Don’t let the acronym fool you. Wartburg College’s inaugural RICE Day will provide considerable food for thought Thursday, April 12.

More than 400 students will be exhibiting projects throughout campus on Research, Internship and Creative Endeavor Day — celebrating academic excellence, innovation and enterprise.

“Wartburg is dedicating the day to recognizing student and faculty achievements in and out of the classroom,” President Darrel Colson said. “Research, Internship, and Creative Endeavor Day showcases academic and co-curricular pursuits across disciplines.”

“We have outstanding students contributing from many of Wartburg’s disciplines including the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, engineering and mathematics,” said Dr. Roy Ventullo, professor and Burk-Will Chair in Biology and director of undergraduate research.  

No classes will be held on RICE Day. Instead, students will be sharing posters of projects, displaying art and airing documentaries at various venues to foster awareness and appreciation of a wide variety of endeavors.

The public is invited to attend, beginning with the Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship Convocation in Neumann Auditorium at 9 a.m., which honors outstanding teachers, advisers and staff members — as well as academic projects.

Exhibits will be available in numerous locations. Students will be on hand to discuss their projects. Some of the hundreds to be shared are:

• Art — Presentations on “Andy Warhol: The Pope of Pop,” “Max Brodel: Bridging the Gap Between Art and Medicine,” “Mark Zuckerberg: The Man with the Most Friends” and various contemporary artists and architects.
• Biology —The prohibitin protein as associated with tumor development and/or progression in some breast cancers and protein 53 as a tumor suppressor involved in preventing cancer; the effects caloric restrictions on diet; and different teaching strategies to enhance student nutritional understanding.
• Business — Examining the impact of long commuting on an individual; the private sector; and the FBI fighting financial crime; how telework is changing the business culture; and effective ways of eliminating poverty in developing countries.
• Communication arts — Going back in time with nine short documentaries such as “False Idols,” which looks at whether Woodward and Bernstein were really the “White Knights of Watergate;” and “Times of Disaster,” which purports to “uncover the Bay of Pigs media myth.”
• English — Research on topics ranging from superheroes and werewolves to humor and spelling.
• History — Research on the Boston Tea Party, Valley Forge and the decision to drop the atomic bomb, and an investigation of anti-German sentiment in Bremer County during World War I.
• Modern languages — Latinos and the move to Protestantism, and expelling the Jesuits from America.
• Music — Findings on using music therapy with older adults, music videos as therapy for children with behavioral problems, the relationship between personality and musical preferences, and measuring a nation’s pulse by its music.
• Psychology — The relationship of perfectionism and body-image dissatisfaction; serial dating; birth order and sibling rivalry; and sexual risk taking among college students.
• Religion and philosophy students — Research into atheism, Scientology, and the Dogon and Mayan religions.
• Scholars Program — The interface between female fantasy figures and female readers, and an analysis of the geometry of Major League Baseball fields.
• Social sciences — “Iowa and Iowans: Are Stephen Bloom’s views shared?,” gay marriage, an assessment of Christian ethics in “Jesus and the American mind,” policies of debt reduction in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
• Sociology — Gender in college basketball, a minority-student perspective on stress in college and diversity in sports advertising.

Students also will be exhibiting posters about internships and service trips. The touring music ensembles will have open rehearsals — Castle Singers (4:50 p.m., Bachman Fine Arts Center choral hall), Wind Ensemble (4:50 p.m., Bachman FAC band hall) and Wartburg Choir (5 p.m., Wartburg Chapel).

A RICE Bowl quiz competition is set for 4 p.m. in the Whitehouse Business Center room 214.