Current Status and Implementation of Science Practices in Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs): A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This systematic literature review of CUREs published within the years 2000 through 2020 assesses each CURE curriculum for inclusion of the five primary components of CUREs as well as four specific science practices key to scientific reasoning. CUREs are compared according to their STEM discipline, subdiscipline in biology, and course level.

A Review of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences in Chemistry

“…There are several goals for this review article: (1) to provide a systematic review of the recent trends within the published literature on CUREs in the chemistry context; (2) to serve as a resource for those seeking to develop, implement, or evaluate a chemistry CURE by detailing the key components instructors should consider, with chemistry-specific examples from the literature; and (3) to outline implications for future possibilities related to CUREs in the chemistry context. By focusing specifically on the context of chemistry CUREs, this article extends the findings presented in a recent review article that discussed the current state of CUREs across STEM disciplines . Specifically, this article provides additional details regarding the range in implementation and evaluation of chemistry CUREs, which is valuable because CUREs are highly contextual based on the discipline (or subdiscipline) of the research and the institutional setting.…”

“…All articles included the relevance component, which required “student work [to have] an impact outside the classroom” . As relevance involves engaging students with research that relates the laboratory to the world beyond the classroom, the relevance component was often met due to the nature of conducting novel research.…”

“…Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) represent an increasingly popular approach for involving undergraduate students with conducting novel research within laboratory courses. , Experiments conducted within CUREs contrast both traditional laboratory experiments (where students follow a set procedure to reproduce an experiment with known outcome) and inquiry- or discovery-based laboratory experiments (where students are guided through an inquiry process to conduct experiments where instructors, but not students, know the outcome). − By having students work on authentic research problems, CUREs engage students in a discovery process to address problems that are relevant to students outside the classroom. Furthermore, CUREs typically engage students with several processes that reflect the nature of authentic research, including collaboration, iteration, and the science practices of developing hypotheses or research questions, designing methodologies to address their hypotheses, reviewing the primary literature, and disseminating results. ,, …”

Harnessing the Topics of Cytochrome P450 Enzymology and Artemisinin to Teach a Semester-Long Biochemistry Laboratory Course

“…Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have defining characteristics (novelty, discovery, iteration, collaboration, scientific practices, broad relevance), which were present in our course (Table ). , The topic of identifying new enzymatic products of cytochrome P450 enzymes provided novelty and discovery in the study.…”

A Guided-Inquiry Activity for Introducing Students to Figures from Primary Scientific Literature

“…Here, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a guided-inquiry activity, focused on exposure to primary literature and interpretation of research results, in a one-semester general chemistry laboratory course . This guided-inquiry activity was designed using a research article by Domine et al and implemented as part of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) focused on snow chemistry research . Providing students with research experiences that are contextualized in environmental chemistry teaches students foundational general chemistry content and experimental techniques and helps them recognize the relationship between course content and the real world .…”