CURE Training Institute

CURE Institutes have been offered across the country by CUREnet2. Co-PI of CUREnet2, Dr. Sara Brownell, will be facilitating the University of Arizona’s CURE Training Institute.

This opportunity for University of Arizona instructors is supported by Arizona's Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF) and a U.S. Department of Education Title III HSI STEM grant (Project CREAR). It provides initial incentives and training to support instructors in designing CUREs for first-year students. A minimum of five teams will be selected to receive funding to support the development of a CURE.

Timing: Spring 2025 timing TBD. Teams will learn about and use evidence-based instructional strategies to develop plans, instructional materials, and assessment tools for integrating a research project into a CURE course.

Facilitator: Dr. Sara Brownell, Associate Professor at ASU and Co-PI for CUREnet2, facilitated both the introductory workshop and the CURE Training Institute for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. See Sara's bio under the introductory workshop description.

Important Dates:

• March 2024 – Introductory Q&A session for interested faculty and staff
• April 2024 – RSVP for CURE Training Institute
• May 2024 –  Complete pre-survey.
• May 2024 –  3 day in-person CURE Training Institute
• June 2024 –  Funding application deadline
• July 2024 –  Funding recipients notified

CURE Training Institute Dates:

• May 2024                   CURE Training Institute 
• June - August 2024    Develop CURE and draft syllabus
• September 2024        Submit CURE syllabus for spring course approval 
• Spring, Summer, or
  Fall 2025                     Teach the CURE course; evaluator conducts two in-class observations
• Each semester            One learning community meeting

“CUREs offer several advantages over research internships - they can enroll many more students and they are accessible to all students who enroll, not just the few who stand out in class, who are confident enough to approach faculty directly, or who have personal or programmatic connections that help them get access to research.” – CUREnet

Early undergraduate research experience (URE) in social sciences and humanities leads to significant gains in analytical and critical thinking skills for first- and second year students (Ishiyama, 2002). UREs, particularly during the academic year, lead to increased interest and persistence in STEM (Gregerman, 2017; Hurtado, 2009; Lopatto, 2004; Russell, 2007; Schultz et al., 2011; Rodenbusch et al., 2016). However, the traditional 1-on-1 apprenticeship model prevalent at UA limits the number of students with these experiences to a select few. CUREs have been emerging as an innovative approach to incorporating authentic research into entry-level courses (Auchincloss et al., 2014).

From CUREnet website: CURE vs. Inquiry

Inquiry instruction involves many of the features of CUREs. Similar to CUREs, inquiry instruction involves students in asking and answering scientific questions, analyzing relevant data, and making and defending arguments. Both forms of instruction aim to develop students' scientific expertise, especially their ability to engage in scientific practices. In inquiry courses, students' work may be novel, but a stakeholder outside the classroom is unlikely to be interested in the results. CUREs are distinctive in offering students opportunities to make discoveries that are of interest to stakeholders outside the classroom. CURE students have been coauthors on papers, have contributed results to research repositories, and have generated data used as preliminary results in grant proposals (see the resources below for details and examples). Because CUREs are usually integrated with a faculty member's ongoing research, CUREs are also limited in offering students complete freedom to ask and answer their own questions, as students may be able to do in an inquiry project.

Key Features of a CURE:

CUREnet lists five key features of a CURE:

• CUREs offer opportunities for students to make discoveries that are of interest to stakeholders outside the classroom (e.g., the broader scientific community).
• Students' work is iterative, meaning that students must trouble-shoot, problem-solve, and repeat aspects of their work for the research to progress.
• CUREs offer opportunities for students to communicate their research results to those stakeholders.
• Just like in a faculty member's research group, the research in a CURE progresses as students work. This means that new research questions and directions are generated each term and the CURE is unlikely to look the same from year to year.
• Students may engage in a range of science practices such as collecting and analyzing data, building and defending arguments, and collaborating with one another and more experienced scientists. The work that students do in a CURE must build off and have the potential to contribute to a larger body of knowledge in the discipline.

Resources

• Gentile et al. (2017). Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM. Link
• Dolan (2017). Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Current knowledge and future directions Link
• Auchincloss et al. (2014). Assessment of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report. Link

• See other examples of CUREs at: https://serc.carleton.edu/curenet/collection.html

• See a list of examples of CUREs in the social sciences and humanities in this Google Doc. 

The fifth annual introductory workshop on CUREs was held on February 28, 2024 with guest speakers Dr. Martha Bhattacharya and Dr. Rebecca Friesen, along with a panel of faculty teaching CUREs at the University of Arizona. To view the recording of the workshop, please click here.

Replay WOrkshop 

The fourth annual introductory workshop on CUREs was held on March 3, 2023 with a video of guest speaker Dr. Sara Brownell who also serves as the instructor for the CURE Training Institute. To see a replay of the workshop, please click here.

Replay WOrkshop 

See other examples of CUREs at: serc.carleton.edu/curenet/collection.html

See a short list of examples of CUREs in the social sciences and humanities in this Google Doc. 

For more information, please contact UndergradResearch@arizona.edu . 

CURE Training Institute Facilitator: Dr. Sara Brownell is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.  She received a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University, a M.S. in Biology from The Scripps Research Institute, and a M.A. in Education and a Ph.D. in Biology, both from Stanford University.   Sara is a neuroscientist turned discipline-based education researcher whose research focuses on how we can make undergraduate biology more accessible, diverse, and inclusive. Her research areas are broad and include assessing the impact of course-based undergraduate research experiences, exploring the experiences of students with covert identities in active learning classrooms, and helping to reduce students' perceived conflict between religion and evolution.  Sara's work has been highlighted in numerous news outlets including The New York Times, Scientific American, and CNN.  She is the proud recipient of the 2020 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year award from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals.  

sara brownell.png

he CURE Training Institute’s Leadership Team and Selection Committee: 

• Kimberly J. Sierra, Director of Undergraduate Research & Inquiry, Office of Societal Impact within RII
• Jen Fields, Director of Office of Societal Impact within RII
• Lisa Elfring, Associate Vice Provost, Office of Instruction and Assessment
• Rebecca Gomez, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Success, College of Science
• Jim Hunt, Assistant Dean, Career and Academic Services, College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences 
• Zelieann Craig, Assistant Dean for Research, BIO5 Institute
• Kevin Bonine, Executive Director, Undergraduate Research and Scholar Development
• Pete Reiners, Interim Associate Vice President, Research Centers and Institutes

The funding application is not currently active. 

Feel free to explore existing CUREs for project ideas. CUREnet suggests the following sources:

• CUREnet examples
• Community College Undergraduate Research Institute
• Freshman Research Initiatives:
  • University of Texas Austin - STEM CUREs
  • University of Maryland College Park - natural and social sciences and humanities
  • Binghamton University -  natural and social sciences and engineering
• Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program - engineering projects with some interdisciplinary projects involving natural and social sciences
• Education journals

Listed below are the six teams that were selected to attend the May 2020 CURE Training Institute and receive funding to develop their CURE.

Dr. Wendy Moore (wmoore@arizona.edu) and Raine Ikagawa (rikagawa@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
CALS297E (3 units) – Discovering Biodiversity

Offered in Spring semesters 

The Sonoran Desert Region is home to more species of native bees than any other region of the world. In this course our main research goal will be focused on discovering and documenting the diversity of Tucson's native bees. This course provides an introductory research experience that will immerse students in the process of discovering, describing, and classifying biodiversity. We will explore biodiversity research using cutting edge laboratory, field, museum (curatorial), and bioinformatics techniques. The data we collect will be published and shared freely with both the scientific community and the general public. Course prerequisites: MCB 181 R&L, ECOL 182 R&L.

Dr. Bonnie Hurwitz (bhurwitz@arizona.edu) and Dr. Alise Ponsero (aponsero@arizona.edu)
College of Engineering; College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
BAT102 (3 units) – Data Science Heroes: An Undergraduate Research Experience in Open Data Science Practices

Offered in Fall semesters

Despite a growing demand for data scientists, university training in science ethics, code licensing and best reproducibility practices are not generalized for undergraduates. In this CURE, students will conduct an assessment of the current landscape and the evolution of accessibility, documentation and reproducibility practices in bioinformatics. The CURE will be a two-credit course in the Department of Biosystems Engineering accessible to students from any college. In this CURE, students will learn and reflect upon best practices for open science and science reproducibility. Several practical skills will also be developed such as science communication, as well as the use of computational tools for code versioning and documentation.
No prerequisites.

Developed by Dr. Jessica Braithwaite (jbraith@arizona.edu) and Dr. Frank Gonzalez (fgonzo@arizona.edu)
Previously taught by Dr. David Dow (ddow@arizona.edu)
Currently taught by Dr. Fatih Erol (ferol@arizona.edu)
College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
POL297B (3 units) – The Origins of Data in Politics and Policy

Offered in Spring semesters

This course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) will introduce students to the main ways in which scholars and other experts in the fields of political science and public policy obtain and analyze data relevant to politics and policy in variety of contexts across the world. Beyond discussing the origins of data analyzed in our fields of study, we will also spend time collecting and working directly with our own original data to better understand both where data come from and how they are used in academic research. Students will work in teams on ongoing research projects supervised by the instructor and SGPP faculty. Students are given the opportunity to choose from a menu of projects based on their interests. Projects in previous semesters have focused on a variety of topics including political psychology, armed conflict, and migration. The course will involve three hours per week of class-based training and lecturing alongside six hours per week of students working in teams tackling specific research tasks on their selected projects. Finally, we will also discuss and practice how to effectively present data and research findings for non-academic audiences.
No prerequisites.

Dr. Martin Pepper (mpepper@arizona.edu)
College of Science
GEOS197E (3 units) – Experiences in Geochronology

Offered Fall 2021

This course is for first and second-year students who would like to gain experience in cutting edge research. The class will use lasers to drill through minerals sending this material into mass spectrometry to gather new information on the regional geology around Arizona. Students will learn the basic principles of geology both globally and locally, radiogenic isotopes applied to geochronology, lab techniques for gathering new information and how to present their results in a poster.
No prerequisites.

Dr. Corey Knox  (cknox@arizona.edu)
College of Education
TLS299 (2 units) – Intro to Education Research Methods: STEM Education, College Access & Equity

Offered Spring 2021

In this 2-credit course for undergraduates (all majors), you will learn about and apply social science research methods to design and conduct a group research project. Students will design and implement surveys, and interviews to investigate your own and your fellow students' experiences and views of college access, inclusion, and equity.
No prerequisites.

Dr. Janet Nicol (nicol@arizona.edu)
College of Science
PSY197E (1 unit) – Engaging in Psychology Research

Offered Spring 2021, 7-week course

This is a hands-on course that provides students with an authentic research experience. The class will work together with the instructor on a novel research project involving humor and well-being.
No prerequisites.

Listed below are the six teams that were selected to attend the May 2021 CURE Training Institute and receive funding to develop their CURE.

Developed by Dr. Daniel Menchik (mench@arizona.edu) and Dr. Franziska Frank (franziskafrank@arizona.edu)
Taught by Dr. Daniel Menchik
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences 
SOC/CHS403 (3 units) – Care, Health, and Society (CHS) in the Wild: Conducting Ethnographic Studies of Health and Medicine in Action 

Offered in Spring semesters

Care, Health, and Society in the Wild is a hands-on course dedicated to studying the social aspects of health and the practice of medicine. Over the semester, students will develop skills to understand sociological methods and principles, evaluate medicine on an institutional level, understand relationships between various subjects in the medical field, explore healthcare disparities. All of these skills will emerge as you construct and carry out a sociological project during the semester. Because this class is a fieldwork-based course, students spend half of their time in class and the other half conducting their study in medical venues around Tucson. Projects, carried out individually or in a group, incorporate community engagement while teaching students to “see more” in medical settings and giving them a realistic idea about the way health care is socially organized.  
Health and Society (CHS303) is a recommended course but not a prerequisite.

Developed by Dr. Bryan Carter (bryancarter@arizona.edu) and Lynn Robinson
Taught by Dr. Bryan Carter
College of Humanities 
AFAS299 (Variable units) –  Community Responsive Digital Humanities Research

Offered in Spring and Fall semesters

Students will join in a theoretical and hands-on practical introduction to the Digital Humanities and advanced technologies used in the field (augmented reality, virtual reality, volumetric, 360 imaging, etc.). This knowledge will be applied in a real-world project with a local cultural center as students collaborate to explore how to undertake critical, embedded Digital Humanities partnerships in community settings with vulnerable populations. 
No prerequisites.

 Developed by Dr. Martha Bhattacharya (marthab1@arizona.edu) and Dr. Ulises Ricoy (ricoy@arizona.edu)
Taught by Dr. Martha Bhattacharya
College of Science 
NROS397 (3 units) – VIP-CURE: Brain Communication Networks

Offered in Spring and Fall semesters

Our objective in this VIP-CURE is to predict and test candidate brain proteins participating in neuron-glia communication and neurodegenerative disease. Students will learn computational approaches for “big data” analysis to generate a list of gene candidates, followed by the evaluation of these candidates in Drosophila (fruit flies) with learning and memory or locomotor behavioral readouts. Students will gain real research experience using hand-on techniques and will contribute to new knowledge about the way neurons and glia communicate in health and disease.  More information can be found here.
Course prerequisites are MC181L, MCB181R, ECOL182L, and ECOL182R. Concurrent enrollment or equivalent AP credit are acceptable.

Dr. Jen Teske (teskeja@arizona.edu) and Dr. Jennifer Ravia (jravia@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
NSC395B (3 units) – Special Topics in Nutritional Sciences: Participation in the Integrated Stress Response Pathway Research Techniques

Offered in Spring semesters

The integrated stress response (IRS) is a ubiquitous cellular pathway that regulates protein synthesis and is associated with many chronic diseases. Animal models indicate that abnormal behavior (diet, physical activity and sleep) disrupts regulatory proteins in the IRS within several tissues, but it’s unclear if the same response occurs in humans and if the proteins can be detected in a biofluid (saliva or urine). The purpose of this class is to determine if IRS proteins can be detected in biofluids and if they are associated with diet quality, physical activity levels, and sleep. To do this, students will participate in data collection, protein extraction and quantification, lab assays, data visualization, data analysis and create a poster to summarize the data collected during the project. This is an entry level class, where class time and outside activities will be used to introduce and discuss these activities sufficiently to develop student self-efficacy with laboratory procedures. At the end of the course, students will be able to describe a research project from start to finish and effectively communicate the results of the research.  
No prerequisites.

Developed by Dr. Bryan Black (bryanblack@arizona.edu) and Dr. Valerie Trouet (trouet@ltrr.arizona.edu)
Taught by Dr. Bryan Black and Dr. Kiyomi Morino (kmorino@ltrr.arizona.edu) in Fall semesters
Taught by Dr. Soumaya Belmecheri (sbelmecheri@arizona.edu) in Spring semesters
College of Science 
GEOS275 (3 units) – Tree-ring time machines: Research Experience in dendrochronology

Offered in Fall and Spring semesters

Fall 2023 Description: In September 2020, multiple fires erupted in Oregon, burning thousands of structures and nearly 10% of forests in the western Cascade Mountains. The longer-term fire history of this mesic region and the extent to which these fires are unusual remains unknown. BA Black and colleagues have collected 69 firescar baring tree samples from this region, which have not yet been analyzed. We propose a research project in which we generate the first tree-ring based fire history for western Oregon. During a local (Mt. Lemmon) field trip at the start of the semester, students will learn about Western US fire history and how to recognize and sample fire-scarred trees. They will then learn how to prepare samples for tree-ring research, the process of tree-ring dating, and apply this to develop a regional fire history chronology. Students will learn how to derive policyrelevant information, such as fire return intervals, fire-climate interactions, and management impacts, from their fire chronology. In the later part of the semester, students will write a report of their fire history findings, which will be sent to the US Forest Service (USFS) and the Andrews Long-Term Ecological Research station, which was partially burned. In so doing, students will learn how to communicate their scientific results with stakeholders, who use fire history research to inform forest and fire management decisions. Students will also learn how to upload the fire chronology to the International Multiproxy Fire Database in order to make the data they generated available to the broader research community. 
No prerequisites.

Spring 2024 Description: The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 1,100 km fault along the US western seaboard that runs from British Columbia through northern California. The fault last ruptured in the year 1700 and was dated using trees killed during the earthquake that had preserved in coastal marshes. When the Cascadia Subduction Zone ruptures again, the magnitude 9 earthquake and associated tsunamis (destructive ocean waves) will devastate the Pacific Northwest in what will be the most catastrophic natural disaster in the history of the United States. There is therefore a critical need to understand the intervals between earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and trees may unravel that history. In this class, we will look for evidence of a suspected earthquake in the 1480s using trees killed by the 1700 earthquake. If an earthquake occurred in the 1480s, it would likely affect the growth patterns in these trees that were susceptible to damage or death during the 1700 earthquake. This information will be used by geologists to better understand Cascadia earthquake history and inform seismic risk in the US Pacific Northwest. 
No prerequisites.

Dr. Li Xu (lxu@arizona.edu)
College of Applied Science and Technology 
APCV361 (3 units) – Data Analysis and Visualization 

Offered in Spring and Fall semesters.

This course will lay a foundation for students to understand how to process, analyze, and visualize data. Topics include data collection and integration, exploratory data analysis, statistical inference and modeling, machine learning, and data visualization.  The emphasis of the course topics will be placed on integration and synthesis of concepts and their application to solving problems. Students will explore these topics using software tools.
Course prerequisites are APCV302, APCV320, prior Python programming experience. The course is only available to CAST students.

Ryan Ruboyianes (rsr2@arizona.edu)
College of Science 
ECOL182L (1 unit) – Introductory Biology Lab 

Offered in Spring and Fall semesters.

ECOL182L is the standard ECOL182 lab class that has been converted into a CURE.  The class is designed to introduce the fundamentals of ecology and evolutionary biology with the use of hands-on activities and experimentation. Students will apply basic experimental design and the scientific method as they discuss how organisms interact with their environment and how species and populations change over time. Weekly learning objectives and major topics are provided in each chapter of the lab manual.
ECOL 182L is the laboratory companion to the introductory biology (ECOL182R) lecture. They are conceptually related but administered and graded independently. Both courses need not be taken simultaneously, although it may be beneficial. 

Dr. Rachel Gallery (rgallery@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
RNR297A (variable units) – Natural Resources Workshop

Course offering schedule TBD
This course will immerse students in fieldwork based research, allowing them to make authentic contributions to national databases tracking species’ responses to climate change.  
No prerequisites.

Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernandez
College of Humanities 
HNRS209 (3 units) – Imagining Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación (1542): A Mapping Project

Offered Spring 2022 

This course encourages students to rethink the history of European colonization in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands by: (1) analyzing how and by whom this history has been narrated, and (2) considering what impact those narratives have on society today. Throughout the semester, we will work collaboratively to create a digital interactive map of Cabeza de Vaca’s 1542 text, which relates his journey across what is today the U.S.-Mexico borderlands with detailed—though Eurocentric—descriptions of the people and places he encountered. The interactive map allows users to explore geo-tagged data drawn from the narrative alongside contextual background information, dramatically visualizing how Cabeza de Vaca’s interpretation of the landscape was shaped by colonial power relations. We will focus specifically on his descriptions of the flora and fauna that he encountered during his travels. 
Students must be part of the Honors College to enroll.

Listed below are the six teams that were selected to attend the May 2022 CURE Training Institute and receive funding to develop their CURE.

Dr. Amy Fountain (avf@arizona.edu)
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences 
LING299 (variable units) – Community-led Language Technology Development

Offered in Spring and Fall semesters

Students will join a community-based language technology development project, the Coeur d’Alene Online Language Resource Center (COLRC), as an example of a community lead language technology development project that focuses on the needs of a low-resource, minoritized language community. Depending on their skills and interests, participating students will enroll for 1 to 3 credits, and be assigned to assist in the development and deployment process. The project supports students who wish to develop skills in linguistic analysis and language activism, along with at least one of the following technical skills: coding for frontend, backend, rest interfaces, and scripting (javascript, python); database development (postgres, graphQL); and/or natural language processing (ingest, tokenization, annotation tasks using lum.ai/odinson libraries). Interested students should have at least some familiarity with and enjoyment of coding, but need not have significant experience or expertise in these areas. Students who are members of minoritized or low resource language communities will bring particularly valuable experience and expertise to this work, but any undergraduate student is welcome to participate
No prerequisites. 

Dr. Jennie Gubner (jgubner@arizona.edu)
College of Fine Arts
MUS429 (3 units) – Music, Health, and Wellness Story Lab

Offered in Spring semesters

How can music promote health and wellness in our lives and communities across the lifespan? For years, ethnomusicologists have been studying music around the world as a form of healing and a vehicle for community building and identity formation. One of the most important ways ethnomusicologists do research is by learning directly with and from individuals and communities through interviews, observant participation, and thoughtful engagement in communities of practice. In this interdisciplinary, hands-on, fieldwork course, we will explore the relationship between music and health through the creation of collaborative, community-based digital storytelling projects. Working in teams, students in this course will meet with individuals from diverse backgrounds from across the Tucson area to learn about their musical preferences and practices, document their musical life stories, and work to map the musical spaces and activities that have brought and continue to bring meaning, wellness, and health to their lives. To raise awareness about how music can be used to build and strengthen healthy communities, the stories students gather will be collected and shared as a growing creative toolkit to be shared with community members and healthcare providers. 
No prerequisites.

Dr. Caitlyn Hall (cahall@arizona.edu)

Currently taught by Dr. Laura Horley (lhorley@arizona.edu)
W.A. Franke Honors College
HNRS314 (3 units) – Ideas into Action: An Introduction to Civic Engagement

Offered in Spring semesters

This is a dynamic service-learning course where students investigate notions of community and civic engagement through the lens of a social scientist, community members, and non-profit leaders. Students are asked to engage in service-learning pedagogy with real-world practice in this hands-on experiential learning class. Students will spend time understanding systematic social issues and structured inequalities with a non-profit community partner. Students will work on an interdisciplinary Honors Civic Engagement Team (HCET) to address and respond to social issues impacting marginalized communities. Students should expect to spend about 45 hours on community-based projects that the host organization often would be unable to complete with their own resources. Students will spend time unveiling their personal values and identities to better understand solutions to social issues plaguing society including racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of bias through reflections, readings, discussions and academic inquiry. Students will develop an understanding of their long-term social responsibility in responding to community-based social issues through the lenses of a social scientist, a non-profit leader, and a community member.
Students must be part of the Honors College to enroll.

Dr. Frans Tax (fetax@arizona.edu) and Dr. Susan Hester (sdhester@arizona.edu)
College of Science
MCB397D (3 units) – The Molecular Genetics of Plants

Offered in Spring semesters

This course is designed for juniors, particularly transfer students who have not participated in university research up to this point. The course will give students the opportunity to participate in an ongoing research project that seeks to understand the molecular basis of how plant (Arabidopsis) roots respond to their environment and different nutrient levels. Students will conduct a research project on self-selected environmental factors; developing projects to understand how plants regulate the growth of their roots. In addition to participating in research, students will learn about the undergraduate research ecosystem at the UA campus by exploring and applying for potential research opportunities. At the end of the class, students will have cultivated research skills that will make them competitive applicants for summer research programs and graduate school.
Course prerequisites include MCB181L/R, ECOL182L/R, CHEM151L/R, and CHEM152L/R.

Dr. Jina Yoon (jinayoon@arizona.edu) and Dr. Jennifer Kirkpatrick (kirkpatrickj@arizona.edu)
College of Education
Course number TBD – Application of Research in Social Emotional Development of Children and Adolescents

Offered in Fall semesters

This course is designed to develop an applied understanding of social science/educational research related to social emotional development of school aged children. Topics covered include an introduction to current literature on behavioral, social, and emotional development for children and adolescents, with an emphasis on trauma and stress among youth from underrepresented backgrounds. Literature on resilience and positive development will also be introduced. Along with an exploration of research, the course offers an introduction to the tools necessary to engage in research including literature searches, research methods, data collection, basic data analyses. Students will learn to interpret results and apply findings to practice in schools. Through a guided research experience, students will identify a research question, analyze data, and interpret results for application to the school community.  Students will learn about methods for dissemination of findings by preparing a professional poster and presenting their research findings and implications to an audience of peers and university community.  
No prerequisites.

Dr. Jennifer Katcher (jkatcher@pima.edu)
Pima Community College 
BIO181 – Introductory Biology

Offered at Pima Community College in Spring and Fall semesters

Principles of structure and function of living things at the molecular and cellular levels of organization. Includes introduction to the scientific process, scientific measurements and laboratory techniques, chemistry of cells, organization of cells, metabolism, cell communication, patterns of cell division, patterns of inheritance, nucleic acids, gene expression, and biotechnology. 
No prerequisites.

Dr. Jennifer Earl
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences 
Course number and title TBD

Course description TBD

The 2023 CURE Training Institute was open to any UA, AZ community college, and AZ tribal college faculty and instructors interested in developing CUREs. A total of 29 individuals participated.
Listed below are seven teams that were selected to receive funding for their CURE and descriptions of the courses they developed.

Dr. Mark Beilstein (mbeilstein@arizona.edu) and Erika Haws (hawserika@arizona.edu)
College of Science; College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
PLS392 (4 units) – CROPPS Inc.: Biological Engineering

Offered in Spring semesters

CROPPS Inc. – Biological Engineering covers fundamental principles in molecular and cellular biology and basic genetics. Emphasis is placed on biological function at the molecular level, with a focus on the structure and regulation of genes, the structure and synthesis of proteins, how these molecules are integrated into cells, and how these cells are integrated into multicellular systems. Students will apply what they learn in a concurrent lab to generate resources that will be used to dissect root-to-shoot signaling in plants. These resources will help biologist engineer plants with increased nitrogen use efficiency, a critical goal for increasing the sustainability of crop production. 
Course prerequisite is MCB181L/R or high school AP Biology equivalent.

Dr. Katrina Henry (katrinahenry@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
ENVS270L (1 unit) – Critical Zone Science Lab

Offered in Spring semesters

The critical zone is Earth’s skin - extending from the top of the tree canopy to the bottom of the groundwater zone.  Movement of mass and energy maintain a chemical and thermodynamic disequilibrium, resulting in the ecosystems and their services found throughout the critical zone.  In this lab illustrative activities and quantitative explorations lead students to describing the critical zone. Laboratory activities complement ENVS 270 lecture topics. 
Students should have previously taken or be concurrently enrolled in ENVS270 Critical Zone Science Lecture.

Dr. Janelle Lamoreaux (jlamoreaux@arizona.edu) 
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
ANTH434 (3 units) – Reproduction, Politics, and Household Economics

Offered in Fall semesters

Principles in the comparative study of social systems, types of social structure.

Dr. Kristy Slominski (slominski@arizona.edu)
College of Humanities
RELI406 (3 units) – Religious Diversity in Healthcare: Intercultural Training

Offered in Spring semesters

This course is designed to offer tools for understanding religious and cultural diversity within healthcare settings, which includes consideration of religious patients, religious healthcare workers, faith-based healthcare institutions, and the impact of religious communities on healthcare laws and services. To develop skills for navigating intercultural differences, students will practice applying academic approaches to religion to health-related case studies. 
No prerequisites.

Dr. Martha Whitaker (marthaw@arizona.edu)
College of Science
HWRS349A&B/350 (3 units) – Principles of Hydrology

Offered in Fall semesters

Students in this course will work to answer the question: “Do monsoon storms start later in the day than they did decades ago?” This question has been raised by numerous long-time Tucson citizens, who insist that monsoon storms start in the late evening (after sunset) rather than 3-5pm. While this started as a pedestrian question, it also has meteorological and practical implications if it is in fact true. The in-person class is a hands-on Collaborative Learning course, and there is a practical, applied lab with several field trips, many of which involve interaction with hydrology & atmospheric science professionals. Some examples of field trips for the lab include: Stream gaging with the US Geological Survey; A tour of the National Weather Survey office and a weather balloon launch; A tour of Biosphere2's Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) Project; and more! This is an excellent course to gain a broad, applied understanding of virtually every subdiscipline in hydrology!
Course prerequisite is Calculus I (MATH 113 or MATH 122A&B).

Dr. Li Xu (lxu@arizona.edu)
College of Applied Science and Technology
APCV303 (3 units) – Data Fluency for All

Offered in Summer semesters

Data literacy and data presentation are key skills that are prerequisites for data-driven professions. In this class, students will learn how to understand, question, and work with data from various public community data resources. Students will study the nature of data; apply quantitative techniques to analyze data; design and present data visualizations; and interpret their research findings. Statistical analyses, data processing techniques, and software utilization will be presented. Students will be prepared to ask important questions and solve problems from the perspectives of data science and public health. 

Dr. Na Zuo (nazuo@arizona.edu) and Dr. Satheesh Aradhyula (satheesh@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
AREC397C – Applied Research with Data in Food and Resource Economics

Offered in Spring semesters

This course gives students hands-on experience with research in the broad area of food and resource economics. Students practice collecting, assembling, and analyzing data for empirical work. Using real world data, students learn to answer important research questions. As a university designated CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) course, this course helps students build quantitative skills with authentic research experience. Prerequisites: AREC 239 (Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis) or an equivalent statistics course.

The 2024 CURE Training Institute was open to any UA, AZ community college, and AZ tribal college faculty and instructors interested in developing CUREs. A total of 29 individuals participated.
Listed below are seven teams that were selected to receive funding for their CURE and descriptions of the courses they developed.

Dr. Zhongguo Xiong (zxiong@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences (CALES)
PLS392 (3 units) – Fluorescent Viruses in Motion: Effects of Capsid Mutations on Viral Infection 

Offered in Spring semesters

This is a 3-credit, Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) course. The first 50 minutes are reserved for interactive lectures while the remaining two hours are reserved for lab experiments. After the initial training in the first two weeks, students will be able to arrange their own time to perform experiments required for this course.

PepMV is a virus that infects tomatoes, and this project explores its potential to display foreign proteins/peptides on its surface for use in vaccines or therapeutics. The viral protein shell (capsid protein, or CP) can be modified to carry these proteins, but adding extra genetic material can disrupt its function, such as its ability to spread through the plant. To address this, students will study the mutants of PepMV in which a portion of the CP is deleted, creating space for foreign proteins without harming the virus's ability to infect plants.

Each student pair will infect plants with their assigned PepMV mutant and track how the virus spreads. A green fluorescent protein (GFP) tag will help visualize the virus under UV light, allowing students to document its movement in real time. Over the two four-week periods, students will document the virus spread, collect data in a shared database, analyze how their mutation affects virus spread in two repeats, and interpret their findings using scientific literature. At the end of the semester, they will present their results in a report and poster session.
Course prerequisites are MCB 181R or ECOL 182R or MIC 205A or MIC/MCB/ACBS/PLP/ENVS 285R, or equivalents

Dr. Laura Miller (lauram9@arizona.edu)
College of Science; College of Engineering
MATH396T (3 units) – Equine Biomechanics

Offered in Summer semesters

Course description TBD.

Dr. Kat Cheng (katcheng@arizona.edu) and Nathan Gallegos (ngallegos@arizona.edu)
College of Education
EDP340 (3 units) - Research in Education

Offered in Spring semesters

Research is fun! This class will provide you with tools to become an informed consumer of research methods/knowledge, to think critically and apply research methods like a social scientist, and equip you with the proper foundation to design a research study and communicate research findings in the field of education. Students of this course will become familiar with research ethics, APA style writing, various research designs, practice critical thinking skills, and demonstrate a basic understanding of research methods commonly used in education fields. You will learn to apply research methods to explore culturally-responsive asset-based pedagogy through course-based research experience.
No prerequisites. 

Dr. Molly Hunter (mhunter@arizona.edu)
College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences
ENTO397 (3 units) – Course title TBD

Offered in Fall semesters

Course description TBD

Dr. Tara Archuleta (tlarchul@arizona.edu)
College of Science
BIOC296B (1 unit) – Course title TBD

Offered in Fall and Spring semesters

Course description TBD

Dr. Casey Jones (cjones117@pima.edu)
Pima Community College
BIO182 - General Biology II

Offered at Pima Community College in Fall and Spring semesters

Course description TBD.