CUREs: How to Create & Incorporate a Collaborative Ant-Based Project to Teach Science Practices

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are one way instructors can increase engagement and learning of material. One of the goals in the report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action is to increase active learning activities. By implementing a CURE or CURE-type model, instructors provide students with the opportunity to develop a better understanding of science content, to apply what they have learned, and make an impact in real-world science. Our classes replicated a subset of the work being completed in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. We had students complete biodiversity surveys through collection and classification of ant species using field and lab techniques. DNA barcoding analyses are commonly used techniques in biology labs worldwide. Polymerase chain reaction and cycle sequencing will be taught to illustrate how the extracted DNA can be amplified at different markers and used to identify species. We utilized the CURE model to have students complete a biodiversity survey of both a southern intermountain-west and a southeastern state through collection, classification, and genotyping and barcoding of ant species.