Past Projects

Effective Mentoring of Student Researchers Study

RISE researchers Brandi Geisinger, Mari Kemis, and Arlene de la Mora, in conjunction with ISU faculty member Raj Raman, are working to learn about effective and ineffective mentoring strategies for student researchers. This work, funded, in part, by the NSF Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), originally stemmed out of the realization that mentoring was an essential component of undergraduate students' experiences and successes in summer research programs. Read More

Education for Women in Agriculture

RISE has worked with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Value Added Agriculture and Women in Agriculture programs to design and implement a sound systematic evaluation process in their courses for women farmers and ranchers. Read More

Developing Resources for CISE REU PIs

Brandi Geisinger is serving as the evaluator for the NSF Developing Resources for CISE REU PIs project. The evaluation will focus on identifying areas of need and evaluating the effectiveness of the web-based resources. Read More

Community College Initiative (CCI) Program Evaluation

RISE provides comprehensive evaluation of the CCI Program, which annually hosts upward of 150 students from countries such as Brazil, Egypt, and Pakistan at community colleges across the U.S. The CCI Program Evaluation examines the nature of experiences of participating students, student mentor families, project coordinators, and community college professionals, as well as CCI Program alumni to determine whether and how program goals are being met. Read More

Character Counts Puerto Rico

The Josephson Institute (National CHARACTER COUNTS!) is contracting with RISE for the development of an evaluation of the process and outcomes of the Tus Valores Cuentan program implementation in all Puerto Rico public schools. Read More

CenUSA Bioenergy Internship

Brandi Geisinger serves as the lead evaluator for the USDA-funded CenUSA Bioenergy Internship program, which is an eight-week research program that helps address the bioenergy value chain. The evaluation of the CenUSA program utilizes pre-program and post-program surveys and post-program focus groups. Read More

CBiRC Young Engineers and Scientists

Brandi Geisinger and Mari Kemis serve as evaluators for the Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) program, which is a Center for Biorenewable Chemicals Program sponsored by the NSF. Evaluation of the Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) program includes the administration of a pre-program survey to determine student interest and knowledge of relevant scientific principles, a focus group conducted at the end of the research internship, and a post-survey conducted at the end of the following school year. Read More

CBiRC Summer Academy for Middle School Teachers

Brandi Geisinger and Mari Kemis serve as evaluators for the NSF Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) Summer Academy for Middle School Teachers program. The Summer Academy program evaluation involves annual pre-program and post-program surveys, as well as a focus group at the end of the program. Read More

CBiRC Research Experiences for Undergraduates

Brandi Geisinger and Mari Kemis serve as evaluators for the NSF Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which particularly focuses on undergraduate student research training. Annual evaluation of the REU program includes pre- and post-program surveys, annual focus groups, and follow-up surveys. Read More

CBiRC Research Experiences for Teachers (RET)

Brandi Geisinger and Mari Kemis, in collaboration with Karri Haen, are leading the evaluation of the NSF Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program at Iowa State University. The evaluation was informed by the literature on the constructivist sociocultural professional development model, evidence of inadequate science teacher preparation, and evidence of best practices for science teacher preparation. Read More