CURE Examples
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Core Competencies Show all
Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
18 matchesNature of Research
State
Target Audience
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Design2Data
Ashley Vater, University of California-Davis
The D2D program is centered around an undergraduate-friendly protocol workflow that follows the design-build-test-learn engineering framework. This protocol has served as the scaffold for a successful undergraduate training program and has been further developed into courses that range from a 10-week freshman seminar to a year-long, upper-division molecular biology course. The overarching research goal of this CURE probes the current predictive limitations of protein-modeling software by functionally characterizing single amino acid mutants in a robust model system. The most interesting outcomes of this project are dependent on large datasets, and, as such, the project is optimal for multi-institutional collaborations.
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), Analyzing and interpreting data, Planning and carrying out investigations, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering), Developing and using models
Nature of Research: Wet Lab/Bench Research, Basic Research, Applied Research
Target Audience: Upper Division, Non-major, Major, Introductory
CURE Duration: A full term, Multiple terms
Laser spectroscopy of atmospherically relevant molecules and clusters in helium nanodroplets
Paul Raston, James Madison University
Superfluid helium nanodroplets present an ideal medium for the study of chemical dynamics at the molecular level. Their low temperature, enormous heat conductivity, and weakly interacting nature allow for the investigation of various things, such as how molecular rotation is effected by a solvent, and how molecules interact with each other. These two topics will be addressed in the lab by (1) measuring the spectra of unexplored molecules in helium nanodroplets and determining their rotational constants; this data will then be used to test known models describing the interaction between the molecule and helium solvent, and (2) synthesizing and characterizing unexplored molecular clusters in an effort to better understand molecular solvation; students will solvate the "unexplored molecule" with an atmospherically relevant species (O2, N2, H2O), and investigate the resulting clusters with laser Stark spectroscopy.
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), Analyzing and interpreting data, Developing and using models, Planning and carrying out investigations, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Basic Research
State: Virginia
Target Audience: Upper Division, Non-major, Major
CURE Duration: A few class periods, Multiple terms
Water in Gen Chem
Ruthanne Paradise, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Core Competencies: Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering), Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data
Nature of Research: Applied Research
State: Massachusetts
Target Audience: Introductory, Non-major, Major
CURE Duration: A full term
Investigating local climate change impacts in a STEM first year learning community
Mara Brady, California State University-Fresno
still in progress...
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Analyzing and interpreting data, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering), Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), Planning and carrying out investigations
Nature of Research: Applied Research, Field Research
Target Audience: Major
CURE Duration: Multiple terms
Effect of Short Blood Sample on Patient Results Validity
Anna Marti-Subirana, Phoenix College
This CURE addresses how body fluid short sampling affects result interpretation and diagnostics. Short sampling can lead to false result interpretation and misdiagnosis. No data are available on the impact of short sampling and clinical diagnostics.
Core Competencies: Analyzing and interpreting data, Planning and carrying out investigations, Using mathematics and computational thinking, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Applied Research
State: Arizona
Target Audience: Major
CURE Duration: A full term
A short medicinal-chemistry inspired laboratory sequence aimed at understanding and controlling bacterial communication.
Laura Brown, Indiana University-Bloomington
Medicinal chemists are organic chemists (often employed by pharmaceutical companies) who synthesize and develop new organic molecules with favorable biological properties. As an illustrative example, penicillin was discovered in 1928 and developed into a drug in 1942. Resistance quickly arose and continues to be a problem, and penicillin is not effective against all types of bacteria. In the decades that followed, medicinal chemists synthesized a variety of molecules that were similar in structure to penicillin, but that either demonstrated enhanced antibiotic activity or did not exhibit the same resistance profile. A new approach to controlling the pathogenicity of bacteria is to simply "trick" the bacteria into remaining in their "normal" non-pathogenic state by controlling the ability of bacteria to communicate with one another by a mechanism termed "Quorum Sensing." Quorum sensing is a form of chemical communication by which bacteria sense each other's presence via concentration gradients of small molecules. I have a collaborator in the biology department who has developed a biochemical assay to identify inhibitors of this process, and the students who sign up for this course will synthesize a small library of molecules to test in this assay.
Core Competencies: Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Basic Research
State: Indiana
Target Audience: Upper Division, Major
CURE Duration: A few class periods
Synthesis and Characterization of Ionic liquid and Ionic Solid Hydrates
Allan Cardenas, SUNY College at Fredonia
CHEM 481 is an advanced synthesis course focuses from synthetic design up to the full characterization of products including optimization. Students enrolled in this class are usually juniors and seniors who already taken organic and analytical laboratory classes. This CURE course will give student to design and perform the synthesis of novel ionic liquid; perform a full spectroscopic analysis of the products; optimize and scale up chemical reactions; provide molecular modifications if needed. This CURE train students to use chemical analysis instruments and introduce them to other capabilities of an instrument which is not usually discussed in regular undergraduate courses.
Core Competencies: Analyzing and interpreting data, Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), Planning and carrying out investigations, Developing and using models, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Applied Research, Basic Research
State: New York
Target Audience: Upper Division, Major, Non-major
CURE Duration: A full term
Chemical Analysis of Coffee Beans in Collaboration with a Local Roaster
Susan Oxley, St. Marys University
This CURE will take place in an Analytical Chemistry course. Students in the CURE course will collaborate with a local coffee roaster to develop a research question related to quantifying components of coffee beans. Using standard methods of analysis, students will work in groups to perform the analysis and validate their results. The outcome of the research will be a report to the coffee roaster.
Core Competencies: Using mathematics and computational thinking, Analyzing and interpreting data, Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), Planning and carrying out investigations, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Applied Research, Wet Lab/Bench Research
State: Texas
Target Audience: Major, Upper Division
CURE Duration: A full term
Photocatalytic degradation of model compounds
Sarah St. Angelo, Dickinson College
This CURE is intended for a junior/senior level inorganic chemistry laboratory. Students will synthesize various composite nanomaterials than can be tested for photocatalytic activity for the degradation of model compounds (organic dye molecules). The components of the nanocomposites will be varied and the effects on the photocatalysis will be measured. Students will synthesize the nanocomposites and characterize them with several techniques useful to materials chemists, such as SEM, XRD, and AA.
Core Competencies: Analyzing and interpreting data, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Applied Research
State: Pennsylvania
Target Audience: Major, Upper Division
CURE Duration: Half a term, Multiple terms
Extraction of Lycopene and other Antioxidants from Tomatoes
Marion Franks, North Carolina A & T State University
This CURE is focused on exposing undergraduate students to the use of chemical instrumentation to observe the composition of antioxidants in natural products. Students will learn how to read scientific literature, develop a hypothesis, plan research, interpret data, and relate the data to ongoing phenomenon.
Core Competencies: Developing and using models, Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data, Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
Nature of Research: Applied Research
Target Audience: Non-major, Major, Upper Division
CURE Duration: Half a term