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Discover the Microbes Within: The Wolbachia Project leverages the scientific expertise of the Marine Biological Laboratory to an integrative lab series on real-world research using the endosymbiont Wolbachia, a widespread bacteria that lives symbiotically in at least 20 percent of the world's insects. The project's four broad goals are to: (i) broaden access of high school students to real-world research (ii) promote nationwide participation in the collection and reporting of new scientific data on bacterial endosymbionts (iii) enhance student interest in and understanding of biology through an integrated lab series spanning from biodiversity to molecular biology and (iv) show students what it is like to be a scientist. These objectives challenge students throughout the whole year with laboratory exercises and summer research experiences on Wolbachia. They are founded on the principle that students naturally want to learn science the way science is done, and students who conduct their own science will enhance their understanding of scientific inquiry while also collecting reliable data. Discover the Microbes Within excels in this aspect as it teaches observation, conceptualization, scientific inquiry, and major concepts in Systematics and Biodiversity, Genomic DNA Isolation, Biotechnology, DNA Sequencing, Bioinformatics, and Molecular Evolution. These six lab modules are designed to be either individually incorporated into daily lesson plans addressing National Science Education Standards or as a coherent unit progressively emphasizing the nature of long-term science.
The project moves seamlessly from studying organisms to molecules and begins with students discovering the spectacular diversity of insects through insect collections, photo vouchering, and web-based taxonomic tools. This first unit establishes student ownership of the science as students decide which insects to collect and study. Students will then gain an understanding of DNA as the genetic material that connects all life and the forensic tool to investigate the unseen world of symbiotic bacteria in insects. In doing so, students will use biotechnology techniques including DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, and gel electrophoresis to investigate whether local insects contain the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia. The symbiont survey thus yields an end product (i.e. infection status of classified insects) that will be useful to the scientific community, as numerous insects will surely be discovered to harbor Wolbachia that were unknown to the scientific community. For those insects that test PCR positive for Wolbachia, students will partner with the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) for sequencing of Wolbachia genes. The student sequence data will be retrievable from an MBL sequence repository onto classroom and home computers. One of the most exciting aspects is that it will provide students with a forum to publish their DNA sequence data. The Wolbachia DNA sequence is another end product to the innovative lab series. Upon retrieval of DNA sequences, students will next BLAST for sequences similar, different, or identical to their own Wolbachia DNA in the published sequence database. In the last laboratory, students will construct a DNA-based phylogenetic tree with the sequences that they generate. Students will study genetic relatedness, evolutionary relationships, and classification methods based on DNA sequence information.
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