TABLE 1.

Response category descriptions and representative quotes of tangible and intangible categories pertaining to both faculty-centered and student-centered statements.

	Response Category		Representative Quotes
Tangible	Faculty-centered: CUREs present a way to collect data for research programs; pilot research projects; obtain grant money; publications; presentations; career enhancement; recognition by department and/or institution; form collaborations; recruit trained students; platform to merge job expectations (e.g., teaching with research or service); classroom management	“My goal, certainly starting this, was to have a really nice data set that could be publishable. I think we’ve got enough to probably at least put together a group of students that can present at a conference.”	“It [teaching CUREs] has made undergraduate research a cornerstone of my academic career. I am seen as the go-to guy if you want to do anything at [University] with undergraduate research. I was made undergraduate research director. Personally, for me the benefits are great. For the institution there are also benefits as it has been well publicized.”	“I’m always pressed for time. I’m contractually obligated to do a certain amount of teaching but also my professional development and promotion depends on grants and publications. I thought, well, if I need to teach the micro lab, I’d like to be doing something that might benefit me as well and get some research in there. In that kind of self-serving way, it’s been a way to pilot some types of experiments and to recruit the more talented students or the students that are really into it into my research lab.”
	Student-centered: Students learn a particular skill, methodology, or technique; students gain a research experience; CUREs meet national STEM reform goals/active learning pedagogy; recruitment/retention of students in STEM fields; skills learned are transferrable to job/life and/or student résumé	“It [the CURE] lets them go into depth and think for themselves. It lets them explore the literature and practice the things they’ve learned in other courses about how to analyze data and things like that.”	“We’re committed here at [University] to intellectual goals that have to do with more than content transmission, so we want our graduates to actually know how to design an experiment and how to critically analyze data, and I think the only way to learn how to do that is to do it.”	“I’m going to invent these as often as I can, because I think it’s the most important skill that the students can get. Not only are they learning to work in groups, but they are getting experimental design experience. They’re having to think on their feet about what might need to be changed. They’re consulting with me and other professionals and they’re digging into the literature.”
Intangible	Faculty-centered: Rewarding; fulfilling; enjoy time in the classroom; intellectually stimulating; keeps faculty current with research; matches personal and/or professional identity; CUREs are more fun; faculty are not bored in classroom; they like the interactions with the students; enjoy observing students being engaged and having “aha!” moments	“One of the biggest benefits is just interaction with the students on a really meaningful basis on stuff that they’re really excited about.”	“It keeps me really engaged. It keeps me interested in the fact that I feel like I always need to find interesting questions for the students to work on.”	“I was a junior faculty member at the time looking for ways to better engage the students. I came in and I started teaching microbiology as an untenured faculty, and the microbiology lab was terrible, all these biochemical tests—it was just really boring, and I remember from my undergraduate experience how much I hated these labs. And then I came across this lab and I thought it was so wonderful. I wanted to try out the course. I thought it was such an exciting opportunity.”
	Student-centered: Students are more engaged; CUREs generally present a “better” way for students to learn about science; students enjoy time in CUREs; the experiences are meaningful to students	“I would say that this is a way to excite your students, get them really engaged in class and really excited about the material even if the things they try don’t work. They will still be excited about it.”	“I would say it’s important for the students to get thinking as freshmen, get thinking as ‘how do we do a science experiment,’ not just ‘this is what we look at under the microscope.’ I think it’s a benefit to the person doing it, because it’s interesting and stimulating for them, too, because they don’t know what the results are going to be. You get to engage with the students more because they are more engaged.”	“I do all this for the students—they are excited to come to lab, they prepare, they come in on their own time and prepare by reading ahead of time their petri dishes to see how their bacteria are growing. At the end of the semester I hear so many of them say ‘I finally feel like I am doing something to make the world a better place, where before I felt like I was just doing what I was supposed to be doing but not getting anything out of it.’”

CURE = course-based undergraduate research experience.