Developing scientific literacy with a cyclic independent study assisted CURE detecting SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a high level of scientific illiteracy and mistrust that pervades the scientific and medical communities. This finding has proven the necessity of updating current methods used to expose undergraduates to research. The research in traditional course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) is limited by undergraduate time constraints, skill level, and course structure, and consequently it does not attain the learning objectives or the high-impact, relevant studies achieved in graduate-level laboratories using a cyclic trainee/trainer model. Although undergraduate independent study (ISY) research more closely matches the structure and learning objectives of graduate-level research, they are uncommon as professors and universities typically view them as a significant time and resource burden with limited return. Cyclic independent study-assisted CUREs (CIS-CUREs) combine many positive aspects of ISY graduate-level research, and CUREs by pre-training ISY research lead to facilitate CURE proposal and project semesters in a cyclic model. The CIS-CURE approach allowed undergraduate students at Stetson University to perform and disseminate more rigorous, involved, long-term, and challenging research projects, such as the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. In doing so, all students would have the opportunity to participate in a high-impact research project and consequently gain a more comprehensive training, reach higher levels of research dissemination, and increase their competitiveness after graduating. Together, CIS-CUREs generate graduates with higher scientific literacy and thus combat scientific mistrust in communities.