STEM Education Center’s Ying-Chih Chen will be awarded the 2014 NARST Outstanding Paper Award for his paper, “Tracing Elementary Students’ Use of Talk and Writing for Knowledge Development through Argument-Based Inquiry”. Chen will be presented with a plaque at the Awards Luncheon held during the 2014 NARST International conference on April 1st, 2014 in Pittsburgh, PA.
Ying-Chih Chen will also be receiving the Jhumki Basu Equity Scholars Award at the 2014 NARST International conference. Chen will present his research at the Jhumki Basu Scholars Symposium and receive his award at that time. He is also encouraged to attend the Equity and Ethics Committee Pre-conference workshop for scholars from underrepresented groups as well as other Equity and Ethics events.
Please join us in congratulating Ying-Chih Chen on his hard work and well-deserved honors!
SSW’s Lee receives Department of Defense health award for ovarian cancer research project
Hee Yun Lee, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Social Work, and Dr. Melissa Geller, gynecologic oncologist at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, received the Ovarian Cancer Pilot Award from the U.S. Department of Defense Health Program. The overall goal of the award is to eliminate ovarian cancer by supporting innovative, high-impact research.
Lee and Geller were awarded $225,000 over two years for the project, which aims to develop and assess an intervention using mobile phone technology to promote genetic counseling among women with ovarian cancer and their families.
Tamara Moore to receive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Dr. Tamara Moore of the STEM Education Center will be awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Dr. Moore will receive her award during a ceremony held in Washington, D.C., in the coming year.
Dr. Moore is currently the principal investigator of an 8 million dollar grant awarded by the National Science Foundation titled EngrTEAMS: Engineering to Transform the Education of Analysis, Measurement, and Science in a Team-Based Targeted Mathematics-Science Partnership. The grant is one of the many Dr. Moore has been awarded while at the STEM Education Center. To learn more about EngrTEAMS click here.
The Presidential Early Career Awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy.
“The impressive achievements of these early-stage scientists and engineers are promising indicators of even greater successes ahead,” President Obama said. “We are grateful for their commitment to generating the scientific and technical advancements that will ensure America’s global leadership for many years to come.”
For more information about this award please read the official press release from the White House.
Karl Smith to talk at the Board on Science Education’s Winter Meeting
Dr. Karl Smith, Co-Director of the STEM Education Center, will speak at the Board on Science Education’s winter meeting in Irvine CA on January 16th-17th, 2014. The Board on Science Education is interested in exploring what is known about preparing undergraduate college students for team science, including areas of overlap between the general goals of undergraduate STEM education and the competencies required for team science. Relating to his experiences working at the University of Minnesota, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and other institutions, Dr. Karl Smith will discuss the characteristics of and relationship between high performance teamwork and high quality learning environments as well as theoretical, conceptual and empirical foundations to teams such as the social interdependence theory & social cognitive theory.
For more information on the Board of Science Education please visit their website.
STEM Graduate Students Receive NARST Jhumki Basu Equity Scholars Award!
The STEM Education Center would like to congratulate Shiyu Liu and Devarati Bhattacharya for receiving the 2014 Jhumki Basu Equity Scholars Award presented by the NARST Equity and Ethics Committee.
The award includes a $700 stipend for travel expenses to attend the 2014 NARST International conference in Pittsburgh, PA, March 30-April 2, 2014. Both Shiyu and Devarati will present their research at the Jhumki Basu Scholars Symposium held during the conference and will receive their award at this time. They are also encouraged to attend the Equity and Ethics Committee Pre-conference workshop for scholars from underrepresented groups as well as other Equity and Ethics events.
Please join us in congratulating our hard working graduate students!
Guest speakers, Moje and Enciso visit C&I seminars
This past fall, Dr. Elizabeth Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Education at the University of Michigan, and Dr. Patricia Enciso, Professor of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University discussed their work with PhD students in two Curriculum and Instruction seminars on Sociocultural Theory, Education, and Literacy (taught by Cynthia Lewis) and Research in Reading (taught by David O’Brien).
Enciso and Moje discussed their partnerships with schools in Columbus and Detroit to enhance the literacy learning of immigrant and racially minoritized youth through storytelling and other arts-based pedagogies as well as through supporting the complex navigations youth accomplish as they move across home, community, and school spaces. Enciso, Moje, and Lewis are collaborating on a second book focused on critical sociocultural theory and literacy research.
Their visits were arranged by Cynthia Lewis, Professor of Literacy Education. and sponsored by the Emma Birkmaier Speaker Series in Critical Literacy and Urban Education. To learn more about the Speaker Series, please see the description on the C&I News and Events page.
Dengel and Bosch honored for research article
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Dr. Donald Dengel, professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP) [pictured above], and Tyler Bosch, doctoral candidate [pictured below] were recipients of the Scientific Manuscript Excellence Honor: Gary A. Dudley Memorial Paper for their article, “Body Composition and Bone Mineral Density of National Football League Players.” This article was recently published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
The Gary A. Dudley Memorial Paper is one of the highest honors the National Strength and Conditioning Association gives for scholarship and is named after one of the true pioneers in modern exercise physiology research. Their unique work examined the body composition of National Football League (NFL) players before the start of their regular season. Their results serve as a template for future studies when examining fat, lean, and bone mass in NFL players.
Lewis discusses grading rubrics
On November 22, Cynthia Lewis, Emma Birkmaier Professor in Educational Leadership, participated in a teaching with writing panel, “Grading Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” as part of the Engaging Controversies Series sponsored by the Center for Writing.
Lewis drew on her research to caution against the use of grading rubrics, arguing that they make false assumptions about learning. Grading rubrics position learning as outcome driven rather than problem driven, thus reducing the richness and learning potential of the problem space and deterring students from taking the kind of risks that deepen learning for fear of receiving a lower score.
Visit Cynthia Lewis’ profile to learn more about her research.
Gao and Dengel are co-investigators on AHC Seed Grant
Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), and Dr. Donald Dengel, professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP), are co-investigators of a recently funded Academic Health Center Seed Grant titled, “Effect of a Home-based Fitness Intervention on Cardiometabolic Risk Profile in Pediatric Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).” This seed grant is a pilot feasibility study to collect preliminary data for a large-scale exergaming intervention in children undergoing maintenance therapy for ALL.
Ji receives grant from PepsiCo
Li Li Ji, Ph.D., director of the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science (LPHES), recently received a nearly $200,000 grant from PepsiCo to study the bioavailability and healthy benefits of oat avenanthramides (AVA), a phytoalexins that exist predominantly in the hulled kernels of oat seeds. Phytoalexins are any of various antimicrobial chemical substances produced by plants to combat infection by a pathogen.
The research involves testing participants’ ability to utilize AVA from dietary oat consumption to decrease systemic inflammation and muscle damage due to exercise as well as to increase antioxidant function and mental health indicators.
Richardson named to Twins Community Fund Board of Directors
Tiffany Richardson, Ph.D., lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, was recently named to the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Twins Community Fund.
The Twins Community Fund is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization created in 1991. The mission of the Fund is to enrich local and regional communities by providing resources for the healthy development of children and families through an association with baseball, softball and the Minnesota Twins.
Gao receives Grant-in-Aid for research on exergaming
Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), has recently has been awarded a Grant-in-Aid from the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research, for his work on exergaming.
Gao’s work is titled, “Effects of Exergaming on Urban Children’s Physical Activity and Body Composition,” and was designed to examine the impact of exergaming on underserved urban children’s physical activity levels and body composition, as well as mediating role of psychosocial beliefs on the effects of exergaming.
Allison weighs in on a buyout for NDSU’s head football coach
Rayla Allison, J.D., associate director and lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, commented on the buyout provision in a contract recently signed by North Dakota State University’s (NDSU) head football coach Craig Bohl.
In the article, “Expert doubts NDSU will hold Bohl to buyout payment,” Allison explains that if NDSU charges Bohl $100,000 for taking a coaching position at Wyoming that would do more harm than good. Arguing that it could negatively affect recruitment prospects for his replacement.
Kihl is invited to Minnesota Extension’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium Scholars program
Lisa Kihl, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology, has been invited to join the Scholars Program of the University of Minnesota Extension’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium (CYFC). Kihl was awarded $15,000 per year for four years to support her involvement in the Scholars Program and to help conduct a community based research project that will be examining how Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program impacts academic achievement.
High school students visit CCMS and HSPL
A group of students from Minneapolis Southwest and Minnetonka High School, who are part of their school’s exercise science courses, came to visit two of the School of Kinesiology’s research facilities on December 11. Students went to the Center for Clinical Movement Lab and the Human and Sport Performance Lab to get first-hand experiences and connect what they are learning in class with what occurs in the laboratories. Students then had the chance to take part in testing and research while asking questions and interacting with the researchers.
Wade gives invited lectures in China, reconnects with long-time colleague
Professor Michael Wade, Ph.D., recently visited the American Cultural Center for Sport at Tianjin University of Sport (TUS) and gave a lecture, “Life time motor development: Movement by design and movement that informs,” to over one hundred graduate students and faculty members.
TUS President Yao Jiaxin was Wade’s translator when he visited China in 1989. The visit served as a reunion and reflected a long history of academic exchange between the two countries. During the visit, Yao showed the old photos and letters of their previous meeting over two decades ago.
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Ostrem to publish in clinical physiology journal
Joe Ostrem, doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology, is the lead author of an article to be published in Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging. The article, “Comparison of baseline brachial artery measurements and effect on peak flow-mediated dilation,” examined the effect of alternate baseline measures of the brachial artery on measures of flow mediated dilation in 418 children and 533 adults.
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Dengel to publish research on effects of abdominal fat in children
Dr. Donald Dengel, professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology (LIHP), is a co-author of an article to be published in the journal of Clinical Obesity.
The article is titled, “The Relative Contributions of the Abdominal Visceral and Subcutaneous Fat Depots to Cardiometabolic Risk in Youth.” The research examined the effects of abdominal fat in children on the development of cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.
Continue reading “Dengel to publish research on effects of abdominal fat in children”
Gao has book chapters published
Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), recently had two chapters published in Current Issues in Contemporary Comparative Physical Education and Sport, edited by Martin Holzweg and John Saunders.
Gao is the first author in a chapter titled, “Relations of children’s hierarchical ability beliefs to their cardiovascular fitness, physical activity levels and persistence/effort.” This chapter examined the predictive strengths of children’s situational-specific ability beliefs (self-efficacy), contextual ability beliefs (competence beliefs), and global ability beliefs (perceived physical ability) on their cardiovascular fitness, in-class physical activity levels and persistence/effort. The findings suggest that self-efficacy was the best predictor of children’s cardiovascular fitness and physical activity levels. However, competence beliefs made more contribution to the prediction of children’s persistence/effort.
Ji gives keynote lecture at the Chinese Physiological Society meeting
Li Li Ji, Ph.D., director of the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science (LPHES), presented an invited keynote at the annual Chinese Physiological Society conference held in Guangzhou on November 8, 2013. The title of his lecture was “Physiological and pathological response of skeletal muscle to contraction and immobilization.”