MCC: Malate Dehydrogenase CUREs Community
Ellis Bell, University of San Diego
The Malate Dehydrogenase CUREs Community (MCC) project is designed to facilitate the adoption of effective, protein‐centric, Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) into teaching labs at a wide variety of undergraduate serving institutions. (Primarily Undergraduate Institutions, Research Intensive Universities and Community Colleges) MCC coordinates and conducts pedagogical research into two major features of CUREs:1) their duration (whole semester versus 5‐6 week modules incorporated into a lab class), and 2) the impact of scientific collaboration between institutions (a key aspect of much modern research). Using validated assessment tools we seek to establish their effects on student confidence, persistence in STEM, and ability to design research experiments and interprete data. To facilitate faculty adoption of CURE approaches the project provides a number of resources. These focus on a variety of research areas related to Malate Dehydrogenase including mechanisms of catalysis and regulation, adaptation and evolution, cofactor specificity, folding and stability and interactions in metabolons. Resources include biologics, experimental protocols and assessment tools. The project also coordinates interactions between courses at different institutions to allow incorporation of scientific collaboration into CUREs. These collaborations also facilitate the use of more sophisticated experimental approaches and broaden the experimental scope of the CUREs.

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.

Characterising the prokaryotic ATPase-ome
Alice Robson, University of Bristol
Students work in teams of 3-4 trying to identify and characterise putative ATPase enzymes from prokaryotic organisms. Each student identifies a putative uncharacterised ATPase gene from a range of prokaryotes (archaea and bacteria), and uses bioinformatic methods to characterise the gene. They then work in teams in the lab to clone, express and purify their chosen proteins; finally they characterise the protein using spectrophotometric ATPase assays. The team presents a poster on their work, then each student individually writes a report in the style of a short paper. The student grade is based on three assessed pieces: the lab book (20%), poster presentation (10%, graded as a team), and the report (70%). This course is compulsory for year 3 of our MSci Biochemistry programme, and counts for 20 credit points (out of 120 for the year). The course has been running since 2017 with an intake of 20-30 students per year, all of whom have passed the course.

Unit 1: Use of Lead in the Environment and Health Impacts on Human Populations
Katrina Korfmacher (University of Rochester), Richard Gragg (Florida A&M University), Martha Richmond (Suffolk University), and Caryl Waggett (Allegheny College)
In Unit 1, students engage in discussion of the historical use and resulting distribution of lead throughout the human environment. Activity 1.1 introduces the systems dynamics linking geology, human use, and human ...

DNA cloning and protein analysis of animal-heme peroxidase within collagen IV of the extracellular matrix
Isi Ero-Tolliver, Hampton University
This CURE is to expose undergraduate students to the process of DNA cloning to identify the critical amino acids of the animal-heme peroxidase,peroxidasin, responsible for catalyzing sulfilimine bond formation within collagen IV of the basement membrane. Students will bioengineer a variety of mutants through primer design and polymerase chain reactions that contain point mutations within the immunoglobulin domain of the peroxidasin.

A Bioinformatic Look at Iron Uptake in Insects
Emily Ragan, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Students will perform BLAST searches, make phylogenetic trees, identify putative orthologs, and investigate secondary structure elements of 5' untranslated regions (UTRs). The sequences used will be related to iron uptake in insects.

Threading Climate Justice, an Equity Ethic, and Systems Thinking Through a General Chemistry Course
Sonya Doucette, Bellevue Community College
Using a series of case studies incorporated into lectures, activities, and laboratory sessions, I thread climate justice throughout the first quarter of General Chemistry. Case studies highlight social justice issues exacerbated by the climate crisis, which humanizes abstract chemistry content and engages students with an equity ethic. For some case studies, students use systems thinking to identify the compositions and phases of matter present in real-world environments and contexts.

Investigate Chemical Changes - What are some signs of chemical change?
Jeanine Salisbury, Robbinsdale Middle School, Robbinsdale, MN based on an original activity from McDougal Littell Science, Matter and Energy p.47
This activity is a classroom lab activity that demonstrates chemical change in a dramatic way using a few inexpensive, easily obtainable materials.

Science and Sustainability: A Freshman Seminar Course
Steven Neshyba, University of Puget Sound
The backbone of the course is made of two books: Berger and Luckmann's The Social Construction of Reality and Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Students will discuss these readings in a seminar format, write papers, take exams, carry out a chemistry experiment using mass spectroscopy, and undertake a research project into current pedagogical approaches to science and sustainability.

Determining the color of nitrogen dioxide through inquiry: a demonstration of LeChatlier's principle.
Lisa Hines, Tech High School, St. Cloud, MN, based on the original activity provided by Major Dan Brannan, USAFA Department of Chemistry.
This activity is an inquiry lab where students observe the effects of temperature change on nitrogen dioxide gas, a common component of polluted air, to determine its color.