursue individual research projects and their data is managed and analyzed using the DNA Subway bioinformatics platform.  Students work in small groups, develop a research question or identify a species of interest, collect samples from their local environments, and then perform all related laboratory work and analysis.  Depending on the laboratory facilities available to classrooms, students can perform DNA extraction, gene amplification using PCR, and gel electrophoresis to confirm results.  Samples are then mailed to a third party facility for sequencing.  Once sequences are in hand, students can use the DNA subway pipeline developed by the iPlant Collaborative at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to edit, align, and identify results.  At the final stages of analysis, DNA subway provides the most important component of our DNA barcoding curriculum, the ability to upload results directly to GenBank, the National Institute of Health’s genetic sequence database, to be made available to the professional scientific community. We have successfully implemented this curriculum in a variety of settings, including high school classrooms in NYC and workshops for undergraduate students in Belize.  By introducing students to cutting-edge research techniques, our inquiry-based curriculum promotes evolution education, increases interest in conservation and biodiversity, and allows students to contribute directly to the scientific community.