Explore how to integrate ecology, ethics, and biotechnology into a biology classroom by basing a collaborative lab experience on real research on African elephant conservation. Students discover how modern biomolecular research tools can help conserve a species, in this case the African elephant. Students also consider the perspectives of various stakeholders and the historical context of conservation in Africa to better understand the challenges of solving the problem of elephant poaching.
Overview
This unit focuses on the anchoring phenomenon of the decline of elephant populations across Africa. Throughout the unit, students consider the importance of elephants to the ecosystem and also consider various reasons for the decline of elephant populations before concluding that poaching has a greater impact than disease, weather, or predation. Students have an opportunity to conduct a hands-on lab using a set of simulated ivory DNA samples from an ivory cache seized by authorities. They then use gel electrophoresis to identify the elephant populations those samples likely came from. Students consider the detrimental and lasting role that the history of colonialism has played in the ivory trade. In designing solutions to the poaching problems, students take into consideration the voices and values of various stakeholders such as local conservationists, consumers, international conservationists, and community members. The unit culminates in students designing and presenting a solution to combat elephant poaching and evaluating their peers’ solutions from the stakeholders’ perspectives.
Funding Sources:
Dean Witter Foundation
Scientific Partners:
UW Center for Conservation Biology - Wasser Lab
Conservation X Labs
EarthRanger
Details:
12 Lesson plans
20 Days to complete the entire unit
Remote or in classroom
SEP Teachers-Only Quick Links
These links are for SEP teachers who are part of the kit loan program. To become a part of the kit loan program you must complete the 3 week professional development program.