School is out but science is in! 🧬🔬🦠 Over the next few weeks, 10 Rise Up scholars will begin research internships in labs at Case Western Reserve University.

Over the past two weeks, students presented at our 2026 Young Scientist Symposiums! 🔬✨ These young scientists have been leading their projects since the fall. Starting with idea generation, grant writing, and project creation to months of experimentation and data analysis.

Teaching these kids young the importance of model organisms! Fun to see this very pro-Drosophila slide in one of the group's introduction during the annual symposium "They have led to important scientific discoveries!" @riseupneo.bsky.social

Had a great time celebrating STEM Day at Progressive Field before the Cleveland Guardians game with NEO:STEM! ⚾🔬

We are excited to once again celebrate our students at the upcoming Young Scientist Symposiums! 🔬✨ Join us as students from our Life as a Scientist program present their research findings and share the incredible work they’ve accomplished this year.

Turning data into discovery 📊✨ Students are hard at work alongside mentors organizing their research results for the upcoming symposium. They're turning raw data into clear, compelling graphs and learning how scientists communicate ideas that matter.

🧬 Molecular Madness in the classroom! 🔬 Rise Up students are diving into PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) by amplifying DNA and bringing invisible science to life right before their eyes. Check them out as they carefully pipette, load gels, and analyze results!

Another productive day in the classroom 🧬🔬🗡🪰 Students are making incredible progress on both their behavioral and molecular experiments as we head into the final stretch of the year!

A whole new world at the nanoscale 🔬 Students in our Life as a Scientist program are getting some incredible images with the Scanning Electron Microscope. Check out the fruit flies, ant eye, and moss from today!

Tiny worms, big discoveries 🐛🔬 Students are using C. elegans to power two research projects. These transparent nematodes are helping uncover how mold affects behavior at Lincoln-West and how alcohol impacts key organs at Garrett Morgan. Getting a close-up look at science in action!

Join us in the celebration of science! 🎉🥧🪱 It's Pi Day this weekend, which means it's time to lace up those shoes and join our annual Rise Up: Pi Race to celebrate everyone's favorite mathematical constant.

Science is a team sport 🔬🤝 Check out these Rise Up student researchers collaborating, troubleshooting, and discovering together!

Can’t believe we have a scanning electron microscope now in our Rise Up classrooms!!!! 🤯 A fun morning with CMSD high school students visualizing fungi up close, making dilutions, and filtering for conditioned media experiments to answer their question, “what would happen if we ate moldy bread?”

First day back in the classroom with @riseupneo.bsky.social since study section and grant selection! This group of students anesthetized Drosophila and learned how to maintain stocks. Others worked with C. elegans and earthworms, depending on the project goals. Exciting!!!!

One more week to register and snag your 2026 Pi Race shirt! 👕🥧🏃🏾‍♀️ Sign up now! #PiRace2026 runsignup.com/Race/OH/Cleveland/riseup

Science comes alive when students get their hands dirty! 🧫🐛🪰🐜 Life as a Scientist students are exploring real research using model organisms that include ants, C. elegans, fruit flies, wax worms, plants, and earthworms.

🎄✨ Getting into the holiday spirit? Why not add a little Pi to your plans! 🥧🏃‍♀️ Give yourself (or someone else!) a reason to stay active after the holidays by signing up for the 2026 Rise Up: Pi Race!

We gathered with Cleveland Metropolitan School District teaching partners along with Cuyahoga Community College innovator Will Canaday for our annual STEM Teaching Enrichment Workshop.

📣 Registration is officially OPEN for the 2026 Rise Up: Pi Race! 🥧🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ Join us on 3.14.26 for our annual virtual 3.14 mile challenge! Run, walk, or stroll wherever you are, all while supporting Rise Up’s hands-on science programming for Cleveland scholars. runsignup.com/Race/OH/Cleveland/riseup

Is staying active, supporting your community, and having fun in your plans for 2026?? If so, mark your calendars for the 3rd annual Rise Up: Pi Race on March 14th, 2026!

The month of October was filled with brainstorming, big ideas, and grant writing for students in the Life as a Scientist program! 🧠💡📝

Another great awesome day spent at the Neurodiverse Culture Festival! We spent the day working with festival attendees of all ages to build solar cars, isolate DNA using spit or strawberries, and make meaningful connections around science exploration.

All this month, students in our Life as a Scientist program are hard at work brainstorming ideas for their experiment and writing grant proposals!

Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the Caplan Research Award for excellence in student scientific research!

🏆✍️🥳 Awards, authorship, and more celebrations!! 🏆✍️🥳 We celebrated with another cohort of newly published authors at Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation!

A huge congratulations to another group of published authors from our Life as a Scientist program! We joined students, teachers, and parents this morning at Lincoln-West School of Science and Health in Cleveland Metropolitan School District to recognize and celebrate this remarkable accomplishment.

As a small nonprofit, we rely on the generosity and dedication of scientists who volunteer their time to support the students we serve. Today, we are thrilled to recognize Juan Jeffrey as the 2025 recipient of the Janel Callon Outreach Award!

🚨It's here🚨 You can now read the 2025 edition of the Journal of Young Scientists for FREE on our website! Enjoy editorials from our Rise Up team and collaborators, 24 student research papers, Scholar spotlights, and more!

We’re so excited to share the 2025 Journal of Young Scientists with you later this month! You can read the journal for FREE on our website starting September 9th. Stay tuned to our social media for early access!

We’re excited to be awarded a STEM Action Grant from Society for Science! 🎉🥳🎊

🎉 Help us congratulate our second group of Rise Up Scholars this summer! 🎉 These incredible students spent their summer internships at Case Western Reserve University, working side-by-side with research scientists.

We were thrilled to welcome over 400 curious and enthusiastic young students to our summer sessions at Archbishop Lyke School in Cleveland, hosted in partnership with Open Doors Academy!

Our second set of amazing Rise Up Scholars have begun their internships at Case Western Reserve University!

Our first round of Rise Up Scholars have completed their summer internship at CWRU!

This past weekend we had the honor of seeing a Life as a Scientist program and Rise Up Scholars program alumnus be honored for his hard work!

🎉 Students at Lincoln-West and Garrett Morgan presented their results at our 3rd Annual Student Symposiums! 🎉 We had 24 presentations over two days, featuring hundreds of students sharing their novel research with fellow students, faculty, Rise Up volunteers, family members, and community members.

Whaaaaaat These high school kids in @riseupneo.bsky.social wanted to study the impact of tobacco on health. They designed a project with a dose curve of tobacco exposure on earthworms and noted reproductive phenotypes (unanticipated), graphed with replicates across developmental stages

⚾️🏟️🧬 STEM Day with the Cleveland Guardians!! ⚾️🏟️🧬 We enjoyed a wonderful spring day at Progressive Field with over 5000 students who interacted with STEM focused activities provided by Cleveland businesses and community organizations!

Summer is almost here, and we’re excited to welcome a new cohort of Rise Up Scholars into Cleveland research labs! High school students from our Life as a Scientist program can apply for this paid internship to work on research projects alongside professionals. 🧪🔬

🌶️🪰🥵 SPICY FLIES: a proposal from 9th graders at Lincoln-West in #CMSD focused on how fruit flies interact with spicy foods.

Teamwork makes the dream work! 💪🔬 Volunteers are with us every step of the way in the Life as a Scientist experience. As students move from behavioral experiments to molecular testing, our dedicated volunteers—many with advanced degrees—are there to guide and support them.

Bioluminescent plants!! 🪴🌟🌱 Students are working to determine whether GFP+ plants have the capability to sustain themselves through their own emitted light.

Molecular testing has begun! Group #14, Separate Ants 🐜, has finished their behavior testing and is now running a Western Blot to determine the impact of social isolation and separation from familiar groups using ants (a social species).

Check out the Spicy Flies group in action! 🥵🪰 🌶️ This food preference assay contains food with AITC in red and capsaicin in blue. Students will be able to see fruit fly preference based on the color of their abdomen after consumption.

We had a great time on Sunday at the Score With STEM event hosted by NEOStem and sponsored by the Cleveland Cavaliers!

🥳🥧🎉 Happy Pi Day!!!! 🥳🥧🎉 Today is race day for our 2025 Rise Up: Pi Race! Celebrate with us by walking or running 3.14 miles in support of science education. Thank you to all of the race participants and donors who help make our annual event a success!

When working with Drosophila, you need to be able to sex the flies. This mean separating the males and females so they do not reproduce. 🪰 🪰 🪰

LAST CALL!!! 🗣️🗣️ Registration for the 2025 Rise Up: Pi Race will be closing at midnight on Wednesday, March 12th! There is still time to sign up for the race and help us meet our donation goal before the race period begins. Lace up those shoes and join us! 🏃🏻🏃🏾‍♀️🏃‍♂️ runsignup.com/Race/OH/Clev...

Worms, bacteria, mold, OH MY! 🪱🧫🦠 We had a busy day a Lincoln-West, here are some details on the photos: Photo 1&2: The "Bacteria Boy" group is investigating bacteria growth. Bacteria are everywhere and can be helpful (like helping in digestion) or harmful (tooth decay, food poisoning).

Wednesday is "Rise Up" day at Garrett Morgan, here is a photo dump from our day: