DNA Learning Center Barcoding 101

This project was supported by the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25OD016511-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Barcode Long Island

Educator Workshop

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center is an approved Sponsor of Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE).

Teachers are eligible to attend a summer training workshop if they teach a high school science class or research program. Teachers must attend training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory before they may mentor teams for BLI.

Participants will be introduced to the DNA barcoding wet-lab and bioinformatics infrastructure. Each workshop is six hours a day for one week and lunch will be provided. Teachers who complete this workshop are invited to organize student teams and propose projects. Accepted projects will be presented at the spring symposium.

Once trained, teachers register on the barcoding portal on this site to enter student research teams in grades 9 to 12. Teams must develop an original research proposal following the proposal guidelines and teachers upload them to the portal where they are reviewed by BLI staff. Staff feedback can be incorporated, and revised proposals can be submitted by project deadlines.Teams with accepted proposals will receive supplies, equipment, and scientific support needed to conduct experiments. Program data will contribute to a distributed effort to generate a "big picture" of Long Island's many ecosystems and diverse living things. Results will be shared at an annual symposium.

Teachers who attended a week-long training workshop in previous summers may not register to attend the workshop again, with the exception of eligible mentors who would like to attend the microbiome/eDNA training.

Teachers are eligible to attend a training workshop if they teach a high school science class or research program. Teachers must attend a barcoding workshop before they may mentor teams for BLI.

In the DNA barcoding workshop, participants will be introduced to the project, learn all the biochemical and bioinformatics techniques required for DNA barcoding, and learn how to mentor barcoding teams. Teachers who complete this workshop will be eligible to organize student teams, who will carry out all aspects of DNA barcoding research during the school year.

DNA BARCODING TRAINING WORKSHOPS

DNA Barcoding Workshop

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center (DNALC) is offering a five-day, in-person workshop on DNA barcoding for the community-science driven Citizen DNA Barcode Network (CDBN) program. This free workshop is intended for science and nature enthusiasts who are interested in becoming collaborators of CDBN, and CDBN staff at collaborating institutions. High school teachers on Long Island interested in implementing authentic research experiences with students through Barcode Long Island (BLI) are also welcome to apply. Trained mentors interested in a program refresher are also encouraged to attend.

(Past Event)
July 28–August 1, 2025
9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
at Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor, NY

Participants in this workshop will learn:

Introduction to DNA barcoding and biodiversity
Sample collection and documentation
DNA extraction
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Gel electrophoresis
Bioinformatics–DNA Subway’s Blue Line
Phylogenetics
Program implementation

Travel and housing will NOT be covered by the DNALC.