Teach Environmental DNA
eDNA in the Classroom
Here at Jonah Ventures, we provide a complete lesson plan to incorporate and teach environmental DNA in your classroom curriculum
- Teach envrionmental DNA with our Jonah Ventures lesson plan tailored for 8th grade to college level students.
- This lesson plan works best when accompanied by our JonahWater or JonahAnimal test kits.
- The educational material combined with the test kit provides real-world metabarcoding analysis of a water body or animal diet, and applies it to classroom learning!
- With our resources, tools, and support, you can effectively teach environmental DNA in your classroom.
Our lesson plan includes:
Lesson Slides
Hands-on Activity
Follow-up Questions
Student Worksheet
Key Words
Teacher Instructions
Lesson Plan Objectives
Students will understand what eDNA is and how it is used
Your class will learn the entire process from eDNA collection to data analysis
The students will learn how primers work and be able to replicate the PCR process
Your class will understand Next Generation Sequencing
Finally, the class will gain the ability to think critically about eDNA ecological applications.
Our lesson slides include interesting, easy-to-follow graphics to help students visualize complex topics relating to PCR, Next Generation Sequencing, and data analysis.
Herbivore Diet Reconstruction
Lesson Plan
Hands-on Activity
Reconstruct Animal Diets in your Classroom!
Though you can use the lesson plan with or without it, our diet curriculum is best accompanied by our JonahAnimal diet kit. Apply classroom curriculum to real scientific methods to teach environmental DNA analysis to your students! First, collect a fecal sample and allow the class to guess what we might find. Then, we will send you a list of the relative abundance of each food item in the feces. Finally, when you get the results, go through them with the class. Did we find anything unexpected?
Fish Assemblage Reconstruction
Teach Aquatic eDNA in your Classroom!
The aquatic lesson plan is best accompanied by the JonahWater environmental DNA kit. Take your class to a nearby water body, collect and filter a water sample, send it to us, and apply real-world science to in-classroom learning! Build off of what they learn in the lesson plan by using the results from the kit to teach students about the fish and algae species in their area and allow us to reconstruct your local aquatic community! Because it takes 4-6 weeks to process a sample, It is recommended that you collect the water sample at the beginning of a semester/quarter.
Use the Data Portal!
The JonahWater kit also comes with access to our JonahWater Data Portal, where you can see a list of the fish species and the relative abundance of algae in your water body. Your class can also explore the data collected by scientists and other students across the country!
This lesson plan is best for science-based classes, such as biology, ecology, conservation, and zoology. Please contact us with any questions for how you can fit it into your classroom curriculum.