Instructors: David Ng, Noodin Jacko-Reynolds, Morgan Towriss, Koyah Morganbanke, Jelena St. Davis, Kasey Stirling

Collaborating communities (to date):
Tsawwassen First Nations, Heiltsuk First Nation, Inuit communities/schools in Iqaluit, Coral Harbour, and Pangnirtang.

Collaborators:
Ampere, UBC Indigenous Strategic Initiative Fund, First Nation Fisheries Legacy Fund, UBC CEDAR program

Artwork by Oliver Moss

Since 2021, our lab has set up sustainable programming and funding that collaborates with Indigenous First Nations on STEM outreach. This includes current and previous relations with university groups (UBC Cedar, Center for Indigenous Fisheries), First Nations located in the province of British Columbia, as well as projects that interact with Inuit communities in Nunavut.

This STEM programming is diverse in nature as well as flexible depending on the interests and needs of the collaborating community. As our process involves input and guidance of hired Indigenous UBC students and community knowledge keepers, our primary goal is to provide education that tries to connect Indigenous and Western perspectives of science.

Programming is often any of the outreach initiatives highlighted on this website, but also includes a special workshop for community youth and/or First Nation staff involved in environmental monitoring activities. Here, the lab will work with students (usually high schoolers – grade 11 to 12 or older) to perform an environmental DNA (eDNA) sequencing experiment that surveys the biodiversity found in the collaborating community’s territory. Importantly, all data obtained will follow any data sovereignty preferences of the collaborating community.

In essence, by doing the experiment to obtain and examine the data, the youth and community can potentially monitor for changes within the sampled ecosystem. Ultimately, this sets up an educational activity for the students, but where the experience can also provide some authentic scientific information which may be of use to the community. This will depend on the biological question asked (for instance, is my water changing, does the biodiversity in my water reflect presence of a pollutant or invasive species, etc), but overall the collaboration presents an opportunity for youth to engage in a high level science experiment, and where the data could be of use.

The general procedure is described below (the experiment itself tends to involve about 3 to 4 days of activity). We should note that, despite the technical nature of the experiment, our excellence as an educational lab has enabled us to develop teaching strategies that have proven effective with even students who have little to no background in biology.

If there is interest in participating in this program, please reach out to David Ng at db@mail.ubc.ca

eDNA biodiversity surveillance: The steps

(Images: “Environment” by Made x Made, “Wave” by Lara, “Germs” by ProSymbols, “DNA” by Gregor Cresnar, “Device” by Kamin Ginkaew, “Bioinformatics” by Kamin Ginkaew)
1. Field Work: The first step is to consider what sample we wish to look at. Then, we would use techniques to acquire an environmental sample (aquatic or soil) in a way that respects and gives homage to the land. As well, the basic premise is that youth from your Nation will work on environmental samples found on your Nation’s land. Note that in some communities, sample collecting may be an ongoing process, especially if seasonal changes are of interest.

2. Biology and Chemistry: For this stage, we will use methodologies that allow us to extract DNA from all living organisms found in the environmental sample. This will mostly include microbes, but will also have some carry-over DNA from larger organisms (plants, fish, etc). We call this an eDNA sample (short for environmental DNA)

3. Molecular Biology: This DNA is then isolated and purified, and assessed for quality (QC or quality control). Following this, there are steps where we target specific DNA molecules to focus our attention on. For instance, perhaps we are sequencing a DNA collection (we call this a library) of diatom populations to monitor algae blooms. Another example is to look for DNA sequences from a specific fish pathogen that you suspect is affecting your wild fish population.

4. DNA Sequencing: This DNA library is then sequenced using special technology. Here, we will be using a device known as a MinION nanopore sequencer, which will provide us with the sequences of all the library DNA. Note that control of all data remains with the Nation.

5. Bioinformatics: Since the DNA code is literally the blueprint for living things, we can use computers to look at this code to identify the specific organisms as well as a rough idea of their relative abundance in the original sample. This, in turn, can provide insights on the status of the water or soil, or if done over the long term, you can use this data to track changes over time.