A CURE for the common lab experience

Biology professor Dr. Justin Pruneski may have found a CURE for the traditional science lab experience, and through it, his students learn how to take the next steps in their research. As part of this innovative Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Microbiology BIO 325 this semester, Justin introduced his students to the Small World Initiative, or SWI. SWI – an example of a CURE – uses crowdsourcing to tackle the growing problem of antibiotic resistance by tapping into the collective power of thousands of student researchers concurrently taking on the same challenge. After having heard about the CURE concept at conferences and in conversations with peers, Justin jumped on board to try out the teaching technique for the first time in spring 2017. “I was drawn to it,” he says, “because the subject matter was powerful and it was very doable at Heidelberg.”