A Need for CUREs
A group of faculty representing ten departments and units across University of Colorado Boulder produced a white paper submitted to the Academic Futures Initiative in 2017 describing the current need for expanded research experiences for undergraduates and of faculty seeking to design these courses.
Also included are descriptions, syllabi, and sample curricula from six courses currently offered in the College of Arts & Sciences.
How to Define a CURE
One of the aims of the National Science Foundation-funded Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet) is to create an operational definition of CUREs. Focusing mainly on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, a summary of their first meeting with conclusions as published in 2017.
Resources for you to get started
This resource also offers goals for all participants including faculty and students.
CURE Models
Read more about how CUREs have been implemented in the History department.
Erin Dolan from University of Georgia has expertise in designing and assessing outcomes of CUREs. As part of an effort to summarize the current efforts and needs in 2016, she published a list of representative CUREs from several STEM fields.
National CURE Programs
SEA-Phages
SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science) is 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.
Phage Hunters
The Actinobacteriophage Database at PhagesDB.org is a website that collects and shares data, pictures, protocols, and analysis tools associated with the discovery, sequencing, and characterization of mycobacteriophages—viruses that infect the Mycobacteria and also other bacterial hosts in the phylum Actinobacteria. It was developed at—and is maintained from—the Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute, a joint venture of Dr. Graham Hatfull and Dr. Roger Hendrix, both of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
Small World Initiative
This unique class approach harnesses the power of active learning to achieve both educational and scientific goals. SWI is an innovative program that successfully encourages students to pursue careers in science through hands-on experience and real-world applicable laboratory and field research in introductory courses.
Faculty Resources References:
Shortlidge, Erin E., Bangera, Gita, and Brownell, Sara E. 2017. “Each to Their Own CURE: Faculty Who Teaching Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Report Why You Too Should Teach a CURE. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 18(2): 18.2.29.
Sipress, Joel M. and David J. Voelker. 2009. “From Learning History to Doing History: Beyond the Coverage Model.” In Exploring Signature Pedagogies: Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind, edited by Regan A. R. Gurung, Nancy L. Chick, and Aeron Haynie, 19-35. Sterling, VA: Stylus.