This course offers a course-based undergraduate experience (CURE) for students who are enrolled in STEM majors. Students will develop skills in STEM research, communication and academics. We will use the general biology topics to focus our efforts as we 1) Sharpen our skills in reading and understanding the relevant popular and scientific literature, 2) learn how to design and carry out an original team-based research project, 3) develop the analytical skills required to analyze our data, and 4) improve our skills in communicating complex scientific concepts to scientists and non-scientists.