Communities

Networks to foster CURE implementation

National Defined CUREs and CURE methods support

In addition to adaption of individual faculty’s research questions into course-based research, there are several national models of research protocols and questions that offer background, training, and support for implementation at multiple institutions. Some examples:

  • AR:CURE Project—Synthetic Biology Workshop https://www.obu.edu/biology/arcure/ “seeks to bring authentic Genomics and Bioinformatic research into your undergraduate curriculum…[through] workshops on synthetic biology as a means to provide complete information on using this technology in a CURE at community colleges and four-year institutions.”
  • Authentic Research Experience in Microbiology (AREM) http://arem.cuny.edu/sites/about/ “Authentic Research Experience in Microbiology (AREM) is a modular approach to integrating genomics research into the general biology or microbiology curriculum. AREM investigates the microbiome of New York City across its boroughs, its streets and parks and across time.”
  • Bean Beetles www.beanbeetles.org “We are available to conduct faculty professional development workshops on using the bean beetles in course-based undergraduate research experiences, tailored to the needs to the your institution and the faculty audience.”
  • DNA Subway https://dnasubway.cyverse.org/ “DNA Subway ties together key bioinformatics tools and databases to assemble gene models, investigate genomes, work with phylogenetic trees and analyze DNA barcodes.”
  • GCAT (Genome Consortium for Active Teaching) GCAT-Synthetic Biology (GCATSynBio) “Bring synthetic biology into undergraduate curriculum primarily through student research… [by providing]… free tools for use in synthetic biology …(and)…workshops to train teams of faculty”; Next-Gen Sequencing (GCAT SEEK) “GCAT-SEEK will help facilitate working with a genome core to obtain raw sequence for you and your students to analyze and work with.”
  • GENI (Guiding Education through Novel Investigation) https://geni-science.org/  “Incorporating original genomics, genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology research into high school, community college, and undergraduate university classrooms.”
  • GEP (Genomics Education Partnership) http://gep.wustl.edu/  “The goal of the Genomics Education Partnership is to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in genomics research.”
  • PARE (Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistance in the Environment) https://sites.tufts.edu/ctse/projects/pare/ ” a short duration, low-cost, course-based research module and citizen-science driven research project.”
  • Small World Initiative (SWI) http://www.smallworldinitiative.org/ “SWI’s biology course provides original research opportunities rather than relying on cookbook experiments with predetermined results. Through a series of student-driven experiments, students collect soil samples, isolate diverse bacteria, test their bacteria against clinically-relevant microorganisms, and characterize those showing inhibitory activity.”
  • SEA-Phage (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science) seaphages.org  “a two-semester, discovery-based undergraduate research course that begins with simple digging in the soil to find new viruses, but progresses through a variety of microbiology techniques and eventually to complex genome annotation and bioinformatic analyses”