Hands-On Research from Day One: UofL's CURE Program for Freshman Biologists
October 30, 2024
By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts and Sciences
First-year biology students participating in the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) are fast-tracking their own development and identities as scientists and researchers.
This experiential learning opportunity, built into their first-year curriculum, is often not widely available for freshmen. Typically, in-depth research opportunities are available only for upper-level students who are further along in their academic careers, or such opportunities require funding and extensive work outside of the classroom.
In fact, CURE is such a unique opportunity that many of the graduate teaching assistants involved state that they wish they themselves could have had a CURE in their own undergraduate experiences.
"The fact that we are doing this with our first-year biology students that are coming into a college level biology class for the first time, and they are doing research, is pretty novel,” said Assistant Professor, Biology, Natalie Christian. "Students are getting this opportunity to hit the ground running, and do authentic research, learn real lab skills, and get really good training that not only bridges them into their next undergraduate classes, but also bridges into future research experiences.”
In CURE, students explore soil microbial diversity in local soils. By studying various microbial species and their functions, students connect their findings to landscape features like vegetation and historical land use. Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) software, they integrate concepts from ecology, microbiology, and geography to form a comprehensive understanding. Students create their own research questions and hypotheses, learning to analyze the functional diversity of soil bacteria and its environmental implications.
"We throw them into the deep end and show them – this is it. This is research,” said Assistant Professor Mikus Abolins-Abols. “You don’t have to take 50 classes before you try it out for the first time, so building their identity as scientists and helping them to become more self-efficacious are two major goals for this.”
Through working collaboratively as a team with other students as well as with a team of biology professors and graduate teaching assistants, the students also learn the value of the community that forms through research itself.
“Creating community through a collaborative research experience is an important goal of the CURE,” said Assistant Professor Rachel Pigg. “We hope that all students and instructors feel a sense of ownership over the work they are doing together and pride in what they have achieved as a team. For students embarking on future STEM careers, we also hope they leave the CURE with a sense of how important effective collaboration is to our field. We can achieve much more together than we can individually.”
The CURE spans two semesters. In the first semester (BIOL 241), students are introduced to the project and its goals. They collect soil samples from various locations in Kentucky, mostly around Louisville. Along with the soil, they gather metadata such as temperature, soil moisture, pH, light intensity, and photos of the collection site.
“There’s a focus not only on content but on skills,” said Associate Professor Jeffrey Masters. “They are taking these labs and we are also emphasizing how to use the pipettors, how to use the microscopes when they get into microbiology, and they are ready to roll.”
Back in the lab, students submit the metadata, sterilize the soil, and analyze enzyme activity to estimate microbial presence. They plate the bacteria to observe growth, select colonies, and use polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique used to make numerous copies of a specific segment of DNA quickly and accurately, to amplify bacterial DNA. This hands-on approach excites students as they engage in high-level scientific processes.
“I did PCR for the first time maybe as a junior or senior at college, and so getting to do research in the first year is really important. But also getting to do these high-level biological techniques is incredible too, and they love it,” said Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Shayna Earl.
Biology GTA Sophia Anner emphasized the importance of making research accessible to biology students early on in their education, which also supports retention of future scientists.
“Such an important part of career exploration is finding out what you are interested in and considering which aspects of what you’ve done you enjoy most,” Anner states. “By the end of it, as they write their reports, they reflect on what they have done – the maps, the stats, reading, and writing as a team, — and decide who will take the lead on what based on each individual’s interest. In addition to the number of skills and techniques they are learning, first year students are learning about themselves, which is a major outcome of this experience.”
Shayna Earl said another valuable aspect of CURE is that the students learn that science isn’t about “being right” every time, but more about inquiry and discovery.
“One of the cool discoveries of every semester is going from students trying to find the ‘right’ answer to understanding that they can maybe find explanations for why they found what they found – and that is more important,” she states. “Sometimes there’s even more satisfaction in that; this discovery of what science and research are really about. It’s exciting to see these groups work through that.”
Isabel Zanartu, a sophomore biology major on the ecology track with minors in Spanish and environmental analysis, said CURE taught her that research is only successful when the group shares a strong sense of teamwork.
“I used to value individual work more highly before entering university, but now I am much more open to communicating with other students,” Zanartu said. “Collaborating with others made me feel more open to making mistakes and discussing scientific concepts. I believe that without implementing CURE, I would still be intimidated by sharing my ideas with others.”
Zanartu enjoyed the access to valuable techniques like handling a microscope and running PCR gels.
“I saw how other students were exposed to it for the first time and it made me realize how crucial programs like CURE are. I never considered how STEM education can vary pre-college due to economic disparity, and CURE bridges those gaps."
In the future, Zanartu wants to become an environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I feel very strongly about implementing and advocating unconventional climate change solutions currently developing in other countries, such as geothermal energy in Iceland. Also, I have a passion for making environmental education more equitable,” Zanartu states.
GTA Nathan Earl said that through the structure of CURE, the students have a deeper investment in the work as it continues every week.
"It’s really engaging to them, and it leads to a lot of excitement about science and biology more broadly,” Nathan states. “A lot of bio and science education is centered on memorization and processing of facts, and less on the types of hypotheses and investigations that lead to those facts, and I think these courses do a good job of showing where that comes from. I have had a lot of students come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t really get biology until I was able to experience it though this lens.’”
