Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) courses allow students to participate in faculty research projects in a classroom setting.  In my CURE course, we focused on how antimicrobial secretions from red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) can impact the microbial communities of soil surrounding the ants' colonies.  In addition to performing hands-on lab work, we analyzed and gave presentations on several scientific articles, and we spoke about our course at UF's 2018 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium.

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In my CURE course, I learned:

• How to perform DNA extractions on ant cadavers and soil samples

• How to perform PCR using 16S and ITS primers

• How to conduct statistical tests in RStudio

• How make presentations on scientific articles and findings

• How to present research findings at a symposium