From the home of eight Nobel Prize winners, DNA Learning Center (DNALC) at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory continues to accomplish its mission to prepare students and families to thrive in today’s genomic age. Through exposure to the principles of genetics and hands-on experiments with DNA, DNALC has a proven track record of facilitating scientific literacy worldwide.
Approachable Protocols and Advanced Techniques You Can Trust
Since 1986, Carolina has worked with the DNALC to bring innovative and high-quality kits and teaching materials to educators. Our codeveloped kits make advanced concepts approachable and breakthrough techniques accessible by focusing on the unique and diverse needs of teachers and students in the classroom.
Visual Lab Flows
See procedures as they happen
Tested and Trusted
Time-proven labs that work right out of the box
Clear Procedures with Expert Tips
Easy-to-follow protocols with insightful margin comments
Selection
More than 25 unique kits available to meet students’ needs
Announcing New Enhancements and Updates to Your Favorite DNALC Kits
Visual Lab Procedures offer step-by-step instructions, with detailed visuals to help students as they work through the labs.
Colorful enhanced lab flows provide time estimates and identify key lab events at a glance, to make planning easy.
A Real-World Connections resource section links knowledge and skills used in each lab to actual lab techniques, current careers, historical perspectives, and scientist profiles or examples of scientists in practice.
Paper Model Activities, added to many of the kits, incorporate visualization, interaction, and modeling to help students gain a deeper understanding of a lab's molecular components; the activities may be done before starting a lab or during lab down times.
Biotechnology micro-credentials provided by Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI) align to the knowledge and skills taught in many of the kits. Earning micro-credentials enables students to demonstrate biotechnology skill mastery to prospective employers. For the applicable kits, its teacher manual specifies which BCSI micro-credentials the lab supports. Learn more about BCSI
GelGreen® DNA stain has replaced ethidium bromide stain as a safer alternative; the resulting bright green bands are comparable to SYBR®. Prefer ethidium bromide? Purchase the DNA Gel Electrophoresis Reagent Set with ethidium bromide (Item #211300)
Supporting instruction means you have everything you need to teach—such as videos, animations, websites, and activities—in addition to helping you with advanced and rapidly changing subjects such as bioinformatics.
Working with DNALC, we continue to enhance our kits’ digital support on our online platform, Carolina Science Online, along with lessons and activities on Carolina Knowledge Center.
DNALC Webinars
Teach Restriction Analysis with Carolina and the DNA Learning Center
The Science Behind Lactose Intolerance
Featured DNALC and Carolina Kits
Most popular kits
Explore the molecular basis of the inherited ability to taste the bitter chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Item #211377
Explore a modern application of genetic engineering by investigating whether the soy or corn ingredients in various processed foods contain a genetic modification. Item #211367
Lean how to engineer proteins using three techniques—transformation, protein purification, and protein gel electrophoresis. Item #211073
Kits for every grade level
In this exciting activity students are introduced to DNA, literally, by removing it out of a strawberry! Item #211338
Introduce students to the concept of “form fits function” by familiarizing them with different kinds of cells, their organelles, and the specific jobs each organelle performs. Item #211336
Many students are aware of lactose intolerance, but how many understand what it means and how it relates to human evolution? Item #211337
Cutting edge biotechnology kits
With this one-of-a-kind kit, students purify Taq polymerase, an enzyme used in polymerase chain reactions, from bacteria engineered to produce it, then test the enzyme’s activity by performing PCR with it. Item #211165
Students take a new approach to taxonomy using “DNA barcodes”—short, unique DNA sequences—to learn about the biodiversity of plants, mammals, fish, or insects. Item #211385
Students use the Nobel Prize-winning RNA interference (RNAi) technique to silence 2 different genes in the nonparasitic roundworm C. elegans. Item #211391
Product Testimonials
From human Alu analysis to restriction digests to forensic DNA fingerprinting, DNALC and Carolina have created a wide assortment of kits that you can be confident will bring engagement and experimentation into your classroom or lab.
Additional content from DNALC
DNA Learning Center: Resources for Teaching Remotely
DNA Barcoding: Solving Old and New Problems in Biology
The Genome Age: Exploring Human Variation and Evolution
The Genome Age: The Challenge to Science Education
Genetic Differences Affecting Taste and Smell
