Abstract
Our aim was to develop a widely available educational program in which students conducted authentic research that met the expectations of both the scientific and educational communities. This paper describes the development and implementation of a citizen science project based on DNA barcoding of reptile specimens obtained from the Museums Victoria frozen tissue collection. The student program was run by the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC) and was delivered as a “one day plus one lesson” format incorporating a one-day wet laboratory workshop followed by a single lesson at school utilising online bioinformatics tools. The project leveraged the complementary resources and expertise of the research and educational partners to generate robust scientific data that could be analysed with confidence, meet the requirements of the Victorian state education curriculum, and provide participating students with an enhanced learning experience. During two 1-week stints in 2013 and 2014, 406 students mentored by 44 postgraduate university students participated in the project. Students worked mainly in pairs to process ~200 tissue samples cut from 53 curated reptile specimens representing 17 species. A total of 27 novel Cytochrome Oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) sequences were ultimately generated for 8 south-east Australian reptile species of the families Scincidae and Agamidae.
Highlights
A disconnect exists between the way experimental work is conducted in high school science in many developed countries and the way contemporary science is practised in academia and industry [1,2]
The design of the research project and the educational program was informed by the complementary expertise of both research scientists and the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC) educators
The educational program was delivered by GTAC educators together with PhD scientists
Summary
A disconnect exists between the way experimental work is conducted in high school science in many developed countries and the way contemporary science is practised in academia and industry [1,2]. The purposes of practical work in science education at secondary school (Grades 7–12) is a perennial topic in education literature Educators regard practical work as a means for students to learn technical skills and methodology, crystallise abstract. Implementing statewide educational DNA barcoding organizations only provided financial support in the form of the authors’ salaries and/or research materials but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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