CURE Examples



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California
Upper Division

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BIOL 189T Fungal Biology
Alija Mujic, California State University-Fresno
The diversity, community structure, and functional diversity of fungi in the high Sierra is understudied and is largely unknown from the Sierra Nevada foothills. Through use of direct field sampling I will engage BIOL189T students in sampling efforts to elucidate the fungal biology of these understudied habitats. Students will sample fungal sporocarps (mushrooms) from existing field plots established by the National Environmental Observation Network (NEON) and use morphological identification techniques and DNA barcoding methods to identify the fungal diversity in these habitats. Future iterations of the course will likely focus upon selected fungal taxa identified in previous iterations of the course to investigate the phenology and ecological interactions of the fungal community in these habitats in NEON plots.

Discipline: Environmental Science:Human Population, Sustainability, Land Use and Planning, Global Change and Climate, Forest Resources, Life Sciences:Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Anatomy and Physiology, Ecology, Environmental Science, Ecosystems, Life Sciences:Genetics, Life Sciences, Evolution
Core Competencies: Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data, Developing and using models, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Basic Research, Field Research, Wet Lab/Bench Research
State: California
Target Audience: Upper Division, Major
CURE Duration: A full term

Designing Authentic Undergraduate Experiences in Research (DAUER)
Joseph Ross, California State University-Fresno
In this research experience, students will learn about how inheritance of diverse genetic material from their parents can impact the health (fecundity) of offspring. Students will design experiments to mate pairs of populations from a diverse global collection of microscopic worms and measure and compare the fecundities of their hybrid offspring.

Discipline: Life Sciences:Genetics, Evolution, Life Sciences, Molecular Biology
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Basic Research, Wet Lab/Bench Research
State: California
Target Audience: Upper Division, Major
CURE Duration: A full term

Using R to Build Powerful Predictive Models for Kaggle Competitions
Earvin Balderama, California State University-Fresno

Discipline: Statistics, Computer Science
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Analyzing and interpreting data, Developing and using models
Nature of Research: Informatics/Computational Research, Applied Research
State: California
Target Audience: Non-major, Major, Upper Division
CURE Duration: A full term

Yeast, metabolism and suicide: a brewing introduction to biochemical research
Laurent Dejean, California State University-Fresno
This course provides the student with a range of techniques and methodology appropriate to the study or phenomena at the biochemical, cellular, and organismic levels. In the spirit of genuine undergraduate research (CURE), the students will be involved directly in research that is ongoing in the Dejean's lab, i.e. the study of the mechanisms used by Bcl-2 family proteins to cross-regulate cell death and energy metabolism. The students' involvement in this type of research will be following a set of preliminary experiments which are aimed at familiarizing the students with common biochemistry lab skills; and with the manipulation of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae which is to be used as the main model system in their research. Finally, the students will also engage directly with primary literature sources in preparation of their lab reports and an eventual presentation of their research at the Fresno State CURE symposium at the end of the semester.

Discipline: Chemistry:Biochemistry, Life Sciences:Cell Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology
Core Competencies: Analyzing and interpreting data, Developing and using models, Planning and carrying out investigations
Nature of Research: Basic Research, Wet Lab/Bench Research
State: California
Target Audience: Major, Upper Division