PHYS 102 Modern Physics with CURE/PBL
Pei-Chun Ho, California State University-Fresno
A component of course-based research experience (CURE)/ Project-Based Learning is implemented in this course. Students (two per group) will have to choose and design a project based on Modern Physics to perform research-style activities. Students will work on a project over a semester to engage in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. As a result, students can develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills in the context of doing an authentic, meaningful project. Examples of proposed projects can be thermal radiation related, such as solar cell, dye-sensitized-solar cell, heat-load analysis, and thermal-imaging analysis. In the end of semester, each group need to make a poster to showcase the results. The outcome of CURE is to prepare students for academic, personal, and career success and readies them for the challenge of our environment on Earth and global competition.

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.

Science Education Research for Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers
Dermot Donnelly, California State University-Fresno
This CURE focuses on supporting pre-service elementary school teachers to investigate predictors of peers' intentions to teach science in their future practice.

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.

Redesign of BIOL 1A Lab
Tricia Van Laar, California State University-Fresno

Determining the Calcium and Magnesium Ions in Water (Total Water Hardness)
Candice Cortney, California State University-Fresno
CHEM 1AL is laboratory course that introduces laboratory methods in general chemistry for undergraduates who have declared, or interested in, a science major. The CURE research for this laboratory will be centered around students determining the total hardness of water from different sources of water (i.e. bottled, filtered, tap). This CURE design will span across seven consecutive weeks and this will allow students to plan, propose, implement, analyze, and present their results. Implementing a CURE design into this course will give students experience with research and reinforce proper laboratory techniques.

Zero distribution of polynomials generated from combinatorial generating functions
Khang Tran, California State University-Fresno
Students lean how to find the location of zeros of sequences of polynomials defined recursively (the current term is given by a combination of previous terms in the sequence). The zeros of these polynomials are points in the complex plane and they could lie on or approach a curve which is the object of investigation. The sequences of polynomials are generated by generating functions obtained from combinatorial enumeration or graph theory which have impact in the pure math community.

Applied Linear Statistical Models
Mario Banuelos, California State University-Fresno
In this CURE, students will use descriptive and inferential statistics through linear models on new data sets, either directly affecting the local or research community.

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

Introduction to Mathematical Proofs - Journey into the unknown
Tamas Forgacs, California State University-Fresno
This CURE processes traditional elements of a proofs course through student research initiated by problems posed in various mathematics journals aimed at the general mathematics community. Students are tasked with solving these problems, and generalize their answers in suitable ways.