Reports such as Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (hereafter V&C) call for integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into biology curricula and less emphasis on “cookbook” laboratories. CUREs, often characterized by a single open-ended research question, allow students to develop hypotheses, design experiments, and collaborate with peers. Conversely, “cookbook” labs incentivize task completion of pre-determined experimental outcomes. While research comparing CUREs and “cookbook” labs is growing, there are fewer comparisons among CUREs. Here, we present a novel CURE built around an invasive grass, Bromus inermis. We evaluated Brome CURE effectiveness in improving students understanding of the V&C competency “application of the scientific process through development and testing of hypotheses”. We did so by comparing changes in pre-/post-test scores of the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) between Brome CURE students and students in a concurrent CURE, SEA-PHAGES.
Results/Conclusions
While students in both CUREs improved at the conclusion of the semester, Brome CURE students showed a greater increase in EDAT scores than did SEA-PHAGES CURE students. Additionally, Brome CURE students had significantly higher gains in 6 of the 10 EDAT criteria. As such, the Brome CURE system is an effective ecological parallel to the SEA-PHAGES CURE and can help students gain a meaningful understanding of V&C competencies.