List of 2 items.

• RISE Award Parental Consent Form

  Please sign and submit a copy of the RISE Award Parental Consent Form for each applicant by Monday, April 24, 2023. If the project is completed by a team of girls, each member of the team needs to submit a signed RISE Award Parental Consent Form. Please send all completed forms to stem@archer.org by Monday, April 24, 2023, with your RISE Award Application.

• RISE Award Application Sections

  Your Archer RISE Award application should include the following sections with the criteria described below within each section:
  
  1. Contact Information
  

  • Name(s) 
  • Grade(s) 
  • E-mail address(es)
  • School
  • Mentor/Advisor(s) 
  • Mentor/Advisor email address(es)

  2. Title 
  

  • Provides a clear and concise summary of the project purpose or research focus

  3.  Abstract
  

  • Brief technical summary of the entire paper (problem, research objective/question OR engineering problem, methods, major findings, conclusions); does not reference other literature
  • Concise; 1 paragraph; no more than 250 words
  • If major findings are not complete at the time of application submission, please note this in the abstract.

  4. Introduction 
  

  • Background: Defining the research problem and inspiration
    • Begin with a wide picture of the problem you have chosen to address and narrow to your specific problem, research objective/question, OR engineering problem.
    • Identify the scientific concepts and prior research that help explain what is currently known about the topic and narrow the focus to details that are pertinent to the study, highlighting the unknowns that your research attempts to address. 
    • Introduce the problem addressed by the study, providing statistics that give context to the prevalence and scope of the problem.
    • For engineering or design projects, include prior art and/or inspirations.
    • Assume that your audience is literate, but not necessarily familiar with the background or details of the problem you have chosen to address.
  • Research Objectives: 
    • Once you have established context and justification for your research question, the research objectives and methods used to address them are clearly outlined:
      • What were you attempting to determine/measure? If applicable, what was your hypothesis/predictions, and why? 
      • How did you test/measure your objectives/hypothesis?
  • Importance and Impact: 
    • Clearly describes why the research is important 
    • Convincingly explains what this research can tell us that we don’t already know OR clearly states social and scientific implications of engineering or technology projects
    • How does your work have value to the real world now, or how might it in the future?

  5. Methods
  

  • Informative subheadings are used to outline the logical flow of procedures
  • Describe how you performed your research or designed your project and how you collected data.
    • Include the methods you used; mention common methods and any modifications to published methods/protocols utilized. Cite specific protocols that were followed. Clearly identify deviations to the cited methods/protocols, and provide clear reasoning and justification/support for deviation. 
    • Include the materials you used (including common materials). 
    • Give sources of all chemicals, uncommon materials, and biological specimens. 
    • Include model organism pre-experiment handling and care. 
    • Include images, diagrams, or photos, as appropriate.
    • For app or coding projects, include the language you are using, which platform you are targeting, and what libraries or APIs you are linking to, if applicable.
    • For engineering projects, you are encouraged to include photos or documentation of prototypes and design processes.
  • Describe how the data was summarized and analyzed.

  6. Results
  

  • If the project has concluded by the date of submission: 
    • Present your findings with sufficient detail and include all relevant data and observations.
    • Include graphs, tables, and/or charts for quantitative data. Make their purpose clear with supporting text. 
    • Include graphics to summarize data appropriately. 
    • For engineering projects, include quantifiable measures of success for your project.
  • If the project has not concluded by the date of submission, provide a description of expected results.

  7. Discussion & Conclusion
  

  • If the project has concluded by the date of submission: 
    • Describe how the results address your primary question or problem.
    • Interpret the results so a reader understands the implication(s) of your findings.
    • Address limitations of the project and potential sources of error.
    • Provide suggestions for improvements to the study, and determine what experiments could be performed in the future to refine your conclusions.
  • If the project has not concluded by the date of submission, describe how the expected results could address your primary question or problem.

  8. Works Cited, References & Acknowledgements
  

  • Acknowledge anyone who helped or contributed to the project.
  • Include all resources that were used. Any piece of information that is not your own original text or is not common knowledge must be properly cited and quoted.
  • APA Format