his summer, Bauer-Reich is an intern participating in the University Nanosatellite Program. As the program’s website states, this initiative “was the first federally-funded program dedicated exclusively to university participation in spacecraft development.” As part of the team selected by her doctoral advisors, Bauer-Reich first trained at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then spent the remainder of the summer in Albuquerque, New Mexico; there she learned how to do systems engineering by designing a kind of nanosatellite called a CubeSat. According to NASA, nano satellites generally have a mass of one to 10 kilograms, and “CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that use a standard size and form factor.” The CubeSat that Bauer-Reich developed will use radars to explore space. This initiative underscores her commitment to innovative research that has practical applications across fields.
Dedication to Student Learning
Bauer-Reich’s diverse academic background enriches her role as an educator. With master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering as well as in Earth Sciences—with a concentration in Geophysics—she has finished the coursework for a doctoral degree in Aerospace Science and will begin her dissertation research this fall. “Any opportunity for learning is a joy,” Bauer-Reich says.
The array of expertise she has developed in pursuing her love of learning allows her to teach an impressive range of classes. At the University of Jamestown, she teaches all of the classes for the physics minor, along with the physics classes for science and engineering students; she also teaches the geology classes for environmental science students, and she has the credentials to cover electrical engineering classes, as well.
Bauer-Reich’s colleague, Suzanne Godboldt—associate professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology at the University of Jamestown—says that Bauer-Reich is “not afraid to try new things in the classroom to make sure [the students] get it—if not, she changes.” Godboldt has observed Bauer-Reich’s keen sense of responsibility for ensuring that these future engineers have all of the competencies they will need in their professions. Eve Stegner, now a graduate assistant in the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University, notes that Bauer-Reich is “always willing to help her students achieve, even if it’s more work for her. She’s always looking for new experiences for her students.” Stegner loved seeing Bauer-Reich’s excitement as she explained things in her classes.
“She gets excited when students get excited, and she is always very interested in learning how she can help students learn better.”
Bauer-Reich’s mentorship continues beyond each class; she encourages students who excel in a class to become undergraduate tutors in subsequent semesters because she knows that tutoring can deepen the tutor’s understanding of the material, Stegner explains. As a Chemistry major at Jamestown, Stegner took many courses with Bauer-Reich, from geology to physics, because she enjoyed her teaching style. Stegner tutored for every class that she took from Bauer-Reich, and she became a tutor in mathematics and chemistry classes, as well. These tutoring experiences, initiated by Bauer-Reich, helped Stegner see herself pursuing graduate studies, as well.
Stegner says that Bauer-Reich’s dedication to teaching helps students to fulfill their potential. “She really made me want to learn, and I wouldn’t be in graduate school” without her influence, she says. Before Bauer-Reich brought up the idea of graduate school to Stegner, she hadn’t previously considered that option. Bauer-Reich encouraged her to apply to five programs, and she was accepted to every one of them.
Early in Stegner’s undergraduate career, Bauer-Reich invited her to join an ongoing undergraduate research project which focused on developing biodegradable soil sensors. The goal was to create environmentally friendly devices which can sense ions in the soil, with the goal of assessing the soil’s salinity. Bauer-Reich helped Stegner apply for research positions over the summers so that they could continue the research together until Stegner’s graduation. The two presented their results at an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference this summer. Stegner is proud that her proposal was accepted the first time she applied to a conference, and she credits Bauer-Reich for this accomplishment. Bauer-Reich encouraged Stegner to gain experience by giving the conference presentation, and Stegner appreciates the “overall great experience.”
To continue strengthening her own effectiveness in the classroom—and to share this information with fellow instructors—Bauer-Reich also conducts pedagogical research. Jakob DeLong, assistant professor of Engineering at the University of Jamestown, admires the ways that Bauer-Reich is actively developing new ways to approach teaching. In one study, she and a fellow researcher are examining the limitations of the flipped classroom model for physics students. The paper they have in development considers the barriers that many students face when learning physics. Bauer-Reich and her co-author are questioning the efficacy of the tests commonly used in physics to assess student growth. The challenges that students have in completing these tests suggest that the issues may lie with the students’ reading and writing skills, as well as their abilities to read technical documents. These results can help physics instructors understand how to help their students better engage with the material.
Extracurricular Initiatives
Bauer-Reich continually offers her time and expertise to others, far exceeding standard job expectations. Godboldt offers one example involving her teenage daughter, who is interested in engineering. Bauer-Reich not only gave the teen an enthusiastic tour of Jamestown’s engineering department, but she also continues to keep in touch with the budding engineer. Godboldt says that this experience has demonstrated Bauer-Reich’s kind nature, as well as showing just how much she “really loves to share knowledge.”
In the spring of 2024, Bauer-Reich gave a fireside chat—an extracurricular public talk on Jamestown’s campus—about the northern lights, in conjunction with the geomagnetic storm that made auroras visible in the lower 48 states. In her talk, she explained the origins of auroras and gave viewing tips to audience members. She encouraged everyone to witness this rare phenomenon in the area and widely shared information when the best viewing nights came around. She similarly organized the campus to witness the spring 2024 partial eclipse, since the campus reached 60 percent totality. She invited everyone to meet at a specific place and time, providing eclipse glasses for all. During the event, she measured the ambient light levels and shared the data. As Godboldt points out, no one pushed Bauer-Reich to take on these projects; “she just believed the students should have these experiences,” so she coordinated and publicized them.
Administrative Accomplishments
The Engineering Department at the University of Jamestown offers degrees in Civil and Mechanical Engineering as well as Environmental Science. Bauer-Reich says the program focuses on incorporating sustainability throughout each degree program so that their graduates are trained to substantively consider the ethics and social impacts of their work in professional settings.
As former department chair, Bauer-Reich spearheaded the accreditation of the Mechanical Engineering program at Jamestown. DeLong reports that Mechanical Engineering was the first major in the department, established in 2015. Bauer-Reich has also gotten the accreditation process started for both the Civil Engineering and Environmental Science programs. Additionally, Bauer-Reich led the department in re-imagining course offerings and sequences so that each course fits into a shared vision of the department as a whole. This streamlined curriculum makes more sense for students, Godboldt says, noting that the process of guiding the department to work together for a common goal shows Bauer-Reich’s gift for bringing people together.
One new course that came from the departmental overhaul is the Sustainable Engineering class which Bauer-Reich co-teaches with Katrina Christiansen, assistant professor of Engineering at Jamestown. This course is required for every major in the department, and it requires students from different disciplines to work together in developing solutions for a given environmental issue. Bauer-Reich explains that students from each degree program have learned different ways to solve problems, so they encounter a wider array of potential solutions when they pool their ideas. For example, the engineering students and environmental science students will think more broadly about the possibilities of addressing urban heat islands once they have learned how students outside of their field might approach the topic.
DeLong states that the class meets two major needs: equipping students with the thinking and vocabulary to implement sustainable design, and offering an introduction to project-based learning in the junior year, prior to the senior design class. Sustainable Engineering walks students through a sequence of design tasks such as generating and validating specifications and evaluating constraints. DeLong points out that these elements are more implicit in the remaining classes, so it’s important that the students get a careful introduction to them first.
Bauer-Reich was department chair when DeLong was hired, and he appreciates her willingness to “field questions from a newbie.” Having been hired right out of graduate school, he says, he had little previous teaching experience; Bauer-Reich’s advice helped him as he developed course content and learned how to be consistent with grading.
Delong and Godboldt call attention to how much Bauer-Reich has accomplished as chair, while pursuing her own active research, working toward her doctorate, and maintaining her full teaching and advising loads. Stegner affirms that it’s “really inspiring to see her accomplishments—most professors are not doing half of what she’s doing.” For Bauer-Reich, the goal is to bring disparate elements together so students see that people can have more than one interest—that they’re not simply scientists or engineers, but people who have the obligation to employ those skills within a “positive and ethical orientation to the world.” In the future, she hopes to see more “cross-pollination,” with people from different disciplines not only working together to “attack the same problem in different ways” but also to learn to use one another’s tools and approaches to address challenges across fields.
Cherish Bauer-Reich exemplifies a generation of educators who strive to transcend traditional boundaries by integrating knowledge and fostering collaboration across disciplines. Her dedication to student success, innovative research, and community engagement sets a precedent for the future of higher education—a future where interdisciplinary thinking and ethical leadership are paramount.
