Mosquito Bioinformatics

Activity Summary
This activity exposes students to some of the digital tools essential to modern scientific research. Students seek out a number of mosquito DNA sequences found in an online sequence database (NCBI). Using bioinformatics tools, students create a genetics-based phylogenetic tree using the sequences they found. Students are asked to interpret the meaning of the phylogeny
and explain which species are most closely related based upon the branching of the phylogenetic tree.

Grade Levels
9-12

Learning Objectives
1. Correctly interpret a phylogenetic tree
2. Access and utilize online biological databases

Lesson Materials (view or download)
Lesson Plan

Keywords
bioinformatics, phylogeny, DNA sequence, phylogenetic tree

Last updated: 3/3/2015