This workshop, geared towards college freshmen, introduces participants to a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that fosters student engagement and promotes excitement and retention in Biology and Biology research. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) CURE begins with simple digging in the soil or collecting day-old grass clippings to find new viruses, but progresses through a variety of microbiology techniques and, in the second semester, to genome annotation and bioinformatic analyses. Compared to traditional labs, the SEA-PHAGES CURE increases student interest in Biology and has been shown to increase retention in STEM disciplines. This workshop will guide participants through an abbreviated version of the isolation stage that kicks off the semester-long SEA-PHAGES CURE. Participants will collect grass from on campus and then perform a direct isolation to extract phages from their grass clippings. Participants will then plate their extract to create a plaque assay which will be used to identify and characterize their phage.
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