ABSTRACT
Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) expand scientific educational benefits of research to large groups of students through a course setting. As part of an ongoing effort to integrate CUREs into freshman biology, we developed a microbiology CURE (mCURE) that uses a modified version of a dilution-to-extinction high throughput culturing protocol for isolating abundant yet fastidious aquatic bacterioplankton. Students learn to serially dilute and inoculate microbial cultures, perform DNA extractions and PCR, and identify microbial isolates via 16S rRNA gene sequences. The curriculum also includes exercises for learning to critically read and evaluate scientific literature, and emphasizes scientific communication through written and oral exercises that incorporate social media elements. In the first three semesters, the mCUREs achieved similar cultivability success as implementation of the protocol in a standard laboratory setting. The mCURE students have cultivated 43 unique bacterioplankton taxa, many of which occur as abundant taxa in the coastal environments from which the initial inoculum was sampled. Moreover, trends observed in the pre- and post-course survey data provide preliminary evidence that the mCURE format may improve a variety of scientific training objectives, based on the students’ perceptions of the course. Our modular framework facilitates customization of the curriculum for use in multiple settings, and we provide classroom exercises, assignments, assessment tools, and examples of student output to assist with implementation.
