Gao gives talk at MCCC 7th Annual Healing Vessel Forum

March 18, 2014

GaoZ-pref Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), gave a research talk titled, “Promoting Physical Activity and Academic Achievement Through School-based Exergaming Interventions,” at Minnesota Communities Caring For Children 7th Annual Healing Vessels Forum on March 14.

There were over 100 community leaders, supporters, parents, early-childhood, and school-age care providers in attendance. The forum was designed to challenge communities to speak out on child maltreatment and the achievement gap in Minnesota. The forum also provides professional development for practitioners in the early childhood field on evidence-based research.

Richardson mentors students at first annual WISC event

March 18, 2014

Dr. Tiffany Richardson, lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, mentored students at the first annual Women in Sport Careers (WISC) Speed Networking Event on March 4.

Richardson serves as faculty adviser for WISC and stated, “The first WISC event with the women from the Minnesota Twins and related companies was an amazing opportunity for networking. Students were able to get career advice directly from successful established women in sports at various stages in their careers.” The event was held in the Champions Club at Target Field, and nearly 30 women in upper-management positions with the Minnesota Twins attended.

Richardson further remarked, “I hope this is the start of a very long relationship between the University of Minnesota, Women In Sports Careers, and the Minnesota twins. It was an amazing night!”

WISC is holding their next event on March 28 with the Minnesota Vikings and the Pageant of Hope. For more information on WISC or events follow them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email them directly at umnwisc@umn.edu.

Gao gives invited presentations in China

March 6, 2014

GaoZ-pref Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), traveled to Shanghai, China this week and delivered two invited presentations at two highly-ranked universities.

Gao presented and discussed research regarding physical activity interventions and health at Shanghai Jiaotong University. He also delivered a two hour lecture titled, “Physical Activity Epidemiology Research,” at East China Normal University.

WTIP interviews Stoffregen on motion sickness

March 6, 2014

Professor of kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) Dr. Thomas A. Stoffregen recently participated in a interview on radio station WTIP, a North Shore Community Radio Station in Cook County, Minnesota. The interview focused on motion sickness in a variety of situations: cars, ships, video games, and tablet computers.

Stoffregen, along with graduate students Yi-Chou Chen, and Frank Koslucher, recently published a piece in Experimental Brain Research on motion sickness in mobile devices. The study was the first, anywhere, to document under controlled experimental conditions that mobile devices (in this case, iPads) give rise to motion sickness.

Listen to full the interview here.

RPLS senior profiled following study abroad trip to Tanzania

March 6, 2014

Mary Russell a Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies (RPLS) senior, studied abroad during a two-week excursion to Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania this past winter break. The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) featured her travels in, “Traveling Tanzania: Catching up with Mary Russell.”

During her trip Russell went on a summit to Mt. Kilimanjaro and went on a multiple safaris in surrounding national parks. She described her trip as unreal and extremely memorable. Russell ended with this travel recommendation, “Be present and search out authentic experiences.”

To find out more about studying abroad in Tanzania in this video!

Photo courtesy of: CEHD Undergrad Experience

Kask shares experiences from Paralympics in Sochi

March 4, 2014

Kask Live

Jason Kask, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the School of Kinesiology, arrived in Sochi, Russia, on March 2, 2014. He is a part of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Ski Team as a service technician in the 2014 Paralympics. Kask and another technician are responsible for preparing the athletes’ skis, a process that involves managing the fleet of test skis, finding the best wax, and understanding the structure and grid for each race.

Updates about his experiences in Sochi will appear on the School of Kinesiology’s ALL THINGS KINSIDERED blog. View his first update here. His adventures can also be found on Twitter by following @JasonKask.

Kihl to publish in Evaluation and Program Planning

February 28, 2014

Lisa Kihl, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology, published the article titled, “Evaluation of a cross-sector community initiative partnership: Delivering a local sport program,” in Evaluation and Program Planning. This article examined the implementation and operational processes in the delivery of a professional sport organization’s corporate community initiative using program theory evaluation.

Kihl’s colleagues include: Dr. Scott Tainsky, University of Illinois; Dr. Kathy Babiak, University of Michigan; and Dr. Hyejin Bang, Florida International University.

SMGT students compete in Media Plan Case Competition

February 28, 2014

Students in the School of Kinesiology’s Sport Management courses recently participated in the Media Plan Case Competition, the first round of the Media Scholars Program. Run by the Washington Media Scholars Foundation, the competition challenges students to think strategically, dive into the deep-end of marketing impressions, and work with numbers and budgets.

Students in the Sport Management Senior Seminar class paired off and submitted 11 projects to be evaluated for the qualifying round of the MediaPlan Case Competition. Four teams were selected to move on to round two as well as one team from the introductory Sport Management class. Seniors Zach Chase and Justin Malloy, Seongman An and Jinki Hong, Casey Berens and Tyler Getman, Kathryn Wallskog and Wade Hofmeister as well as underclassmen Victoria Taubner were all selected to move on to the second round. Continue reading “SMGT students compete in Media Plan Case Competition”

Wilson publishes pair of articles

February 26, 2014

Doctoral candidate Patrick Wilson recently had an article published in both the South African Medical Journal (SAMJ) and Complementary Therapies in Medicine. The piece in SAMJ is a commentary titled, “A balanced approach to interpreting the WHIRCDMT,” which counters another article by Professor Tim Noakes, a well-known exercise physiologist from South Africa. The articles debate the results of the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial, the largest ever intervention trial to examine the effects of a low-fat diet on cancer and cardiovascular disease in women.

The second publication, published in the February issue of Complementary Therapies in Medicine, is titled, “Is dietary supplementation more common among adults with psoriasis? Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” This article examined the prevalence of dietary supplement use in the general population among individuals with the auto-immune disease psoriasis.

Wilson’s advisers are Dr. Stacy Ingraham and Dr. Eric Snyder.

Kask wins 2014 Puoli Loppet 20k

February 21, 2014

Doctoral student Jason Kask, won the 2014 City of the Lakes Loppet Festival, Puoli Loppet – Classic 20k on February 1. Out of 168 contestants Kask led with a time of 1:10:35, averaging 5:41 per mile.

The 20-kilometer race for skiers began at Theodore Wirth Park and ended at Loppet Village near Lake Calhoun Center.

Dengel co-investigator on $3.1 million NIH grant

February 13, 2014

Dr. Donald Dengel, professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP), is a co-investigator on a grant funded by the National Institutes of Health. The five-year grant, worth over $3.1 million, is titled “Training Effects on Skeletal Muscle Lipid Dynamics” and will examine the effects of aerobic exercise training on fat stored in muscle.

Gao publishes two papers as lead author, one as co-author

February 12, 2014

GaoZ-pref Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), recently published two articles as the lead author and one piece as a co-author.

One article appears in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health and is titled , “Effects of exergaming based exercise on urban children’s physical activity participation and body composition.” This study examined the impact of an exergaming-based program on urban children’s physical activity participation, body composition and perceptions of the program.

The second article, “The Influence of Student Teaching on Physical Education Student Teachers’ Self-efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Beliefs,”was published in the Journal of Teaching, Research, and Media in Kinesiology. This study found that the student teaching experiences had a positive effect on physical education student teachers’ beliefs during this crucial early stage of their prospective teaching careers.

In addition, Gao co-authored a research paper that was published in International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport, and Dance Journal of Research. The piece was titled, “Epistemic-motivational profiles of fitness in high school physical education: Implications on indices of fitness engagement.”

Dengel, Wiese-Bjornstal discuss concussions and helmet use in MN Daily

February 12, 2014

quarterback-67701_640 Professor Donald Dengel and associate professor Diane Wiese-Bjornstal were both mentioned in Minnesota Daily article, “Helmet use impacts concussions.” The article examines whether or not different helmets can impact the risk of concussion in football. Researchers at the Virginia Tech preliminarily found that, in fact, different helmets can affect the rate of concussions among football players.

Related to this research, Dengel’s NFL Charities grant researching multiple concussions is quoted as well his hope that his research work will lead to better diagnostics and monitoring of concussions. Wiese-Bjornstal, a sport psychologist who specializes in sport injuries, notes that concussions often have a mental long-term side effects, like depression or memory loss.

Lupinek guest lectures at UConn

February 7, 2014

Doctoral student Joshua Lupinek was a guest lecturer at the Neag College of Education at the University of Connecticut this past week.

Lupinek’s lectures were titled, “The sport of risk: Investment risk, measurement, and management of the Sochi Olympics,” (EKIN 3354, Financial Management in the Sport Industry) and “Marketing for the fans: Marketing the Ps within sport facilities,” (EKIN 3325, Sport Facility & Event Management).

Lupinek utilized Flipgrid, an application built by the LT Media Lab within the College of Education and Human Development. Prior to his talks and he had each student post a 90-second video on a current story which contained an element of investment risk, investment measurement, or investment management. To end his lecture Lupinek had the class watch and discuss the most “liked” Flipgrid posts.

Dengel speaks at Coalition for Concussion Treatment’s Concussion Awareness Summit

February 6, 2014

Dr. Donald Dengel, professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP), recently spoke on “Emerging Diagnostic Tools and Potential Therapies Under Investigation” at the Coalition for Concussion Treatment’s Concussion Awareness Summit held at the United Nations in New York City on January 29, 2014.

Konczak named to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurophysiology

February 6, 2014

konczakJ Jürgen Konczak, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, has been invited to serve on the Editorial Board of Journal of Neurophysiology. Konczak will serve a three-year term starting on July 1, 2014.

Published by the American Physiological Society, the Journal of Neurophysiology publishes original articles on the function of the nervous system. All levels of function are included, from the membrane and cell to systems and behavior. Since 1938 it has published many of the now classical papers in neuroscience and has remained one of the foremost journals in the discipline of neuroscience.

Graduate students, Wiese-Bjornstal participate in STEAM activities

January 30, 2014

Steam School of Kinesiology graduate students Sam Moore and Andrew White, along with Dr. Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, associate professor of kinesiology, participated in STEAM Capstone Project Expert Day at Jackson Middle School in Champlin, Minn., on Wednesday, January 29. They presented to eighth graders on the topic, “Sports injuries: Don’t let them get you down,” speaking about new technologies in sports injury prevention, the mental aspects of sport injury, and the medical care of sports injuries.

APAL research links mobile devices to motion sickness

January 30, 2014

StoffregenT-2013-thumb-200x240-167170 — Professor Stoffregen

“Motion control, motion sickness, and the postural dynamics of mobile devices” by Professor Thomas A. Stoffregen, director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL), Yi-Chou Chen, and Frank Koslucher, was accepted for publication in Experimental Brain Research. Chen and Koslucher are both graduate students in the School of Kinesiology and work in APAL under Dr. Stoffregen’s supervision.

The study is the first, anywhere, to document under controlled experimental conditions that mobile devices (in this case, iPads) give rise to motion sickness. The research also showed that the risk of motion sickness is greatly reduced when the device is used in “tilt control” mode, that is, when users control the app by manually tilting the device, rather than controlling the app exclusively through the touchscreen interface.

SMGT faculty and student describe Texas Bowl turnout in the Daily

January 24, 2014

Dr. Stephen Ross, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology, and Slade Williams, senior sport management student, weighed in on the great student turnout at this year’s Texas Bowl game in a Minnesota Daily article.
In the article, “Student attendance numbers up for Texas Bowl,” Williams said, “It was exciting to see the growth – the number of students who attended compared to last year.” Williams added that he would recommend the trip to others because it was special college experience. Three buses filled with students traveled down to Houston to support the Golden Gophers in a competitive face off with the Syracuse Orange football team. Dr. Ross explained that the increase in ticket sales was due to the name change of the bowl, the Gopher’s win-lose record, and Syracuse’s reputation.

Continue reading “SMGT faculty and student describe Texas Bowl turnout in the Daily”

Kinesiology student helps dance team win national championship

January 23, 2014

Coached by new head coach Amanda Gaines, the University of Minnesota Dance Team won its fifth College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship this past weekend. Senior and kinesiology student Grace Gerring spoke highly of teammates and coaches commenting, “It has been such an enjoyable experience, and I couldn’t have done it without amazing coaches and teammates standing by me every step of the way.” Gerring, a member of the team for four years, said the coaches have spent the year perfecting the basics and remembering why they began dancing.

Continue reading “Kinesiology student helps dance team win national championship”

CEHD News Kinesiology

CEHD News Kinesiology