Research in Interdisciplinary STEM Education (RISE)

Research in Interdisciplinary STEM Education (RISE) is a 9-week residential summer research experience for undergraduate students in chemistry, education, life sciences, mathematics, or physics.  Participants will join interdisciplinary teams mentored by faculty to investigate STEM learning across formal and informal environments with a focus on understanding issues related to inclusivity and diversity in STEM.  The program starts in April with “Gear Up for Research”, a series of virtual lab group meetings designed for RISE participants to meet their faculty mentors and research teams, learn about their summer project, and learn basic skills and research protocols for the summer program.

Important Dates:

Gear up for Research: April 15 – May 15
Residential Program: June 2 – Aug 15
Application Deadline: February 15, 2022
Notification Date: Early-mid March 2022
Stipends: $6000 stipend, travel awards for students with financial need, on-campus housing provided free-of-charge

Physics and Your World
Physics and Your World is a college level conceptual physics course for education majors preparing to teach elementary and middle school science. Dr. Guy is developing new activities for the unit on waves to better align with the Next Generation Science Standards. In a recently developed activity, students construct a spectrometer out of a cereal box, diffraction grating, and smart phone camera and then use the spectrometer to explore the wave properties of light. In this project, the RISE researcher will analyze pre/post instruction multiple choice survey data on students’ concepts of wave properties and qualitatively analyze the students’ written responses to open ended assignment prompts. Results will be used to evaluate the curriculum effectiveness and direct further curriculum development and improvements.

Faculty mentors:  Drs. Guy, Buckley, and Offerdahl