Past Projects

  • Engaging Female Community College STEM Transfer Students

    RISE partnered with ISU's Program for Women in Science (PWSE) to assess the experiences of female community college students who transferred into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in Fall Semester 2011. The goal of this project was to determine how and when PWSE should be connecting with these students and what existing barriers prevent them from connecting or engaging at ISU. The results inform PWSE programming and services that help women successfully complete STEM degree programs via the community college pathway Read More

  • 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