Aaniiih Nakoda-MSU partnership encourages research

Researchers from Montana State University, cell biology and neuroscience assistant professor Christa Merzdorf and postdoctoral researcher Jennifer Forecki, Monday concluded a research project - in which students at Aaniiih Nakoda College on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation studied the effects substances had on development of zebrafish embryos - with presentations of the research results.

"We do this because it is an introduction to research," Merzdorf said.

She said doing a full research project in four days is nearly impossible with most things but by using zebrafish embryos, which develope quickly within the first four days, students are able to gather usable data for research projects.

The fish are later euthanized to prevent them from suffering the effects of any deformity which may have resulted from the experiment.

The event started Thursday, with she and Forecki coming to Aaniiih Nakoda College through a partnership between the two colleges, Merzdorf said. She added that the event is funded through a grant she and Forecki applied for through the National Science Foundation. The grant allows them to go to a number of tribal colleges across Montana to get students interested in furthering their education in scientific research.

Forecki, who is a Native American, said that after she earned her doctorate in Wisconsin she wanted to do something with tribal colleges. After she met Merzdorf, she thought Montana would be a good fit because Montana has a large number of tribal colleges. In 2014, she and Merzdorf wrote for and were awarded a grant to do research projects with tribal colleges. She added that the most recent grant was a three-year grant which ends this year. 

She said learning the scientific method is about the act of discovery, gathering information and thinking critically about the steps needed to be taken outside of a traditional classroom.

"Experimenting and forming a hypothesis and then testing your hypothesis, you do it every day and to realize that, if you like it, you can do that as a career," Forecki said.

Not many tribal college students go on to careers or education in scientific research, but exposing students to this experience broadens their view on what is available through education and gives them more possibilities for careers in the future, she said. She added that through this program they hope that students will develop interests in research and feel more comfortable in that setting.

Forecki said she and Merzdorf are writing another grant for the National Science Foundation, which will hopefully expand what they are able to do and the number of tribal colleges they will be able to be involved with. 

Aaniiih Nakoda College Environmental Science Instructor Dan Kinsey said that the information the students and the researchers found was really interesting and good information for students to have. 

He added that it is great the students were able to get hands-on experience with research, and he appreciated that all of the different treatments, the substances which were introduced to the embryos such as caffeine, all originated from the students.

"It was all their own ideas," he said.

He said he hopes the three-year partnership with MSU will cause students to leave with their eyes open to new possibilities for their education and careers. The students actually get to do research projects and can take that experience and their knowledge to another college or university and continue to work on research projects.

Merzdorf said the research the students are doing are actual experiments and research projects, although the findings cannot be published. In order for the research to be publishable they would have to repeat the experiment several times and collect usable data. But by doing actual research projects students may become interested in pursuing research in the future, including at MSU.

"We can make that possible," she said.

The study is also in part supported by MSU's BRIDGES program, which is a summer enrichment program for students from Montana's two-year colleges. The program helps tribal college and community college students prepare to transfer into biomedical and other health science fields at MSU.

"This course is kind of like our chance to get them excited about biology, to teach the mindset of research, to teach lab techniques and all that," Merzdorf said. "Students do not have to take this course to do the BRIDGES program, but we've had students change their majors as a result of our course and join the BRIDGES program."

Forecki said students are able to learn alongside the researchers during the program. She said researchers do not know everything, and because the students got to pick their own methods, such as testing BPAs, a chemical commonly found in cans and water bottles and is suspected to cause deformities and cancer, the researchers get to learn alongside the students.

"It's nice when the students get to learn with us about stuff," she said.

Merzdorf said that one of the main goals is to encourage students to look at higher education as an option and look into doing undergraduate research. She added that Aaniiih Nakoda College does have undergraduate research and by inspiring students to think about doing research as a career they can help and build their own communities.

"We enjoy it," she said. "We love teaching these courses and meeting the students."