CUREs

Learn more about the following CUREs from their websites:

• Bacteria and viruses:
  • EvolvingSTEM is an authentic laboratory experience that allows students to watch evolutionary change happen in one week by growing a harmless bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, under conditions that select for mutant bacteria that are better suited to living on a plastic bead, a novel environment that selects for bacteria with increased biofilm formation abilities.
  • Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment (PARE): Different modules around the identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in soil.
  • REMNet: Microbiomes for All originated from an Authentic Research Experience in Microbiology to integrate genomics research into general biology or microbiology curricula. REMNet serves as a centralized hub for information and resources on the importance of microbiomes, how they are studied and what we can do with a better understanding of their role in our environments and health. You can learn more from this Frontiers in Microbiology article, and from microBREW 2024.
  • 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. Featured in bigBREW 2022, see the talk here.
  • Tiny Earth: Students discover antibiotics from soil bacteria in their own backyards.
• Worms:
  • Pipeline CURE: a framework that integrates a single research question (C. elegans epigenetic research) throughout a biology curriculum, beginning in their first majors course and continuing to an upper-level research experience.
• Yeast:
  • Experimental Evolution of Multicellularity: Experiments for high school and college instructors to teach the evolution of biological complexity by enabling students to directly observe the evolution of multicellular "snowflake yeast."
  • Yeast ORFan Gene Project: A consortium of undergraduates and faculty studying genes of unknown function in S. cerevisiae, with a focus on training students in experimental design.
  • yEvo: an authentic research experience designed for high school students to observe the process of evolution in their classrooms using yeast as a model organism. See the featured talks in BREW 2020 (at 16:06) and bigBREW 2022.
• Other organisms:
  • Ball Python Genetics Project: a research project aimed at understanding the genetic basis of color morphs in ball pythons. Featured in bigBREW 2022, see the talk here.
  • CURE modules for several organisms (plants, plankton, insects, zebrafish, S. marcesans, D. discoideum, and more!) are described in Supplement 1 to Thu et al.'s open access article on student perceptions of a CURE-based course.
• Computational biology and bioinformatics:
  • See our bioinformatics page for more resources!
  • Avida-ED: A digital evolution application for students to design and perform experiements online.
  • Build-A-Genome: BAG is a course-based undergraduate research experience in which students create synthetic genomes. This interdisciplinary course-based research experience allows students to learn concepts and techniques in genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and synthetic biology while participating in a cutting-edge research project.