Students of EngrTEAMS Teacher Fellow, David Rafferty, tested solar ovens they built as part of the EngrTEAMS curricular unit Mr. Rafferty developed for the project. Read more about their work and the EngrTEAMS project here: http://www.woodburybulletin.com/content/solar-ovens-yield-sunny-side-smores-wms
McGrew interviewed regarding US Supreme Court’s intellectual disability death penalty ruling
Dr. Kevin McGrew of the Department of Educational Psychology was interviewed on the Huffington Post Live regarding the US Supreme Court’s intellectual disability death penalty ruling regarding the Hall v Florida case on May 27, 2014.
Dr. McGrew was influential in pointing out two errors in the statistical arguments of Justice Alito’s US Supreme Court dissent regarding the Hall v Florida intellectual disability death penalty ruling.
The US Supreme Court declared the State of Florida’s law regarding the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities was unconstitutional due to the state’s failure to recognize the scientific measurement fact of the standard error of measurement (SEM) that portrays the degree of certainty surrounding individual IQ scores.
McGrew influential in Hall v Florida intellectual disability death penalty ruling
Dr. Kevin McGrew of the Department of Educational Psychology was given attribution in the Law Blog of the Wall Street Journal, for pointing out two errors in the statistical arguments of Justice Alito’s US Supreme Court dissent regarding the Hall v Florida intellectual disability death penalty ruling on May 27, which ruled that Florida’s law was unconstitutional.
“Both of Justice Alito’s apparent errors were brought to Law Blog’s attention by Kevin McGrew, an IQ expert who is a visiting professor in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota and who worked with the American Psychological Association on a brief it filed with the court in the case.”
Ohrtman elected as VP of post-secondary institutions with MSCA
Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman, director of school counseling and M.A. clinical training in the CSPP program in the Department of Educational Psychology, was recently elected to the Minnesota School Counselors Association Executive Board. Dr. Ohrtman will be the new vice president of post-secondary institutions, representing all school counseling programs across the state of Minnesota. As a member of the Executive Board, she will work on various committees to improve school counseling statewide. The department would like to recognize and congratulate Dr. Ohrtman as she takes on this new role.
LaVoi on athlete domestic violence, guests on Edge of Sports radio blog
Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, faculty in the School of Kinesiology and associate director of the Tucker Center, guests in the May 28 episode of the Left Jab Radio/Edge of Sports radio blog commenting on domestic violence and athletes, especially at the collegiate level.
Hear it here: 05-28-14 Edge of Sports
Dengel has manuscript accepted for publication
Donald Dengel, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology, and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP) has authored an article that will be published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The article, “Cardiac autonomic dysfunction and arterial stiffness among children and adolescents with ADHD treated with stimulants,” examined the effects of ADHD medications on the development of cardiovascular risk factors. Lead author of this article is Dr. Aaron Kelly, a 2004 graduate of the School of Kinesiology.
Ross quoted in Pioneer Press’ article examining Kevin Love’s future with Timberwolves
Stephen Ross, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of undergraduate programs, was quoted in the recent Pioneer Press article, “If Timberwolves-Love split happens, timing could be everything.”
Come January, the Wolves could offer Kevin Love a contract worth $26 million, but reports are that Love has no intention of resigning with the team and will choose to opt out of the final year in his contract (2015-16′). The best case scenario for both parties would appear to be a trade by the NBA Draft on June 26, or a trade before the February deadline.
In the article, Ross observed that Timberwolves fans wouldn’t necessarily be mad at Love himself, but the organization. He also noted a non-winning season could contribute to the frustration.
Chapman invited speaker at multiple seminars at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand
Dr. David Chapman, professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD), was an invited speaker at the International Seminar on Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up sponsored by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and held at Mahidol University in Bangkok on May 19. Chapman was team leader, co-editor, and chapter author of the just-released UNESCO study entitled Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up, Graduate Education and University-Based Research.
Dr. Chapman was also an invited participant in the High-Level Policy Dialogue: Thai Higher Education at the Threshold of ASEAN Integration on May 19 and an invited speaker at the Seminar on Building a Thai World-Class University: Alternative Paths to Excellence on May 20. Both events were held at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand.
Scott McConnell is member of Cradle to K Cabinet
Scott McConnell, professor of Educational Psychology and director of community engagement for the Center for Early Education and Development, will serve as a member of the Cradle to K Cabinet announced by Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges on May 22. The Cabinet’s focus is closing the achievement gap in the city’s education system by eliminating disparities for children from prenatal to three years old. Read more about the Cabinet in an article posted on the Minneapolis City of Lakes website.
Amy Susman-Stillman interviewed about Why Kids Obsessed with “Frozen”
Amy Susman-Stillman was a respondent to the Good Question segment on WCCO-TV on May 20. The question was “Why are kids obsessed with ‘Frozen’?,” Disney’s highest grossing animated film of all time. “The message that ‘Frozen’ sends about love, and love being such a strong kind of conquering all message resonates with all ages,” Susman-Stillman says, co-director at the Center for Early Education and Development and mother of three. View the video and read the article.
OLPD graduate student, Pekol, facilitates training in Thailand for RESPOND project
Amy Pekol traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand May 7-10 to facilitate a training for Thai health faculty on mapping and evaluating student One Health competencies. This workshop was sponsored by the USAID-funded RESPOND project, which works to combat emerging pandemic threats. Pekol is a monitoring and evaluation specialist for the University of Minnesota RESPOND team, which is based in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Amy Pekol is a Ph.D. student in the comparative and international development education (CIDE) program track in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD).
Gunnar receives APS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement
Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and Director of the Institute of Child Development, has received the 2014 Association for Psychological Science (APS) Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement. The award was presented at the 2014 APS Convention Opening Events on May 22 in San Francisco.
APS recently established this annual award to recognize and to honor members of the discipline who masterfully help students and others discover and pursue their own career and research goals. The awards committee cited Gunnar’s work as more than fully representing the intention of this newly created award.
Bosch has manuscript accepted for publication
Doctoral candidate Tyler Bosch is the lead author of an article to be published in the journal, Pediatric Obesity. The article, “Visceral adipose tissue measured by DXA correlates with measurement by CT and is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in children,” examined the a new method of determining visceral adipose tissue in children using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). This measure of visceral adipose tissue was associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. This article was part of Mr. Bosch’s doctoral dissertation. Donald R. Dengel, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology in the School of Kinesiology, is a co-author on this article.
Gao presents at exergaming conference
Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), presented, “The Role of Exergaming in Contributing to Children’s Daily Physical Activity Levels” at 2014 The Games for Increasing Physical Activity conference in Houston, TX. The purpose of this conference is to identify best practices and research needed to develop a new generation of exergames that meaningfully increase physical activity. The conference brought together video game designers, epidemiologists, kinesiologists, and behavioral and communication scientists to analyze exergaming with an eye toward developing best practices and identifying needed research for increasing physical activity. In-depth discussions were held on what is known about how exergames influence behavior, what are current exergame best practices for increasing physical activity, and what additional research is needed to move this field forward.
STEM Center Congratulates Ph.D. Candidates for Successfully Defending Projects
The STEM Education Center would like to congratulate the following individuals for successfully defending their Ph.D. project.
John Czaplewski, Mathematics Education, Ph.D. “An Evaluation of Blended Learning Method of Instruction in Terms of Knowledge Acquisition and Attitude in an Introductory Mathematics Course”
Kristina M. Tank, Science Education, Ph.D. “Examining the Effects of an Integrated Science Unit on Student Learning”
Scot Hovan, Science Education, Ph.D. “Contributing to Meaning Making: Facilitating Discourse in the High School Physics Classroom”
Eric McDonald, Science Education Ph.D. “Sharing and Moving Toward, the Evolution of Expertise in the Science Classroom”
Mary Hoelscher, Science Education “LGBTQ-Inclusion in Educator Preparation: Getting Ready for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Secondary School Settings”
Cicchetti receives APS 2014 James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for lifetime of outstanding research contributions
Dante Cicchetti, McKnight Presidential Chair, William Harris Professor of Child Development and Psychiatry, ICD, received the Association for Psychological Science (APS) 2014 James Cattell Fellow Award at the 26th Annual APS Convention on May 22. APS has recognized Cicchetti “for his lifetime of significant intellectual achievements in applied psychological research and their impact on a critical problem in society.”
Cicchetti will give an invited APS Award Address at the convention in San Francisco on May 23, entitled Maladaptation and Resilience in Maltreated Children: A Multiple Levels of Analysis Perspective.
ICD Alumna honored with Best Dissertation Award in Social and Behavioral Sciences 2014
Camelia Hostinar, (ICD 2013), has won the University of Minnesota Graduate School’s Best Dissertation Award in the Social and Behavioral Sciences for 2014. The winners of this prestigious award are chosen for the substantive quality and the methodology of the dissertation, while selection is based on the originality and importance of the research, and the potential for the student to make an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Hostinar now holds a position as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
Upon learning of the award, Hostinar congratulated her faculty mentor, Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and Director of the Institute of Child Development, saying, “This truly is a joint award. Without your amazing mentorship during the whole dissertation process, this never would have happened!”
Hostinar’s dissertation is entitled: The Impacts of Social Support and Early Life Stress on Stress Reactivity in Children and Adolescents. The Best Disseration Award carries a $1,000. honorarium. Congratulations, Cam!
Dr. Ohrtman and CSPP students present at the Minnesota School Counselors Association Annual Conference
29 Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology (CSPP) students attended the Minnesota School Counselors Association Annual Conference Destination: Graduation and Beyond in Brainerd, MN May 4-6th, 2014. At the conference, over 450 school counselors met to listen to motivational speakers and attend breakout sessions. 12 of the students presented with Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman, Director of the School Counseling Program, on various topics from new technology to adventure therapy to crisis go kits. Dr. Ohrtman, Kayte Haagenson, and Abbie Hannam (both CSPP graduate students) were also on this year’s conference planning committee.
Aman recognized with CEHD Faculty & Staff Research award
Joshua Aman, Ph.D., post-doctoral research associate in the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSCL) has been awarded the 2014 CEHD Faculty & Staff Research Award for his project entitled, ‘Assessing and Improving Proprioception in Parkinson’s Disease.’
While continuing collaboration with the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab, the Italian Institute of Technology and the Nanyang Technological Institute, Aman will spend two weeks in Singapore working alongside Dr. Lorenzo Masia, assistant professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Aman and Masia will be working towards finalizing protocol development, utilizing a wrist robot that will assess and train proprioception (body awareness) in neurological patients.
The CEHD Faculty & Staff Research Award is made available by the Office of Research and Policy and is awarded to support the development of research and data collection at the University of Minnesota and collaborating institutions.
ICI and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa offer youth entrepreneurship program
American Indians have a long tradition of entrepreneurship, and for the past five years the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) has partnered with Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) and the Fond du Lac reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota, to build on this tradition with today’s youth. Through a summer program titled The Young American Indian Entrepreneur (YAIE) Academy, American Indian high school students from northeastern Minnesota have had the opportunity to pursue entrepreneurial interests, and grow as individuals.
The YAIE Academy provides an intensive, six-day residential academic- and activity-based program for 15 American Indian students entering grades 11 and 12 to learn the “ins and outs” of becoming an entrepreneur. (See some of this year’s students in the photo.) Students are usually from northeastern Minnesota, and the academy takes place at FDLTCC. Activities are based on the Young American Indian Entrepreneur, a curriculum that ICI co-published with FDLTCC in 2010. Students give presentations as they develop creative ideas for small businesses, work in teams to create potential products, and visit local Native entrepreneurs at their businesses. Business-like behavior is expected from students: timeliness, appropriate dress, preparation before class, asking thought-provoking questions of guest business men and women, attentiveness when auditing college classes, and learning the importance of teamwork and giving encouragement to peers. The week culminates with each student presenting a three-minute “elevator pitch” on his or her small business idea to faculty, parents, staff, and judges. FDLTCC faculty, administrators, and staff are mentors, teachers, and judges, and FDLTCC students, many of whom are business majors, act as dorm monitors and support-staff for the academy participants. Over the years, community members have also become mentors and presenters.
“We have created a strong program,” says the project’s director at ICI, Jean Ness. “The daily schedule runs from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., with later evening time for journal writing and class preparation. By the end of the week, students are exhausted, but proud of their accomplishments.” She also adds, “It’s inspiring to watch the students as they begin crafting their ideas of businesses that stem from their passions and interests. But, the Academy is about much more than entrepreneurship. Youth learn self-confidence, cultural awareness, self-advocacy, teamwork, career awareness, and how to use their strengths to support themselves. I often see timid students arrive on Sunday night and by Friday afternoon they are prepared to present their elevator pitch to a crowd of 100 or more. Several students apply to return year after year.”
This summer marks the sixth, and possibly final, summer of the academy. It has been funded as part of a Title III Project from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. “Unfortunately, Title III funding for the Academy is ending, and unless a sponsor comes forward this will be our last summer,” says Ness.
American Indian students currently entering their junior or senior year of high school may still apply for the Summer 2014 Academy by contacting Suzan Desmond at suzan@fdltcc.edu or 218-879-0701 by May 24 and requesting an application packet. FFI on the program, contact Jean Ness at nessx008@umn.edu or 612-625-5322.