Insect diversity and DNA barcoding
Torbjørn Ekrem, Elisabeth Stur, Aina Mærk Aspaas. All from NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway
Budal oppvekstsenter (primary school and kindergarten), Norway
17 November 2025
This November the NTNU University Museum organised the workshop: “Insect diversity and DNA barcoding” at the primary school and kindergarten Budal oppvekstsenter in Norway.
In 2023 this primary school contributed significantly to the sampling of insect communities for BGE. The two traps close to their school were part of the high mountain gradient study. Now that some results are avalaible from the metabarcoding of insect community samples from Budal, the NTNU University Museum visited the school to talk about insects and their role in terrestial and aquatic ecosystems. There were 26 students and 5 teachers present at this workshop.
Goals
The goal of this workshop was to communicate knowledge about insects in the local environment and tell more about DNA-barcoding and the results from the BGE high mountain sampling campaign done near the primary school.
Content
The workshop was divided into two groups. The first group were children from 5 to 7th grade. They did an insect quiz where they could win a prize. Afterwards they competed in a DNA barcoding game. They had to collect an egg with a “DNA string” and translate the coloured beads to a nucleotide sequence that is compared to a reference library of local species.
The second group were students from 1 to 4th grade. They explored insect diversity by looking at cases from the museum and used stereo microscopes to obeserve insects at high magnification. Afterwards they played a game where they had to identify different insect groups in the stereo microscope.
Feedback summary
It was a lot of fun doing these outreach and teaching exercises with the children. They were very interested and motivated. The feedback from the teachers were very positive!
Header: Picture taken at “Insect diversity and DNA barcoding”.
