“It’s in Your Genes” Lesson Plan
Getting Information from Forest Elephant Dung
Materials:
Mock elephant samples – each sample should consist of at least three boluses (for
instructions on making dung samples see “Materials Construction” section)
Flexible measuring tapes with centimeters (like those for sewing)
Calculators
Pencils
Worksheets of “It’s in your Genes” with male and female elephants (for breakdown
of ages and sexes see “Material Construction” section)
Powerpoint presentation to guide students
Objective:
Students will determine information about an elephant using a mock dung sample.
Students will measure dung samples and read a gel output to determine the age and
sex of an individual elephant. They will learn how scientists using dung as a means
to obtain information about elusive and/or dangerous animals such.
Procedure:
Start Powerpoint “It’s_In_Your_Genes_Forest_Elephant.pptx.” Information will be
provided in the comments section on how to explain background information of
forest elephants to students. Students can work individually or in groups. At slide 5,
students can refer to their worksheets. Slide 6 shows students how to measure dung
samples, and students can measure their dung samples at their tables. Have the
students calculate the mean (average) of their boluses in centimeters (question 1).
Write all of the students’ answers on the board. Have students answer question 2
and 3. Question 3 may be discussed as a class. After discussion, go to question 4.
Return to the powerpoint, which next briefly summarizes how to determine the sex
of an elephant using DNA and agarose gels (slides 7-11). Have students return to
their worksheet and answer questions 5 and 6. If desired, students can share their
information with the teacher, and as a class count how many adult male, adult
female, juvenile male, and juvenile females are in the population. To recreate the sex
and age ratios of a real forest elephant population, follow the advice in the “Material
Construction” section.
Material Construction
Fake Dung Materials:
Styrofoam balls of various sizes from a craft store (one to represent a bolus; each
dung sample should consist of at least 3; to mimic sizes of forest elephant dung,
Styrofoam balls should range in size of 13-52 cm)
Straw-like material from craft store
Brown spray paint, various shades (spray paint designed to make a “stone” effect
works well)
Glue
Cut off tops and bottoms of Styrofoam balls to make less circular (optional). Glue
straw all over sides of Styrofoam balls (represents diet of forest elephants, which
consists of grasses and leaves. Can also glue on seed-like looking materials as forest
elephants eat many fruits). Let dry, then spray balls with multiple shades of brown
(may take several coats).
When making boluses into a dung sample, make sure sizes are different in
circumference, but not drastically different. For example, include in one sample
boluses in the range of 20-25 cm, not a range as great as 20-40 cm.
Mimicking a forest elephant population
The real results from my genetic study was:
89 adult females
24 juvenile females
18 adult males
22 juvenile males
To mimic a forest elephant population, the ratio is roughly 3:1:1:1 for adult females,
juvenile females, adult males, and juvenile males. So if you have 30 students and
wanted each one to have their own dung sample to measure, you could make 15
adult females, 5 juvenile females, 5 adult males, and 5 juvenile males. It is best to
have adult males have the least amount of samples because this mimics what is
happening in current forest elephant populations, and ties into conservation. Males,
because they have large tusks, are targeted for poaching for ivory (for more
information go to wcs.org or wwf.org). A more realistic representation would be 15,
7, 3, and 5.