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Access, equity, and inclusion in scientific research increases undergraduate student retention and diversity within STEM fields. However, undergraduate students are afforded limited research opportunities, effectively excluding many STEM majors. A Course Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) gives students an opportunity to work on a research project as part of a course, and a national CUREs network provides access to and contribution to a larger research project and networking framework. The Malate Dehydrogenase CURE Community (MCC) offers access to a national and collaborative network, faculty training, and resources on malate dehydrogenase pedagogical and experimental techniques. MCC also provides faculty mentoring and support through its cohort program. Specifically, one member of the 2022 cohort implemented a full semester CURE in a Biology laboratory course in spring 2023 as a junior/senior course, and two members of the 2023 MCC Cohort implemented a modular CURE for the first time in the fall 2023 semester in either a Biochemistry I laboratory course or a junior methodology course. These cohort members will share their experiences as well as unexpected challenges and positive outcomes. Student experiences will be reviewed for these first implementations of the MCC CURE courses. A retrospective analysis identified course infrastructures that the MMC Cohort wished to understand prior to a CUREs implementation such as flexibility, incorporation of pivot points, and meta-teaching to increase student success with independent projects. Additionally, the cohort members will share suggested course improvements for CURE implementation for the next academic year based on common findings, including increased support for hypothesis development, improved coaching of technique nuances related to the malate dehydrogenase kinetics assay, and clearer framing of the research project for student buy-in. Funding source: NSF RCN 2119918.
Garcia et al. (Fri,) studied this question.