Review #9

Barcoding Life's Matrix: Translating Biodiversity Genomics into High School Settings to Enhance Life Science Education

Citation: Santschi, L., Hanner, R., Ratnasingham, S., Riconscente, M., Imondi, R. (2013). Barcoding life's matrix: translating biodiversity genomics into high school settings to enhance life science education. PLoS Biol,11(1): e1001471. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001471

Review:  The opening paragraph of the introduction to this study states that research suggests that most high school laboratory experiences do not meet guidelines for effective science instruction.  Because of the rapid growth of molecular life science and bioinformatics, this field holds an even bigger challenge than most areas of science.  This field is also so information-heavy that finding the correct level for student understanding is difficult.  Other challenges exist as well, such as integration of knowledge across allied scientific fields, emphasizing function over fact, modeling how the information works in real-world settings, and the more practical issues of teacher preparation, the current testing environment, overcrowded classrooms, lack of supplies and access to scientific literature.  The writers propose discovery-based science education as a possible solution to some of the existing challenges of secondary science education.  Their specific solution is the process of DNA barcoding.  This is a new system of eukaryotic species identification.  For those who aren't biology majors, a eukaryotic cell has a nucleus, chromosomes, and many other cell parts such as endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria.  Eukaryotes are commonly multicellular organisms such as animals and plants.  In contrast, a one-celled organism such as a bacterium has a prokaryotic cell, which commonly has no nucleus and only one chromosome, and that's not even really a true chromosome.  Prokaryotes can be multicellular, but most are not.

DNA barcoding uses barcode data to link data from traditional, taxonomic information about genes to DNA information obtained from the genes themselves.  The reference records are contained within BOLD, the Barcode of Life Data Systems, which is online and accessible to the public.  The project included a seven-day residential research institute held at a marine biology laboratory, where students had the opportunity to actually conduct research with real scientists.  Students who participated in this institute created a presentation about their experience, which they performed publicly at a visitor center.  Teachers were provided with professional development opportunities designed to give them the tools they needed to engage students in the submission of their own barcode data in their own labs.  Because it is so intensive, enrollment requires a 12-month commitment and support from an administrator.  

The curriculum was then condensed into 16 units covering a wide span of biological sciences.  Barcoding Life's Matrix has a website with teacher resources of multimedia instructional materials.  (Once a teacher has created an account, he or she can view most of the resources publicly.)  Students collect targeted marine specimens and process the tissue, record the data and collection details, and upload the data to the BOLD database.  The students can acquire data and record it in the field using a smartphone app, even using a barcode such as a QR code.  

The Barcoding Life's Matrix project has engaged over 1,000 high school students since its inception in 60 California cities and seven states.  These students have submitted 716 professional quality reference DNA barcode records, creating a valuable reference for the Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary as well as adding to the Ocean Genome Resource of Ocean Genome Legacy in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  The researchres were pleased with these results, suggesting that this model could be replicated in secondary as well as post-secondary education.

Reflection:  After writing about a press release last time, I wanted to go a little more scientific with this review.  After all, my principal is always after us to increase the rigor in our lessons and the common core shift requires us to find more real-life connections for our students (which goes right along with the instructional design principles I've learned over the years), so, in preparation for next year when I'll be teaching anatomy again (Yay!  Seriously!!!  I'm actually excited!), I thought I'd challenge myself to find some information about ways to include really serious biotechnology into my high school classroom next year.  While this article didn't really sound like many of the instructional technology articles I've read in the past, it does involve student use of computers and mobile devices such as smartphones with apps for the project.

I had hoped when I started reading the article that this would be something I could start next year.  Since I have other plans during the two training sessions, I can't go this summer, but possibly in the future.  Still, I learned a lot reading this article (and I'm sure I would learn more every time I read it, because some of it is still over my head) and I hope I can utilize some of the lessons as they exist.