Bird-strikes: DNA barcoding for children at Tromsø University Museum

Tromsø Univeristy Museum has activities for children every Sunday. On Sunday May 10 this activity was on DNA barcoding and bird-strikes! Even though the weather was good outside, many children visited the museum to play detectives.

strekkoder og seigmenn

The background story is that a bird has struck an air-plane, but all that is left is this feather. Which bird species could it be? With a barcode string of letters from the feather, the children had to search the exhibition for a bird with matching DNA barcode. When found, they could build a barcode of “jelly-men”, each letter corresponding to a certain colour. Exactly 8 of them fit on the stick and made a great treat.

Marie Kristine Føreid, Tromsø museum