Classroom Starter Kit
The classroom project library
24 curated, ready-to-teach eDNA investigations, six for every grade band. Each one is built around a single Starter Kit sample, works in any geography, and comes with lesson plans, teacher scripts, student handouts, a rubric and an answer key. Pick one and teach it.
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4. What should students come away with?
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Showing 24 of 24
Grades 3–5 · Water & wetlands
Pond Detectives
Who is hiding in our pond, stream, or puddle?
Students become water detectives, using one shared sample vial to find out which animals are secretly living in a nearby pond, creek, ditch, or even a rain puddle — without ever having to catch or disturb them.
Grades 3–5 · Soil & schoolyard
Backyard Soil Safari
What tiny creatures are living in the dirt beneath our feet?
Using one shared soil sample, students go on a safari to discover which animals — from earthworms to burrowing mammals — are using the soil in the schoolyard or garden, using genetic clues instead of digging everything up.
Grades 3–5 · Invasives & conservation
Invader Alert!
Is a sneaky newcomer species moving into our neighborhood?
Students take on the role of nature protectors, using one shared sample to check whether a non-native 'invader' species has snuck into a local water spot and what that might mean for the native animals already living there.
Grades 3–5 · Seasons & change
Four Seasons Signal
Do different animals visit our water spot in different seasons?
Students track how the hidden animal community at a local water spot changes across seasons, using one sample kit per testing round to compare which animals show up as the weather changes.
Grades 3–5 · DNA & methods
DNA Detectives Junior
How do scientists find invisible clues left by animals?
This project introduces the basic idea of DNA as a set of instructions and a fingerprint, using one shared sample to show students, step by step, how scientists find and identify hidden animals without ever seeing them.
Grades 3–5 · Community science
Our Creek, Our Community
How can our class help take care of a shared outdoor space?
Students act as community scientists, using one shared soil or water sample to learn about a local shared space (schoolyard, park, or creek), then share their findings with families and neighbors to help protect it.
Grades 6–8 · Water & wetlands
Hidden Residents: who's really living in our water?
One shared vial turns a class trip to the pond into a real biodiversity survey.
Students pick five species to look for in a local water source, work in crews to build one composite sample, and use the class Field Journal results to argue what actually lives there versus what they assumed lived there.
Grades 6–8 · Soil & schoolyard
Underfoot: what's living in our schoolyard soil?
A single soil sample turns the ground under students' feet into a real biodiversity investigation.
Students compare two schoolyard soil spots — like a garden bed and a well-worn lawn path — by building one composite soil sample from each area over time, then argue from eDNA evidence about which spot supports more life underground.
Grades 6–8 · Invasives & conservation
The New Neighbor: is an invasive species moving into our water?
One composite water sample helps the class hunt for evidence of an unwanted newcomer.
Students research invasive species known in their region, target up to five species with a single composite water sample, and use the class Field Journal results to argue whether their water source shows early warning signs of an invasion.
Grades 6–8 · Seasons & change
Seasons of the Water: watching a pond change with the class
One vial, one waterway, tracked across the school year to see who comes and goes.
Students predict how seasonal change will shift which species use a local pond or stream, run a whole-class composite sampling protocol on one vial, and compare the class Field Journal results to their seasonal predictions.
Grades 6–8 · DNA & methods
Reading the Code: how a genetic test finds a hidden species
One soil sample becomes a hands-on introduction to how genetic identification actually works.
Students choose five soil-dwelling target species, run a whole-class composite soil sampling protocol, and learn step by step how DNA extraction, matching, and reporting work as they wait for and then read their class Field Journal.
Grades 6–8 · Community science
Our Watershed, Our Data: community science on the class waterway
The whole class becomes a community science team, from species selection to public results.
Students act as a community science team: they select up to five species tied to a local water body's health, run a composite batching sampling protocol as a class, interpret the Field Journal results, and produce a public-facing summary aimed at protecting the site.
Grades 9–12 · Water & wetlands
The Invisible Community: tracking biodiversity with environmental DNA
A single classroom sample kit becomes a site-wide biodiversity survey.
Students design a species-selection rationale, run a composite batching field protocol on a single vial, and defend a claim about local biodiversity using eDNA detection data returned in the class Field Journal.
Grades 9–12 · Soil & schoolyard
Belowground Biodiversity: what's really living in our soil?
Turn the schoolyard soil beneath students' feet into a genetic biodiversity survey.
Students compare soil health across two schoolyard plots (e.g., garden bed vs. compacted lawn) by targeting soil organisms with a single composite soil sample, then argue from eDNA evidence about which management practices support belowground life.
Grades 9–12 · Invasives & conservation
Front-Line Invaders: early detection before the visible outbreak
Use eDNA to find invasive species before they're visible — the way real biosecurity programs do.
Students act as a biosecurity task force, selecting invasive species relevant to their region and pairing them with native species under threat, then use a single composite water sample to search for early-detection evidence and write a management brief.
Grades 9–12 · Seasons & change
Signal Through the Seasons: does biodiversity shift with the calendar?
Track how a genetic signal at one site changes from season to season.
Students design a repeated-measures investigation, sampling the same site with a new kit each season (or term), and use the accumulating Field Journal record to test whether species detections track predictable seasonal patterns like migration, breeding, or dormancy.
Grades 9–12 · DNA & methods
Genetic Fingerprints: what detection data can and can't tell us about a population
Use real detection data to explore the boundary between genetics, ecology, and inference.
Students connect their molecular biology unit to a real field investigation, tracing how DNA barcoding and reference libraries turn a water sample into a species list, then critically evaluate the strengths and limits of genetic evidence compared to traditional field surveys.
Grades 9–12 · Community science
Community Science Partnership: eDNA evidence for local land management
Students team up with a land trust or park agency to survey species of local management concern and present findings to the public.
Working directly with a local land trust, park, or natural-resource agency, students identify five species of active management concern at a partner site, run a single composite eDNA sample, interpret the results as evidence for a real management question, and deliver a public-facing presentation to their community partner.
College intro · Water & wetlands
Detection Probability in Practice: an eDNA hypothesis test on a local waterway
A single vial becomes a semester-defining exercise in hypothesis testing and statistical inference.
Students formulate falsifiable null and alternative hypotheses about species presence in a local waterway, design a composite sampling protocol for the whole lab section, and interpret returned detection data through the lens of detection probability, primer specificity, and Type I/II error — producing a full lab report.
College intro · Soil & schoolyard
Testing Soil Management Claims: eDNA, statistical power, and the limits of a single sample
One composite soil sample, five target taxa, and a class-wide test of a real land-management hypothesis.
Students formulate a hypothesis about how a specific land-management practice (tillage, compaction, cover cropping) affects belowground biodiversity, collect a class-wide composite soil sample under a documented protocol, and use returned detection data to evaluate statistical power, sampling bias, and the limits of inference from a single sample — culminating in a formal lab report.
College intro · Invasives & conservation
Biosecurity by the Numbers: testing for invasive species with a single composite sample
Students apply hypothesis testing and detection-probability reasoning to a real invasive-species biosecurity question.
Students formulate and test a hypothesis about whether a regionally relevant invasive species is present at a local waterway, using a single class-wide composite sample and up to five target species. The unit foregrounds detection probability, false positive/negative risk in a biosecurity context, and the statistical basis for early-detection monitoring programs, culminating in a formal lab report with a management recommendation.
College intro · Seasons & change
Seasonal Signal: testing detection probability across a term
An intro lab section runs a repeated-measures eDNA study to test how season changes detection probability.
Working as a single lab section, students formalize a null and alternative hypothesis about seasonal detection probability for up to five aquatic target species, run a composite batching field protocol on one vial per round, and use the returned Field Journal to evaluate their hypothesis with a short lab report rather than a lecture-style write-up.
College intro · DNA & methods
Reading the Barcode: primer specificity and species identification
Students use soil eDNA to interrogate how molecular markers distinguish species and where that method can fail.
Working from a single composite soil sample, students evaluate how DNA barcoding and primer specificity allow up to five target species or taxonomic groups to be distinguished, then use the returned Field Journal to practice distinguishing true detections from likely false positives and false negatives.
College intro · Community science
Whose Data Is It? Designing a community eDNA monitoring partnership
Students design and run a community science eDNA protocol meant to hand off cleanly to a local partner organization.
Students partner (in practice or in simulation) with a local watershed group, nonprofit, or agency to design a monitoring protocol around a single composite eDNA sample, evaluate what makes citizen/community science data trustworthy, and produce a lab report written for a non-specialist community audience as well as a technical appendix.
Write your own
Have your own project in mind?
These projects are a starting point, not a limit. Design your own investigation and our team will work with you to choose the right species, adapt the sampling plan and fit it into your curriculum, standards and schedule.