Students are given instructor-designed computer-generated "sequencing gels" that they are told were generated after sequencing PCR from samples isolated during a hemorrhagic fever outbreak. They must read the sequencing gel and then, using this sequence, go to the NCBI home page and perform a BLAST search to determine the identity of the virus. The class compares the results of these searches, and students answer a series of questions about the virus for which they have sequence information. The class then attempts to determine the cause of the outbreak as a group.