Understanding Huckleberry Pollination With Research Designed for Student Participaton

部落学院和大学计划（TCUP）的一个目标是提高为美国土著学生服务的特定高等教育机构的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教学和研究能力。扩大这些机构的研究能力，可以扩大学生在STEM领域追求具有挑战性、回报丰厚的职业的机会，为当地相关领域的研究提供机会，并鼓励教师群体超越传统课堂，寻求智力和专业发展。这个名为“通过学生参与研究了解授粉”（UPWRDS）的项目直接符合这一目标，而且可能被证明是其他小型社区学院类似参与的典范。该项目的目标是为SKC的教师和学生提供一个机会来进行原创性和社区相关的研究，这些研究有助于科学知识，有利于教育，并为持续的研究机会提供支持。UPWRDS具体解决了以下问题：1)排除传粉媒介是否显著影响平头保护区越红莓的产量？2)与整个活跃的传粉者群落相比，哪些生物是保留区内越橘植物的主要可能传粉者？这项工作将通过传粉者封闭实验、观察来访的越橘花的传粉者直接撒网、有时间限制的撒网、浆果生产力计数和浆果种子计数来进行。延时蜂窝相机将用于跟踪越橘物候，以协助研究人员确定在开花和浆果成熟高峰期间收集数据的时间。

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation's indigenous students. Expanding the research capacity at these institutions expands the opportunities for students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in STEM fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be locally relevant, and encourages a faculty community to look beyond the traditional classroom for intellectual and professional growth. This project, entitled "Understanding Pollination With Research Designed for Student participation (UPWRDS)," aligns directly with that goal, and moreover may prove to be a model for similar engagement at other small community colleges.The project objectives are to provide an opportunity for SKC faculty and students to conduct original and community relevant research that contributes to scientific knowledge, benefits education, and leverages support for continuing research opportunities. UPWRDS specifically addresses the following: 1) Does the exclusion of pollinators significantly influence huckleberry productivity on the Flathead Reservation?; and 2) Which organisms are the primary probable pollinators of huckleberry plants on the Reservation compared to the overall active pollinator community? The work will be pursued through pollinator exclosure experiments, direct netting of pollinators observed visiting huckleberry flowers, time-constrained net sweeps, berry productivity counts, and berry seed counts. Time-lapse cellular cameras will be employed to track huckleberry phenology to assist researchers in determining the timing for data collection during flowering and peak berry ripeness.