Course-based undergraduate research experiences in molecular biosciences—patterns, trends, and faculty support

Wang, Jack T. H.

doi:10.1093/femsle/fnx157

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Resistance could also be related to mismatches between faculty and student expectations of the course goals. For example, some students believe that they need to learn a wide variety of laboratory techniques in order to be prepared for STEM professions or graduate study and may therefore resist a course that applies fewer techniques with more depth and iteration (9).…”

Section: Fear Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…CUREs offer numerous benefits for students, including increasing access to research opportunities for all students and, notably, narrowing the achievement gap between the highest performing students and their peers (6)(7)(8)(9). CUREs can be particularly impactful for students traditionally underrepresented in STEM, through increases in psychosocial outcomes, knowledge acquisition, and persistence in STEM fields (10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fear of the CURE: A Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers in Creating a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

Govindan

Pickett

Riggs

2020

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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Over the past decade, growing evidence has shown that there are many benefits to undergraduate students engaging in scientific research, including increased persistence in pursuing STEM careers and successful outcomes in graduate study. With these benefits in mind, there has been a significant push toward providing research opportunities for students in STEM majors. To address this need, an increasing number of undergraduate courses have been developed to provide students with research experiences in a class setting, also known as course-based undergraduate research experiences, or CUREs. Despite the growing success of these courses, a number of barriers remain that deter faculty from developing and implementing CUREs. Here, we will review the perceived challenges of developing a CURE and provide practical strategies to overcome these challenges.

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Section: Fear Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear of the CURE: A Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers in Creating a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

Govindan

Pickett

Riggs

2020

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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“…A meaningful microbiome experiment will likely require a minimum of five samples in each of two treatments, or a total of 10 samples, so whole community sequencing will cost between $550 and $850/class. The cost of NGS-technology can be prohibitive ( Wang, 2017 ). Colleges and universities that cannot secure funding for 16S whole community sequencing may wish to use sample data sets available at https://www.beanbeetles.org/microbiome/resources-for-online-teaching/ .…”

Section: Materials and Equipmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental microbes residing in soil and water recycle nutrients on a global scale ( Chapelle, 2000 ), degrade and transform toxins ( Anderson and Lovley, 1997 ), and contribute toward the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere ( Mitchell et al, 2010 ). Given their broad relevance in shaping the health of our world, microbiomes provide an excellent and engaging topic for undergraduate students and ample opportunities for discovery-based research ( Wang, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bean Beetle Microbiome Project: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience in Microbiology

2020

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Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are an effective means of transforming the learning and teaching of science by involving students in the scientific process. The potential importance of the microbiome in shaping both environmental health and disease makes investigations of microbiomes an excellent teaching tool for undergraduate microbiology. Here, we present a CURE based on the microbiome of the bean beetle ( Callosobruchus maculatus ), a model system for undergraduate laboratory education. Despite the extensive research literature on bean beetles, little is known about their microbiome, making them an ideal system for a discovery-based CURE. In the CURE, students acquire microbiological technical skills by characterizing both culturable and unculturable members of the beetle gut-microbial community. Students plate beetle gut homogenates on different media, describe the colonies that are formed to estimate taxonomic diversity, extract DNA from colonies of interest, PCR amplify the16S rRNA gene for Sanger sequencing, and use the NCBI-nBLAST database to taxonomically classify sequences. Additionally, students extract total DNA from beetle gut homogenates for high-throughput paired-end sequencing and perform bioinformatic and statistical analyses of bacterial communities using a combination of open-access data processing software. Each activity allows students to engage with studies of microbiomes in a real-world context, to apply concepts and laboratory techniques to investigate either student or faculty-driven research questions, and to gain valuable experiences working with large high-throughput datasets. The CURE is designed such that it can be implemented over either 6-weeks (half semester) or 12-weeks (full semester), allowing for flexibility within the curriculum. Furthermore, student-generated data from the CURE (including bacterial colony phenotypic data, full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences from cultured isolates, and bacterial community sequences from gut homogenates) has been compiled in a continuously curated open-access database on the Bean Beetle Microbiome Project website, facilitating the generation of broader research questions across laboratory classrooms.

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“…They could also be applied to laboratory projects in cell biology, molecular biology, or genetics. In the past few years, there has been heightened interest in Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) that have been incorporated into various Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) courses . Depending on the course and type of activity, these Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experiences often require the students look up information about their system and to fill in the background as described above for LDH.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biochemistry laboratory reports: Filling in the introduction and discussion

Deutch

2018

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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Laboratory reports written in the style of a standard scientific article are commonly used to assess student learning in biochemistry laboratory courses. While most students can complete the Materials and Methods or Results sections successfully, many have difficulty with the Introduction and Discussion. They fail to place their data in a larger experimental context or to compare their results to those previously published. To address this issue in a laboratory course focusing on l‐lactate dehydrogenase, a new exercise was introduced that was designed 1) to provide more background information about l‐lactate dehydrogenase; 2) to give students additional experience in using PubMed and Web of Science to locate specific papers about l‐lactate dehydrogenase; 3) to introduce the major bioinformatics databases at the National Center for Biological Information, ExPASy (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics), BRENDA (Braunschweig Enzyme Database), and the Protein Data Bank; 4) to allow students to recover detailed information about l‐lactate dehydrogenases; and 5) to provide practice in reading a research article that is similar to what they do in the lab. The students completed a data sheet summarizing these activities and then prepared three laboratory reports. The lab reports improved over the course of the semester and were qualitatively better than in past years. The materials developed for this laboratory course can be adapted to similar projects that use another protein as a model system. They could also be modified for use in Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experiences or research projects for undergraduate or graduate students. © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(6):619–622, 2018.

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Course-based undergraduate research experiences in molecular biosciences—patterns, trends, and faculty support

Cited by 36 publications

References 109 publications

Fear of the CURE: A Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers in Creating a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

Fear of the CURE: A Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming Barriers in Creating a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

The Bean Beetle Microbiome Project: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience in Microbiology

Biochemistry laboratory reports: Filling in the introduction and discussion

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