Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Ethnobotanically Significant Plants To The Native American Tribes Of Montana, Margaret I. Magee

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

An Exploration of Ethnobotanically Significant Plants to the Native American Tribes of Montana

Ethnobotany is the study of the human uses of plants; for the Native Tribes of Montana these uses refer to everything from food, to ceremony, to medicine and everything in between. As a collaboration with the Payne Family Native American Center Ethnobotanical gardens, I conducted research on the various plants and their uses that are of particular significance to the 12 Tribes and 7 reservations across the state of MT. I collected information from first-hand experience working as an intern at the ethnobotanical garden, through discussions lead …

Spotify: Strategic Plan And Analysis, Riley T. Sletten

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Spotify is a worldwide music and podcast streaming company. Spotify has the most active users of any audio streaming company in the world and is a key competitor in a growing industry. It is important to evaluate the external environment and internal forces that impact Spotify’s strategic decision-making to identify opportunities and threats that could change the audio streaming landscape. Drawing on industry research, company financial statements, and media reports, this paper analyzes the external and internal environment of Spotify to identify a strategic recommendation for the company going forward. I analyze different business frameworks to evaluate the competitive landscape …

A Stick For A Crib: A Digital Story Inspired By The Northern Cheyenne Culture, Chloe Erin Ortega

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The purpose of this project is to create a digital story book which engages in the cultural preservation and language revitalization of the Northern Cheyenne, the tribe in Eastern Montana where I am an enrolled member. In this presentation, I will describe the steps I took for this project. First, I gathered material from personal experience and analyzed it working with community members, elders, and linguist mentors. For this project, I selected the Northern Cheyenne cultural teaching: “Put a stick above the crib to ward off bad spirits and keep away bad dreams.” I built a story in English, surrounding …

Why We Should Lower The Voting Age To Sixteen, Noah Grabe

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

America’s lackluster democratic tendencies are widely recognized as problematic. Through encouraging civic involvement from a young age, voter turnout and overall civic engagement can be bolstered. Drawing on public polling data, NGO reports, academic journals, and informant interviews including Montana and Oregon state legislators, this white paper advocates the societal benefits from lowering the voting age to sixteen in presidential, state, and local elections. Youth have the passion to enact positive change in the world they will inherit. Two recent examples are Greta Thunberg, the 15-year old phenom, who took her global campaign against climate change all the way to …

Conservation Nonprofits And Communication Of Values, Madeline Damon, Libby Metcalf, John Chandler

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how effectively conservation nonprofits communicate their values, or beliefs linked to emotional effect, to the public. This study compares the basic values embedded in mission, vision, and values statements (MVVs) to the values embedded in tweets. The similarity between MVVs and tweets will be compared based on organization size in order to identify any relationship between the size of a nonprofit and how well they communicate values. Finally, the values found in tweets and MVVs will be used to identify a current audience each nonprofit connects to most. The primary method of …

What's In A Pronoun: The Effect Of Default Pronouns On Opinions Of Grsm Rights, Rachel N. Cebull

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Tavits and Pérez discovered that usage of gender-neutral pronouns in Sweden correlated with higher acceptance of women and LGBTQ+ individuals, and I decided to see if that effect could be replicated in the USA. In this study, I am replicating Tavits and Pérez’s 2019 study, “Language influences mass opinion toward gender and LGBT equality.” I surveyed a sample of 161 individuals and gave them a priming task where they had to write a few sentences using an assigned set of pronouns. The assigned pronouns were he/him, she/her, they/them, and ze/zir. After that, participants were asked to write about a hypothetical …

Strategic Analysis Of Lululemon Athletica, Inc., Hanna Jo Kosbab

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Strategic Analysis of Lululemon Athletica Inc.

Hanna Kosbab

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Lululemon) is one of the biggest players in the athletic apparel industry. Lululemon has managed to corner a niche in the apparel industry and capitalized on brand recognition and superior performance materials. However, there is always room to grow within the industry and into new potential spaces. This strategic analysis seeks to evaluate Lululemon’s current position and offer suggestions for future strategies. I began this project by conducting extensive research into the current state of the industry and business practices for Lululemon. Using various business and financial publications, this …

Fostering Sustainable Collaboration Within Indigenous Communities Through Community Based Participatory Research, Kiah M. Hohenstein, Brittney Hunter, Wren Roe

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Fostering Sustainable Collaboration within Indigenous Communities through Community Based Participatory Research

It is essential to support Indigenous children’s well-being in culturally responsive ways. One important approach is to collaborate with members of the community who understand the strengths of their culture, values, and language to support their children, particularly in Montana, where the rates of Native American students attempting suicide were nearly double that of their White peers (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019). In this paper, we introduce community based participatory research (CBPR) and its importance in Indigenous communities, particularly for research addressing children’s mental health.

In CBPR, researchers actively …

Taxation Without Representation: A Lack Of Social Benefits Perpetuates Injustice For Daca Recipients, Mckenna Stahlberg

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

For this research, the main theme will revolve around inequalities for those who are under DACA in the United States. Specifically, it will focus on how this community pays taxes on income, yet are denied social benefits from programs that are tax-funded. This research will be comprised of primary data collection, as well as an analysis of existing literature regarding the issue.

The working thesis statement for this research is as follows. The lack of benefits given to DACA recipients, given average employment, wages, and taxes paid, perpetuates a cycle of inequality. Data about income and tax information, as well …

The Use Of Silicone Wristbands As Passive Samplers For Measurement Of Wood Smoke Analytes, Alice R. Giem

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

As the people of Montana know, wood smoke from wildfires during the summer can have a negative effect on health. Exposure to smoke produced by wildfires is a health concern worldwide. With many Montana residents working as wildland firefighters during the summer, their exposure to the many compounds from smoke with negative health effects is high and so the concern for their health is high as well. Many past studies have measured the quantities of particulate matter in the smoke as the main health concern, but exposure to volatile compounds produced remains understudied. This research focuses on improving a method …

Analyzing The Multipath Of Gps Time Series To Study Snow Properties, Ashlesha Khatiwada

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Thousands of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers worldwide record signals sent by satellites to infer how each receiver (and the ground they are attached to) moves over time. The motion of GPS receivers are used for many purposes, including studying tectonic deformation and changes in Earth's shape caused by surface loading. In this project, reflected wave arrivals contained within the multipath signal of GPS time series are extracted and analyzed to advance understanding of snow properties in mountainous regions of Montana/Idaho, USA. Analyzing reflected signals in GPS series has potential to reveal properties of local snowpack, such as height, water …

Improving Population Monitoring Of Wolverines By Integrating Noninvasive Genetic Monitoring And Remote Camera Trapping, Nicole Bealer, Kylie Paul, Jessie Golding, Kristy Pilgrim, Mark Hebblewhite, Kevin Scot Mckelvey

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Wolverines (Gulo gulo) are a rare species of conservation concern that inhabit high-elevation montane climates in North America. Because of their remote habitat and rarity, wolverines are difficult to monitor and there is limited information on the population status of wolverines. Scientists are concerned that wolverines may be adversely affected by climate change as they rely on persistent spring snowpack, which increases the need for effective wolverine monitoring. Wolverines in the Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) were monitored for six years (2014-2020) with noninvasive genetic sampling via hair snag and individual identification via remote camera trap, which allowed for …

The Origin Of Nitrogen Fixation Genes In Cyanobacterium Acaryochloris Marina, Jacob J. Baroch

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Biological nitrogen (N) fixation involves the reduction of atmospheric N₂ to biologically available ammonia (NH₃) and is performed by a wide variety of prokaryotic microorganisms. Fixed N is often the limiting nutrient in ecosystems; therefore, microorganisms that can fix N₂, such as some cyanobacteria, are an important source of biologically available N in N-limited habitats. Acaryochloris marina is a Chlorophyll d-producing cyanobacterium that lives attached to red algae or colonial ascidians along the intertidal zone of marine environments. Through comparative genomics, we recently found that an A. marina clade consisting of three strains – …

Assessing The Role Of Time And Beavers In Driving Recovery Following Restoration, Shawnalee M. Voyles, Daylen Egger, Kory Shoja-Chaghorvand

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Ninemile Creek in Western Montana has been highly degraded by placer mining that took place from the 1800s to 1960s, resulting in a straightened stream disconnected from its floodplain by 10 m tall gravel piles. This degradation decreases water storage and makes the habitat less suitable for aquatic organisms. To improve habitat quality, Trout Unlimited has reconfigured four reaches along the creek starting in 2014 to create a new river channel and connected floodplain with two years between each restoration project. Due to the physical disturbance of reconfiguring the stream channel and building the floodplain, plant communities were reset in …

Reference Models For Riparian Restoration After Dam Removal: The Case Of Rattlesnake Creek, Claire C. Shady

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The use of reference models in ecological restoration is imperative to determining the degree of success in restoring a degraded ecosystem. A reference model represents what condition the project ecosystem would be in had degradation not occurred. Oftentimes restoration projects use a single reference site, or limited variables to guide their questions and project goals. When restoration projects are designed around limited reference sites or variables, they may fail to adequately capture ecosystem complexity. The use of a broad set of variables and reference sites allows a reference model to incorporate a wider range of spatial and temporal variability inherent …

Distant Early Warning In Alarm Responses In Chickadees And Nuthatches – Do Birds Use Their Avian Neighbors As Sentinels?, Graydon William Prosser Hidalgo

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Chickadees and nuthatches are known for their ability to avoid predation through complex alarm calls and communication between species within a flock. Very little is known about their ability to listen to and understand alarm calls of other birds with whom they do not usually associate. My research explores the interspecific listening abilities of chickadees and nuthatches, and specifically if they use Townsend’s solitaires and downy woodpeckers as sentinel species. I conducted experimental call playback experiments at bird feeders in western Montana. I played three different acoustic stimuli on a speaker to mixed-species flocks composed mainly of various species of …

Teaching Methods And The Biology Student’S Perspective Of The Transition To Virtual Learning Due To Covid-19, Alexander R. Stuczynski

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

In the spring of 2020, the rise of a novel coronavirus swept across the globe and disrupted anatomy education across the globe. Through previous studies, it is known that the transition from traditionally taught classes to strictly virtual generally negatively impacted students, but it is not known what methods and approaches were best suited to anatomy students. Therefore, it is essential to identify which tools and approaches supported anatomy students and those of which did not support anatomy students via analysis of student perception of the transition. Online surveys were gathered from anatomy students in the BIOH 370 Anatomy and …

Analyzing Interactions Among Migratory Elk And Semi-Permeable Fences On The Blackfeet Reservation, Landon Magee

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Since the beginning of the last decade, the Blackfeet Reservation has experienced intense habitat fragmentation in the northern regions of the reservation, particularly in prime elk habitat that is believed to be along a migration corridor. One source of fragmentation has been the erection of a semi-permeable fence associated with a large bison ranch. The purpose of my study was to preliminarily assess potential interactions of elk (Cervus canadensis) and the semi-permeable bison fence as a precursor for further study. I worked in collaboration with the Blackfeet Fish and Game Department and the University of Montana, who will …

Differential Diagnosis Of Abnormal Muscle Gross Anatomy Of A Male Cadaver, Audrey V. Broffman, Carley R. Carpenter

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The ability of healthcare providers to carefully consider all presentations of illness and injury, draw upon research and knowledge to develop a list of potential diagnoses, and further investigate systems expected to be impacted by these diagnoses, is crucial for accurate identification of a condition and subsequent treatment plans to improve the welfare of patients. In order to determine a possible cause for unusual anatomic changes in multiple regions of the male cadaver used in the University of Montana’s Anatomy and Physiology lab, we performed a differential diagnosis.This research is exempt from IRB approval because the individual is no longer …

Using C. Elegans As A Model Organism To Study Genes Linked To Alzheimer’S, Ketch Jacobson

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people the world over. This is a growing problem, especially in developed countries where people are living longer. Over time, more and more young people will be tasked with taking care of their elderly family members, who can no longer take care of themselves. The causes leading up to the disease are still poorly understood, but by looking at certain genes that are associated with Alzheimer’s, we can gain a better understanding of the disease and the pathways that lead to it. Luckily, humans share lots of their genes with other …

Seeding Methods For Revegetation In Western Montana, Aubrey Benson, Sydney Bish

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Seeding is a commonly used tool to revegetate riparian soils made bare during channel reconfiguration, but its efficacy and factors that limit its success remain largely understudied. Ninemile Creek in Western Montana has been degraded by placer mining, which has filled the riparian areas with 10 m tall gravel piles. Extensive restoration efforts have been conducted by Trout Unlimited (TU) in the Ninemile Valley, and seeding has been used in each stage to attempt to revegetate the newly reestablished riparian areas of the Ninemile valley. However, the success of this approach has been limited, presenting an opportunity to study the …

Individual Effects Of Speech And Debate In High School, Patrick James Flanagan

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The term “forensics” originates from the Latin root forensis which means pertaining to the public, debate, and/or discussion. Co-curricular forensics are competitions of public speaking and argumentation that are usually pursed in addition to the normal course of study at a secondary or post-secondary institution. More commonly, the activity is known as speech and debate. I claim that participants of speech and debate are affected by the experience in a way that benefits their lives academically, professionally, and interpersonally. This is substantiated by the effect it has on relevant skills and participants personality.

A qualitative study of informants is performed …

Inanna The Queen Of Heaven And The Rise Of Large-Scale Pastoralism In Ancient Mesopotamia, Juliana L. Lutz

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Archaeological evidence indicates that during the 4th millennium BCE ancient Mesopotamia underwent major transformations in its economy, subsistence practices, and sociopolitical organization. I review historical approaches, archaeological studies, translations in cuneiform administrative texts and literature to illuminate the principal role large-scale herding practices played in these structural changes. This research highlights the evolution of pastoralism in ancient Mesopotamia by looking at its pivotal role in the expansion and connectivity of the empire. Moreover, I discuss the importance of pastoralism in the formation of socio-political infrastructure, the interplay between cultic practices and wealth redistribution, as well as its use in consolidating …

A Technologically Enhanced Introduction To Creative Writing --Instructional Unit Plan, Evangeline Campbell

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Technologically Enhanced Introduction to Creative Writing Unit Plan

My educational unit plan serves as an 9th & 10th grade Introduction to Creative Writing. Each lesson includes guiding questions, learning outcomes, content standards, and step-by-step instructional activities. As it spans over poetry, prose, nonfiction, and fiction, the unit plan will serve, for students, as an introduction to Creative Writing and, for educators, as an avenue for integrating different styles of technology into their teaching repertoire.

With the assistance of my mentor, I crafted each lesson around the Creative Writing content and skills most precedent for 9th and 10th graders. The addition …

Accessibility Of Police Officer Conduct Records In Montana And Policy Solutions To Move Toward Transparency, Sophia Speckert, Isabelle Lyon, Gillian Oneil, John Bazant

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Police officers in the United States are granted an extraordinary amount of discretion in their posts and hold unique positions of power within their communities. Consequently, they carry increased responsibility for their actions. However, existing law in Montana provides multiple avenues for the classification or destruction of records relevant to officer conduct, making it impossible for the public to spot patterns of misconduct or adequately evaluate an officer’s fitness for public office. This particular legal issue is receiving special consideration as citizens of the United States are reckoning with the disproportionate police killings of people of color and searching for …

Time For Radical Action: The Black Grassroots Freedom Struggle In America's Second City In The Mid-1960s, Stephen Vincent Hayes

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The traditional narrative of the civil rights movement focuses on the South, the influential rights organizations that drew national attention, and the men who led these organizations. It also presupposes nonviolence as the central organizing principle. Consequently, this narrative often ignores important actions and actors that fall outside this limited purview, and our understanding of the movement suffers as a result. My research adds nuance and granular detail to the broad Black freedom struggle. I embarked on a “local studies” examination of Chicago and have investigated two topics: school segregation and housing segregation.

I reached several interpretive conclusions about Chicago. …

Intersectional Feminism And Diverse Perspectives In Contemporary Romance, Abigail L. Nordstrom

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

The lack of intersectional feminism and diverse perspectives has long been a critique of the literary canon. While the Academy has shifted toward a more progressive course of literary study in recent decades, there are still some genres that are treated as undeserving of scholarly analysis in spite of their unique and diverse perspectives. The contemporary romance genre embodies the very intersectional feminism that the traditional literary canon lacks, yet it is still treated as unworthy of consideration. Contemporary romance novels such as The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert and The Bromance …

“The Himalayan Hungary Gives The Free World A New Torch In The Cold War”: The Tibetan Uprising And American Identity At Home And Abroad, 1959-1962, Kayla Irish

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

In late March of 1959, thousands of demonstrators in Tibet began a violent revolt against Communist China in response to perceived threats against their religious practice and way of life. News of the Tibetan Uprising spread across a Cold War consensus-shaped American media. While scholarship on US-Tibet relations has examined CIA involvement in the Uprising and debates in the United Nations in 1959, few works have analyzed how the American public processed and discussed the revolt. This project investigates the impact of the Uprising on American political culture and the geopolitics of human rights. Newspaper and periodical writers interpreted the …

Bahá'U'Lláh And The God Of Avicenna, Joshua Hall

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

This paper, in three parts, compares the core metaphysical positions of the preeminent 11^th century Islamic philosopher Avicenna with the theological teachings of the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, born in 19^th century Iran. Part one presents Avicenna’s cosmological argument for God’s existence and analyzes his conception of God’s nature, and shows that Bahá’u’lláh broadly affirms Avicenna’s argument for God’s existence and his basic account of the divine nature. Part two subsequently discusses how Avicenna deduces further attributes of God from the notion of his necessary or unconditioned existence, and likewise attempts to demonstrate that Bahá’u’lláh affirms …

African-American Women In Montana, Molly Putnam

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Despite the significant study of western history and African-American migration throughout the United States, until recent years the experience of African Americans in the West has gone largely untold. This is especially true in regards to African-American women and their contribution to western communities. Through a detailed historical analysis, this paper will identify some of the important African-American women in Montana’s past, shedding light on their experiences and main contributions. The essay leans on reputable primary and secondary sources including applications to the National Register of Historic Places, census data, and the writings of historians such as Dr. Quintard Taylor. …