Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Research Articles

Writing a literature review as a class project in an upper-level undergraduate biochemistry course.

A literature review is an important part of conducting academic research. Knowing how to conduct a literature search and write a high-quality literature review is a valuable skill. Herein, the authors describe the method of introducing a literature review writing exercise in an upper-level biochemistry course. Since 2020, authors have collaborated with numerous undergraduates writing literature reviews on topics in biochemistry that resulted in peer-reviewed publications. Authors believe that this unique idea of providing a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) to many undergraduates, especially those who otherwise do not receive collaborative research experience through traditional research paths, must be shared with other instructors.

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Laboratory Learning in the Life Sciences

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Laboratory Learning in the Life Sciences

The Power of Place: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Studying Urban Ecology, Local Apple Trees and Disease Susceptibility

The Power of Place: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Studying Urban Ecology, Local Apple Trees and Disease Susceptibility

Student Perceptions of Community-Engaged Scholarship Courses: Developing a Sociolinguistic Corpus on the U.S.–Mexico Border

Community-based sociolinguistic corpora are collections of informal interviews with community members who comprise an important dataset in sociolinguistics. Although some scholars have involved students in developing sociolinguistic corpora, few studies have examined students’ perspectives on these projects. Furthermore, very few studies examine the perceptions of underrepresented college students who are themselves members of the surrounding community. The present study analyzes the perceptions of students involved in community-engaged scholarship (CES) courses at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on the U.S.–Mexico border. In these CES courses, predominantly Mexican American students contribute to the documentation of language in South Texas through the Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (Christoffersen & Bessett, 2019). A qualitative analysis of 38 student responses reveals six significant themes: a greater knowledge of transcription, increased connection with one’s own community, enhanced understanding from experiential learning and research experience, development of professional skills, a heightened appreciation of local language varieties, and pride in participating in a large-scale research project. These responses demonstrate the benefits of CES and serve to encourage sociolinguists to incorporate community-based corpora development in linguistics and language classes. More broadly, the results highlight the importance and impact of CES experiences for underrepresented college students, especially those incorporating course-based undergraduate research experiences.

Upper-level inter-disciplinary microbiology CUREs increase student's scientific self-efficacy, scientific identity, and self-assessed skills.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in authentic research and generally increase the participation rate of students in research. Students' participation in research has a positive impact on their science identity and self-efficacy, both of which can predict integration of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), especially for underrepresented students. The main goal of this study was to investigate instructor-initiated CUREs implemented as upper-level elective courses in the Biomedical Sciences major. We hypothesized that these CUREs would (i) have a positive impact on students' scientific identity and self-efficacy and (ii) result in gains in students' self-assessed skills in laboratory science, research, and science communication. We used Likert-type surveys developed by Estrada et al. (14) under the Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influence to measure scientific identity, self-efficacy, and scientific value orientation. When data from all CUREs were combined, our results indicate that students' self-efficacy and science identity significantly increased after completion. Students' self-assessment of research and lab-related skills was significantly higher after completion of the CUREs. We also observed that prior to participation in the CUREs, students' self-assessment of molecular and bioinformatic skills was low, when compared with microbiological skills. This may indicate strengths and gaps in our curriculum that could be explored further.

Measuring undergraduates' understanding of the culture of scientific research as an outcome variable in research on CUREs.

Researchers who work on course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and issues related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) retention have begun exploring changes in student thinking about what it means to be a scientist. To support this effort, we developed rubrics to score answers to three open-response prompts: What does it mean to think like a scientist? What does it mean to do science? and Did you do real research in your coursename labs? The rubric development process was iterative and was based on input from the literature, experienced researchers, and early-career undergraduates. A post hoc analysis showed that the rubric elements map to 27 of 31 statements in the Culture of Scientific Research (CSR) framework, suggesting that scored responses to the three prompts can assess how well students understand what being a science professional entails. Scores on responses from over 400 students who were starting an introductory biology course for majors furnish baseline data from the rubrics and suggest that (i) undergraduates at this level have, as expected, a novice-level understanding of CSR, and (ii) level of understanding in novice students does not vary as a function of demography or academic preparation. Researchers and instructors are encouraged to add CSR to their list of learning objectives for CUREs and consider assessing it using the rubrics provided here.

Preparing Teaching Assistants to Facilitate Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in the Biological Sciences: A Call to Action.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) offer an expanding avenue to engage students in real-world scientific practices. Increasingly, CUREs are instructed by graduate teaching assistants (TAs), yet TAs may be underprepared to facilitate and face unique barriers when teaching CUREs. Consequently, unless TAs are provided professional development (PD) and resources to teach CUREs effectively, they and their students may not reap the assumed benefits of CURE instruction. Here, we describe three perspectives - that of the CURE TA, the CURE designer/facilitator, and the CURE student - that are collectively intended to inform the development of tentative components of CURE TA PD. We compare these perspectives to previous studies in the literature in an effort to identify commonalities across all sources and offer potential insights for advancing CURE TA PD efforts across a diversity of institutional environments. We propose that the most effective CURE TA PD programs will promote the use of CURE-specific instructional strategies as benchmarks for guiding change in teaching practices and should focus on three major elements: 1) enhancement of research and teaching acumen, 2) development of effective and inclusive mentoring practices, and 3) identification and understanding of the factors that make CUREs a unique learning experience.

Building Authentic Science Experiences: Students' Perceptions of Sequential Course-Based Undergraduate Research.

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are attractive solutions for scaling undergraduate research experiences at primarily undergraduate teaching institutions, where resources for faculty research activities can be limited. The Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research to Inspire Undergraduate Success (SIRIUS) project is a unique program that integrates CUREs, coordinated around a local real-world problem, throughout a biology department's curricula. The CUREs are scaffolded to provide all biology majors with multiple opportunities to engage in scientific investigations as they advance through introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses. In this mixed methods, cross-sectional study, we explore students' perceptions of the authenticity of their experiences as they progress through the SIRIUS CUREs. Triangulated data collected from two instruments indicated that students in advanced courses recognized more involvement in research activities and perceived greater authenticity in the science they were performing compared with introductory and intermediate students. Intermediate and advanced students perceived more opportunities for independence; however, experiences with failure and the influence these experiences had on the perceptions of authenticity was primarily observed with advanced students. This study contributes to the growing literature on CUREs with a focus on students from a primarily undergraduate institution with multiple minority-serving designations.

Relevance of Science, Conceptualization of Scientists, and Contextualized "Failure" as Mediators in the Development of Student Science Identity.

The Research Experiences in Marine Science (REMS) Program is a Hawai'i place-based CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) for late high school and early undergraduate students wherein students conduct independent research that draws upon the history, culture, and ecosystem of their local communities. In addition to providing meaningful access to marine science education and training, REMS addresses a fear of failure expressed by students who view their culture and personal identity as incompatible with undergraduate science pathways. Data about student attitudes toward and conceptualizations of science and scientists were collected through pre- and postprogram open-ended survey items, Draw-a-Scientist Tests, and postprogram interviews. Results suggest the combination of place-based elements and an authentic research experience shifted students' conceptualization of scientists to a "humanized" construct. The emergence of this theme coincided with students recognizing themselves as scientists, gaining confidence in content understanding and research skills, increasing interest in science as a career pathway, and recognizing how science affects their communities. This study demonstrates how a CURE that emphasizes the cultural relevance of science, an inclusive conceptualization of a "scientist", and contextualized role of "failure" in science, may contribute to historically marginalized students recognizing themselves as scientists and ultimately persisting in science careers.

The CURE assessment landscape from the instructor’s point of view: knowledge and skills assessments are highly valued support tools for CURE adoption

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a high-impact educational practice that engage students with authentic research in the classroom. CURE development models include those designed and implemented at individual institutions to wide-reaching multi-institutional network CUREs. The latter have lowered barriers to implementation by providing a centralized support system, centralized training and curricula, and mentoring. CURE learning outcomes span the three domains of learning: knowledge, skills, and attitude. Assessment of these domains can serve a variety of purposes to a collection of different stakeholders. To better understand the CURE assessment landscape from the instructor’s point of view we surveyed instructors from an established network CURE. We found that these instructors, particularly those from associate’s colleges, overwhelmingly prefer use of knowledge and skills-based assessments over attitudinal CURE assessment instruments. Instructors value knowledge and skills assessment data when deciding whether to adopt a particular CURE and for identifying student misconceptions to improve CURE instruction, and for documentation necessary for Community College transfer agreements or for gaining approval from curriculum committees. CURE learning models have pointed toward use of generalizable instruments for measuring CURE outcomes, but since knowledge and skills assessments are typically CURE specific, obtaining funds for their development may not be realistic. To address this concern, we outline a CURE network stakeholder co-design process for developing and validating a knowledge and skills assessment instrument without external support or a sizable time commitment. We encourage network CUREs to leverage their communities to generate and validate knowledge and skills assessment instruments to further lower barriers for instructor adoption.

Engaging students in a genetics course-based undergraduate research experience utilizing Caenorhabditis elegans in hybrid learning to explore human disease gene variants.

Genetic analysis in model systems using bioinformatic approaches provides a rich context for a concrete and conceptual understanding of gene structure and function. With the intent to engage students in research and explore disease biology utilizing the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans model, we developed a semester-long course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) in a hybrid (online/in-person) learning environment-the gene-editing and evolutionary nematode exploration CURE (GENE-CURE). Using a combination of bioinformatic and molecular genetic tools, students performed structure-function analysis of disease-associated variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in human orthologs. With the aid of a series of workshop-style research sessions, students worked in teams of two to six members to identify a conserved VUS locus across species and design and test a polymerase chain reaction-based assay for targeted editing of a gene in the nematode and downstream genotyping. Research session discussions, responsible conduct of research training, electronic laboratory notebook, project reports, quizzes, and group poster presentations at a research symposium were assessed for mastery of learning objectives and research progress. Self-reflections were collected from students to assess engagement, science identity, and science efficacy. Qualitative analysis of these reflections indicated several gains suggesting that all students found many aspects of the GENE-CURE rewarding (learning process of research, self-confidence in research and science identity, and personal interest) and challenging (iterative research and failure, time management, COVID-19 pandemic, and life issues).

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences as a Potential CURE-All for Applied Research Training and Real-World Knowledge Acquisition

Calls have been made for higher education to offer students hands-on and experiential learning opportunities. This paper explores the development and implementation of an advanced undergraduate research methods course offered in fall 2020 and 2022. After initially conducting research on its first offering in 2020, the instructor navigated changes based on self-reflective, student, and community partner feedback. Students, agency partners, and the instructor-of-record participated in mid and end-of-semester evaluations, focus groups, interviews, and follow-up surveys during both iterations of the course with new data offering insights into course perceptions, pitfalls, and impact. Findings suggested that students had generally positive experiences in the class. The course’s applicability and relevance additionally contributed to increased student engagement and motivation. While prior literature identifies the utility of experiential learning in gaining real-world research skills, the applied criminal justice research course additionally highlights motivation and investment as defining characteristics.

Development and assessment of a course-based undergraduate research experience for online astronomy majors

Development and assessment of a course-based undergraduate research experience for online astronomy majors

Impact of transition to a hybrid model of biochemistry course-based undergraduate research experience during the COVID-19 pandemic on student science self-efficacy and conceptual knowledge

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on higher education worldwide. In-person courses had to be quickly transited to online, including lab courses embedded with Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). In response to this challenge, we successfully converted a fully in-person biochemistry lab that integrated with a 6-week modular CURE (mCURE) into a hybrid CURE (hCURE) in Fall 2020, with support from the Malate dehydrogenase CUREs Community. The hCURE was structured to have in-person labs and online activities arranged on an alternating weekly basis, so that only half of the regular class size of students attended the hands-on labs at any given time to maintain proper social distancing. To evaluate the efficacy of the hCURE, student science self-efficacy and conceptual understanding of protein structure–function relationships were measured using pre-course and post-course surveys and tests, respectively. Our data showed a significant increase in student science self-efficacy and conceptual knowledge test scores. Furthermore, we compared the pre-lab quiz scores that assessed various biochemical concepts and skills across three different semesters, Fall 2019 with a fully in-person mCURE before the pandemic, Fall 2020 with the hCURE implemented during the pandemic, and Fall 2021 when the lab returned to the fully in-person mCURE following the pandemic. A significant decline in quiz scores from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020, and an even further decline from Fall 2019 to Fall 2021 were observed, suggesting that apart from the impact of course modality, the pandemic may have exerted a lasting adverse effect on student learning.

Enhancing students’ views of experimental physics through a course-based undergraduate research experience

Enhancing students’ views of experimental physics through a course-based undergraduate research experience

Developing scientific literacy with a cyclic independent study assisted CURE detecting SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a high level of scientific illiteracy and mistrust that pervades the scientific and medical communities. This finding has proven the necessity of updating current methods used to expose undergraduates to research. The research in traditional course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) is limited by undergraduate time constraints, skill level, and course structure, and consequently it does not attain the learning objectives or the high-impact, relevant studies achieved in graduate-level laboratories using a cyclic trainee/trainer model. Although undergraduate independent study (ISY) research more closely matches the structure and learning objectives of graduate-level research, they are uncommon as professors and universities typically view them as a significant time and resource burden with limited return. Cyclic independent study-assisted CUREs (CIS-CUREs) combine many positive aspects of ISY graduate-level research, and CUREs by pre-training ISY research lead to facilitate CURE proposal and project semesters in a cyclic model. The CIS-CURE approach allowed undergraduate students at Stetson University to perform and disseminate more rigorous, involved, long-term, and challenging research projects, such as the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. In doing so, all students would have the opportunity to participate in a high-impact research project and consequently gain a more comprehensive training, reach higher levels of research dissemination, and increase their competitiveness after graduating. Together, CIS-CUREs generate graduates with higher scientific literacy and thus combat scientific mistrust in communities.

An Online CURE Taught at a Community College During the Pandemic Shows Mixed Results for Development of Research Self-Efficacy and In-class Relationships

The Bee the CURE is a novel course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that engages introductory biology students in DNA barcoding (DNA extraction, amplification, and bioinformatics) in partnership with the Tucson Bee Collaborative and the University of Arizona. The first iteration of this CURE taught at Pima Community College (PCC) occurred during the Fall 2020 semester in which the course was taught online and students focused on bioinformatics. Due to the online format, students were unable to participate directly in the wet-lab components (extraction and amplification) of the course. These were approximated with videos of the instructor performing the tasks. A qualitative case study of this semester built from student interviews found that students were able to form positive relationships with instructors and peer mentors but that the online format of the class posed some challenges to relationship formation. Students reported developing self-efficacy in bioinformatics skills while online lab participation disrupted student’s gaining “hands-on experiences” and seldom led to development of science self-efficacy in wet lab skills. Our findings from a study of a synchronous online CURE allowed us to characterize a context in which online learning posed a challenge and perhaps even a threat to research self-efficacy, especially regarding skill development and self-efficacy in “hands-on” areas, such as wet-bench research skills. Yet optimistically, our study highlights the potential of online community college learning environments to provide mastery experiences in online science contexts (e.g., bioinformatics) and opportunities for relationship building.

Influence of CUREs on STEM retention depends on demographic identities.

Research has shown that undergraduate research experiences can have substantive effects on retaining students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). However, it is impossible to provide individual research experiences for every undergraduate student, especially at large universities. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have become a common approach to introduce large numbers of students to research. We investigated whether a one-semester CURE that replaced a traditional introductory biology laboratory course could increase retention in STEM as well as intention to remain in STEM, if the results differed according to demography, and investigated the possible motivational factors that might mediate such an effect. Under the umbrella of the Authentic Research Connection (ARC) program, we used institutional and survey data from nine semesters and compared ARC participants to non-participants, who applied to ARC but either were not randomly selected or were selected but chose not to enroll in an ARC section. We found that ARC had significant effects on demographic groups historically less likely to be retained in STEM: ARC participation resulted in narrowing the gaps in graduation rates in STEM (first vs continuing-generation college students) and in intention to major in STEM [females vs males, Persons Excluded because of Ethnicity or Race (PEERs) vs non-PEERs]. These disproportionate boosts in intending STEM majors among ARC students coincide with their reporting a greater sense of student cohesiveness, retaining more interest in biology, and commenting more frequently that the course provided a useful/valuable learning experience. Our results indicate that CUREs can be a valuable tool for eliminating inequities in STEM participation, and we make several recommendations for further research.

A cost-free CURE: using bioinformatics to identify DNA-binding factors at a specific genomic locus.

Research experiences provide diverse benefits for undergraduates. Many academic institutions have adopted course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) to improve student access to research opportunities. However, potential instructors of a CURE might still face financial or practical hurdles that prevent implementation. Bioinformatics research offers an alternative that is free, safe, compatible with remote learning, and may be more accessible for students with disabilities. Here, we describe a bioinformatics CURE that leverages publicly available datasets to discover novel proteins that target an instructor-determined genomic locus of interest. We use the free, user-friendly bioinformatics platform Galaxy to map ChIP-seq datasets to a genome, which removes the computing burden from students. Both faculty and students directly benefit from this CURE, as faculty can perform candidate screens and publish CURE results. Students gain not only basic bioinformatics knowledge, but also transferable skills, including scientific communication, database navigation, and primary literature experience. The CURE is flexible and can be expanded to analyze different types of high-throughput data or to investigate different genomic loci in any species.

Responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR) diagnostic survey using case scenarios from biology course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs).

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are increasingly becoming the first, and perhaps only, research experience for many biology students. Responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR) is crucial for the integrity of scientific research and essential for students to have an understanding of the scientific process at any academic level. However, there is a current lack of RECR education in biology CUREs. To understand the level of RECR knowledge and skills in undergraduate students, we created a diagnostic survey that uses case scenarios designed to illustrate RECR issues in the CURE classroom. Analysis of students' responses indicated that the overall percentage of students who are able to effectively use RECR terminology and identify the impact of RECR violations on science integrity and ultimately on society is low. Furthermore, some students equated RECR violations to academic dishonesty, indicating difficulties separating the research and academic aspects of CUREs. This diagnostic tool can aid instructors in identifying gaps in student RECR knowledge for the subsequent development of RECR educational interventions, particularly to ensure the integrity of the research performed in CURE settings.