Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620 USA.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2021 Apr 22;368(6). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnab036.
It is widely acknowledged that having experience conducting research is invaluable for undergraduate science students. Most undergraduate research is undertaken by students in a mentor's laboratory, but this limits the number of opportunities for students, as each laboratory can only take on a certain number of undergraduate researchers each semester. Additionally, it is also widely acknowledged that it is difficult for teachers to meet research goals while providing the best possible coursework for undergraduate students. Both of these bottlenecks can be circumvented via Classroom Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), which integrate research into the curricula of structured undergraduate classes. Students enrolled in classes that include CUREs conduct research to address open-ended questions as part of their coursework. In this commentary, I describe the many ways in which CUREs are helpful for students and teachers, as well as considerations for designing successful CUREs. I provide several examples of CUREs from Microbial Physiology laboratory classes and Genomics classes that I have taught. Results from these CUREs have been successfully integrated into many peer-reviewed publications in which the students are co-authors, which has been a boon both to students' post-baccalaureate opportunities, as well as my research agenda.
人们普遍认为，有研究经验对本科理科学生来说是非常宝贵的。大多数本科生的研究都是在导师的实验室里进行的，但这限制了学生的机会数量，因为每个实验室每个学期只能接纳一定数量的本科生研究员。此外，人们也普遍认为，教师在为本科生提供尽可能好的课程的同时，很难实现研究目标。这两个瓶颈都可以通过课堂本科生研究经验（CUREs）来规避，它将研究融入到有组织的本科生课程的课程中。参加包括 CUREs 的课程的学生将进行研究，以解决课程作业中的开放式问题。在这篇评论中，我描述了 CUREs 对学生和教师有哪些帮助，以及设计成功的 CUREs 需要考虑的因素。我提供了我教授的微生物生理学实验课和基因组学课中 CUREs 的几个例子。这些 CUREs 的结果已经成功地整合到许多经过同行评审的出版物中，学生是共同作者，这对学生的本科后机会以及我的研究议程都是一个福音。
