Project Time! A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience, a CURE for the Traditional Organic Lab

In recent years, course-based undergraduate researchexperiences(CUREs) have been increasing in popularity as replacements for oradjuvants to the traditional laboratory experience. This approachshifts the focus from an exercise-based curriculum to an experiment-basedcurriculum and provides students with a more authentic and higher-impactscientific experience. Reported herein are the details of a CURE deployedin the organic chemistry II lab at a primarily undergraduate institution.In this instance, students are given nearly free rein regarding theirgroup projects completed during the second semester. Quantitativeassessment of the approach through student surveys is provided, thoughthe statistical significance of the results is at best questionable.Qualitatively, one project has resulted in a paper in preparationand others are nearing this milestone, demonstrating the viabilityof the approach to expose students to doing publishable scientificresearch and the scientific process. Additionally, free responsesto survey questions seem to suggest that the method is a success.