Research Experiences for High School Students
Research Experiences for High School Students (REHSS) will introduce STEM-interested high school students to the scientific process in a real-world environment. Students will take part in every aspect of the research project from designing the experiment, collecting data, doing analyses, compiling, visualizing, and analyzing results; and presenting a final report. This activity will function as a pilot project to build a framework for implementation across as much of the jurisdiction as possible as distance will be a limiting factor for participation. To implement REHSS, a team that includes a high school student, their home STEM instructor and a MiSU STEM faculty will be work to create a research topic and experiment. High school students may be recruited through the existing network of science fairs and Science Olympiad participation, or in conjunction with students involved in activity 'Scientists in the Classroom' and/or 'Research Ride-Alongs'. Projects will be designed to last a semester and may include virtual meetings between teachers, students and faculty co-designing a project including development of a detailed timeline is part of the design of the project.
REHSS will get your students doing science to answer questions in your communities, and will also get them paid to do their research projects! That's even better than doing that same work for free!
About the REHSS Program
Note on REHSS supplies/equipment and salary: These projects come with funds available to pay for students time - because STEM professionals get paid to do the jobs we love to do, and we want to help train your future STEM professionals! Funds are also available to help purchase the materials, supplies, and/or consumables for doing STEM-related research projects. The maximum award for supplies/consumables is $625 (this must be justified in a budget justification). Participating REHSS students must be hired through MiSU’s HR office to employment opportunity XXXXXX, and will be paid at $15 per hour for a maximum of 100 hours per REHSS project. MiSU faculty are eligible for up to 2 $500 stipends as required by the project duration, instrument run/training time, etc. Only students outside of Minot ND are eligible for travel reimbursement when traveling to/from MiSU for lab/analysis work or training.
How to Get Your Students Into an REHSS Project
The first step is to talk with your student about the kinds of projects that they might be interested in! What sorts of things are you doing in your STEM curriculum this semester? Once you have a 'ballpark' project, shoot one of our participating MiSU STEM faculty an email and see how they can help! Alternatively, you can contact Dr. Collette, or Dr. George directly to help point you to what faculty contact might be best!
Available Funding for REHSS Projects
We anticipate at least 8 REHSS opportunities per year will be made available to STEM-interested high school students!
- Research Student Salary! 8 x $1,500 research salary for REHSS students (100 hours per student per experience maximum paid at $15.00 per hours)
- Travel reimbursement. 15 x $100 travel reimbursements high school REHSS students participating in this program (as needed) to travel to MiSU faculty member’s research location or laboratory;
- Supplies for your STEM research project. 8 x $625 maximum per project for supplies and consumables.
If you're interested in getting paid to do a STEM-based research project, shoot us an email today!
