Chloe Nasrala never thought she’d do research as an undergrad, let alone design and run an experiment in a world-class centre with million-dollar views of the Pacific Ocean.

But this summer, Nasrala and seven other science undergrads spent two weeks at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, a teaching and research facility on the west coast of Vancouver Island, situated on the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations.

“I got to be in a lab doing real research in a part of the country I’ve always wanted to visit, studying an ecosystem that I’m passionate about,” says Nasrala, now in her fourth and final year in the Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences program in the School of Earth, Environment & Society.

The second- and third-year students were working with Sara Smith, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Mount Royal University, on a marine conservation project: exploring better ways to bait the traps used to catch and kill invasive European green crabs.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations were buying herring as bait for their traps, but wanted to know whether salmon from their hatcheries could be a cheaper alternative.

To their surprise, the students learned they weren’t just continuing someone else’s work — they got to design and run their own experiment.

“I thought research only happened once you got a job in the field or you were a graduate student,” Nasrala says. “To already have research experience as an undergrad is something I’ll forever be grateful for.”

They spent their first afternoon brainstorming ways to bait the traps. They wound up pitching an experiment that would use rotten salmon — green crabs have a strong sense of smell — along with pool noodles, duct tape and a whole lot of zip ties.

Smith liked their proposal and told them to run with it.

“We went from being students to colleagues,” Nasrala says. “We felt trusted to do science.”

“That made me think of research in an entirely new way – as a process I could actively contribute to rather than just passively conform to and follow.”

A unique experience at a unique place 

The one-of-a-kind field work arrangement was brokered by Sunita Nadella, experiential programming and outreach manager with the Faculty of Science’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), who previously worked at Bamfield as a research manager.

“It’s the most wonderful place I’ve ever been as a researcher.”

Making research accessible for all undergraduate students is a priority for the Faculty of Science, and OUR founding director Jim Lyons quickly signed off on the unique west coast collaboration with Smith at Mount Royal.

Working with the OUR, McMaster’s Student Success Centre (SSC) helped cover the students’ travel and accommodation costs through an honorarium from Experience Ventures, a program through the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary. It supports postsecondary student in placements where they help make an impact alongside real-world innovators.

“Experience Ventures is one of the many ways in which the SSC facilitates experiential learning opportunities for students to build key skills,” says Gisela Oliveira, associate director of Career Development, Global Mobility and International Student Success at the SSC.

“And when students take on co-curricular projects, they have an opportunity to explore interdisciplinary perspectives. It makes for a richer academic experience and ultimately positions them better for life after graduating.”

The students stayed in one of the centre’s cabins with the Pacific Ocean at their door. They shared grocery bills and cooked their meals together, quickly becoming fast friends.

In their off time, the students also visited nearby Pachena Bay in Pacific Rim National Park.

“I had my binoculars out as soon as we got there,” Nasrala remembers. “For the next hour, there was whale after whale breaching about 100 metres from shore.”

Nadella, who joined them at Bamfield, had asked the students to wear their McMaster-branded white lab coats at the centre, as they are required to do for lab work at Mac.

“Everyone was impressed by the professionalism of our students,” she says. “They were impossible to miss.”

But it was their work ethic and research skills that really made a mark, she says.

The centre runs university credit courses and rents lab space to professors, but had never offered lab space to undergrads for their own experiments before this. (And it took some persuasion at first, Nadella says.)

But now Bamfield is looking at adding the McMaster model of engaging undergrads in research, she says.

And Nadella is already planning for next summer: Another crew of undergrads could head to Bamfield, or the Kananaskis Research Centre with the Canadian Rockies as a backdrop.

Either way, the students will once again design and run their own research project.

“It’s a game changer for students.”