Developing Teaching Materials for High School Biology to Understand Environmental Viruses: PCR Methods for the Detection of T4-like Phages Present in Water Environments

Abstract

Viruses have a significant impact on the ecosystems and evolution of living things through their interactions with living things and other viruses. Understanding “environmental viruses,” which refers to viruses that are part of the global ecosystem, is crucial, and we believe that learning this concept is important to understand viruses deeply. In this study, we developed teaching materials for high school students to focus on environmental viruses, become familiar with them, and help them confirm their existence through experiments. By considering the experimental method, we targeted T4-like phages that exist in many water environments. Furthermore, we used two types of filters to collect viruses from water samples. We also extracted DNA using a simple method and extracted T4-like phages using the PCR method. The participants were third-year high school students, and a descriptive survey was conducted after class, which revealed that the teaching materials are focused on the relationship between viruses and the entire ecosystem and this could be an opportunity for them to feel connected to viruses. Through lesson plans and practices that utilize the experimental teaching materials developed in this study, we hope that the existence of environmental viruses will be widely recognized in the future.