URSA Promotes Undergraduate Research at UAF

By Rachel Heimke

On a brisk summer day near Homer, Alaska, Samantha Allen crouched on a rock, trying to stay quiet. A sea otter popped out of the water, circling ever closer. As it approached, Allen could see it was eating a clam as it floated on its back. Allen excitedly scribbled notes in her data sheet, then watched as the otter dove away.

Allen, a senior Fisheries and Marine Sciences student, received the URSA Award in summer of 2023. It was this grant that made her summer of sea otters possible.”

The students are approached by a raft of sea otters

Photo by Samantha Allen

“I am researching how oyster farms in Kachemak Bay are impacting sea otter foraging practices and activity,” said Allen. “It was going out to oyster farms and recording what sea otters were eating, where, and how much they were eating.”

Oyster farms are a rapidly growing mariculture industry in Alaska. According to Allen, there has been no research yet done on whether or not these farms are impacting local sea otter populations.

A grad student working on this research approached Allen with the opportunity to help her project and apply for URSA funding. She received the award in summer of 2023, which helped pay for housing at a lab in Kasitsna Bay, near Homer, where she stayed for six weeks last summer.

Allen worked at three different sites. She dropped a specialized camera into the water to look at the community on the seafloor. She’s planning to use the pictures from the underwater camera for her poster and URSA presentation. 

Allen said URSA was a wonderful experience.

“It allowed me to conduct my own research project, which is really important in a STEM field,” she said. “It was a great opportunity to get real world experience.”

After doing field work, Allen knows that she wants to continue working in the field when she goes to graduate school. 

“URSA has been a great introduction to the research process,” said Allen. “It allowed me to do something very specific in the field that I want to be in, and I liked that it was completely self-directed and open ended.”

Allen is also using this work as her capstone project, which allows her to graduate with honors next spring.

“URSA is unique and a very valuable opportunity to get experience with grant writing, which is useful in any field,” said Allen. “It gives you important experience that you can put on a resume.”

At the end of spring semester, Allen will present her findings.

“This will be my first experience giving a presentation on my own research, and it’s a really good opportunity to practice in a relatively low-stress environment,” she said.

Samantha Allen deploys her drop camera

Photo by Brian Ulaski

UAF’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity, or URSA, closed their applications for spring projects on November 5.

“Our main goal is to help students do the things that they’re interested in,” said Erin Kirchner, URSA coordinator and assistant director. “We are here to help students get engaged, do experiential learning, and get hands-on experience.”

Created in September of 2011, URSA uses Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR) funds, or extra funds from grants across the university to assist undergraduates. Student project awards provide funding for students to work with a mentor on a research project of their choice. URSA funds can be used to pay students a stipend, cover up to four credits of tuition, pay for supplies and services, and even fund travel for research.

“We support all undergraduate students on campus, no matter who you are or what your interests are,” said Kirchner. Students of all disciplines and all years of study can apply for fall, spring, or summer awards.

Throughout 2023, about sixty-five awards were granted through URSA. They have received around twenty applications for the Spring 2024 semester.

In addition to research projects, URSA funds student travel to present, compete, participate in workshops, or attend conferences. Internship awards allow students to work with an external organization.

“We have some students traveling abroad to do internships this next spring and summer,” said Kirchner. Some students work remotely, others go to nearby areas. One student went to Anchorage and worked an internship at the Anchorage Zoo.

Wetherleigh Griffin, a senior linguistics major, received URSA funding this fall semester. 

“I am working with learners of English as a second language, and they are using Minecraft to learn English,” she said. 

Griffin is using the idea that language learning requires authentic context, meaning it would happen in real life. She decided to use Minecraft since it is an extremely popular video game, which gives it authentic context.

Minecraft allows users to build structures in an endless world. It features elements of roleplaying, engineering, and architecture.

“The students are making an escape room inside Minecraft,” said Griffin. “They are going to make a video of them playing in a different group’s escape room. The rest of the class can write comments and reviews.”

To see how this kind of task-based learning approach works, Griffin conducted interviews at the beginning of the semester and will be doing so again soon. She will also analyze their video scripts, their escape rooms, and teacher reflections. She’s hoping her lesson plan will be helpful to teachers in the future.

She’s certain that her work with URSA will be helpful on her resume. 

“This has improved my communication skills and accountability,” Griffin said. “I used to think that URSA was just for the STEM majors. You can be whatever major and do it. The limits are almost nonexistent.”

Isabelle Nicolier, a senior in Biological Sciences, applied for URSA funding for the Spring 2024 semester. She said the process was “pretty straightforward.”

“You have to write an abstract, an introduction, you’re basically writing an essay in different sections,” she said.

Nicolier received URSA funding in spring of 2023. She was working on understanding the population genomics of Pacific herring in the Bering Sea.

“We did DNA extractions and amplification and sequencing and all the fun stuff,” said Nicolier. 

If she receives funding again, Nicolier plans to expand on her previous project. She wants to take samples from the Gulf of Alaska this time, and see how the herring populations there differ from the Bering Sea.

“The whole reason I did URSA in the beginning was to help pay for tuition, and it ended up opening all these doors to research I hadn’t considered before,” said Nicolier. “It’s already impacted my life.”

Nicolier’s last project received Dean’s Choice for the Research and Creativity Day in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

“Last semester was really cool and I hope I get it again,” she said. “It was a really awesome experience.”