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Discover the Microbes Within!: The Wolbachia Project
This hands-on science project from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) emphasizes the process of conducting real-world scientific research at the high school level. In “Discover the Microbes Within!: The Wolbachia Project,” students find and study Wolbachia, a widespread bacterium that lives symbiotically in at least 20 percent of the world’s insect population. The project’s annual teachers’ workshop at the MBL and its website present an integrated series of five labs, supplemented by PowerPoint lectures and an introductory video. These five lab modules are designed to be either individually incorporated into daily lesson plans addressing National Science Education Standards or used as a unit that progressively emphasizes the nature of long-term science. The first lab introduces students to the diversity and abundance of insects and helps them prepare the specimens they collect during field work for DNA analysis. In subsequent labs, students use biotechnology techniques (DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, and gel electrophoresis) to investigate whether these local insects contain the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia. The final lab, on DNA Sequence Analysis, shows students how the online database from the National Center for Biology Information (NCBI) classifies and organizes information on DNA sequences, evolutionary relationships, and scientific publications. Students then learn to retrieve genetic sequence data from the NCBI database to identify the “Wolbachia sequence” they generated. The website also contains a slide show from a Massachusetts teacher who conducted the project and found that about 40 percent of the insects tested were positive for Wolbachia.
Insect Identification Guide
This slide, which supports the project's Insect Identification Lab, helps students identify the insects in their localities that might contain the bacterium Wolbachia.
Program Director: Dr. William Reznikoff
Award Years: 2007
Summary: The Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research, education, and training in biology, biomedicine, and ecology in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Its HHMI-funded initiative includes:
- “Discover the Microbes Within: The Wolbachia Project,” which offers professional development for high school biology teachers and a series of labs and lectures on real-world research using the endosymbiont Wolbachia, a widespread bacterium. The project’s goals are to: broaden the access of high school students to real-world research; promote nationwide participation in the collection and reporting of new scientific data on bacterial endosymbionts; enhance student interest in and understanding of biology through an integrated lab series spanning from biodiversity to molecular biology; and show students what it is like to be a scientist.