Roslyn High School students traveled to Stony Brook University (SBU) to participate in Barcode Long Island (BLI)—a collaboration with Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the American Museum of Natural History, and the DNA Learning Center. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the project’s mission is for students to gain an intuitive understanding of the crucial interdependence between humans and the natural environment. BLI uses DNA barcoding to explore, document, and track biodiversity on and around Long Island, through distributed experiments by student research teams, led by trained Long Island educators.

Alongside Dr. Maureen Murphy of SBU, students visited a nature preserve and Hidden Pond Park to collect lichens, then prepared samples for storage and DNA extraction.

“The students planned a science experiment to investigate the environmental impacts of pollutants on indicators such as lichens,” said science teacher Lisa Daniels. “Using modern technology, they will replicate the DNA and study taxonomic connections.”