Naturalist Studies Students Prepare for the Hudson Alpha Bicentennial Barcoding Project
Ardmore's Naturalist Studies students are preparing for the Bicentennial Barcoding project, a citizen science initiative by Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology. The purpose of the project is to genetically catalog Alabama's native plants. We will be traveling around the state and collecting samples to send off for DNA extraction. Students will match the genetic sequences to existing bar codes in a database. With the guidance of our resident botanist, Mr. England, the students have a pretty good chance of finding a species that is not already cataloged in the International Barcode of Life. How cool would that be? First, though, the students need to learn a little more about botany. We have been plucking weeds from the school yard and using microscopes and a dichotomous key to identify them. Everyone is learning a lot, me included!