Course based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide authentic, high-impact research experiences to students in undergraduate courses. When the COVID-19 pivot occurred in Spring 2020, faculty Yiben Wang, Deena Small, and Amy Deveau of the Department of Chemistry & Physics innovated virtual adaptations to CUREs for students in three chemistry laboratory courses: University Organic Chemistry II lab (CHE 251L) Fundamentals of Biochemistry lab (CHE 310L), and Advanced Biochemistry Lab (CHE 450).
These innovations are detailed in an article titled “Reflections on Course-Based Undergraduate Research in Organic and Biochemistry During COVID-19” that was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education. The pending publication will be featured in an upcoming special issue dedicated to teaching chemistry in a time of COVID. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00378
The development of the CHE 251 CURE is supported by Dr. Deveau’s 2020 Teaching Scholar Award (CETL). This award was made possible by the Davis Educational Foundation grant to UNE.