Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences
Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences, or CUREs have been promoted by Howard Hughes Memorial Institute (HHMI), the Vision and Change report from NSF and AAAS, and a nationwide network of faculty (CUREnet) and support the high impact instructional practices of undergraduate research and prolonged shared experiences identified by Kuh (2008).
Auchincloss et al. (2014) defined CUREs to be distinguished from other lab experiences through student collaborative use of iterative scientific practices for discoveries that are relevant beyond the science classroom. As a result of contact between students and their instructors, research experiences have been thought to be of particular benefit to women and underrepresented minorities (Auchincloss et al., 2014).
The CLSE began implementing the Phage Hunter CURE (Jordan et al. 2014) with support from HHMI in just a few laboratory sections of Biology 1113 in 2011. We have since expanded that program to reach over 400 students each year.
The CLSE currently offers four different CURES: SEA Phages, Endophytes, PARE, and the eBird Community Science Project for undergraduate students in biology.