Please join us in-person or through Zoom this Friday, March 25, from 3:30 to 4:30 pm for this month’s KIP Seminar.
This event is co-sponsored by CLS, KIP, and CSA, and is sponsored in part by the Michigan Tech Visiting Professor Program, which is funded by a grant to the Office of the Provost from the State of Michigan’s King-Chavez-Parks Initiative.
Please see the flyer for more details about Dr. Rupa Valdez and for the Zoom link.
KIP 1500 Foundations of Kinesiology and KIP 3700 Lifetime Fitness are courses that will introduce you to topics and information surrounding subjects such as coaching, exercise physiology, biomechanics, lifestyle management, and more. Check out the flyers below for complete details.
Please contact Tayler Haapapuro (tmhaapap@mtu.edu or 906.487.3169) with any questions or if you would like more information.
Faculty members Dr. Kelly Kamm and Dr. Steve Elmer, along with PhD student Isaac Wedig, were featured in the latest edition of Kinesiology Today, which is a quarterly publication of the American Kinesiology Association.
The article discusses how the KIP department has become a resource for Michigan Tech and the Upper Peninsula during the pandemic for factual, evidence-based information. Also noted is the three-step initiative that the students and faculty have executed to achieve success in broadcasting their message.
To read the full article, follow the link to the 2022 Winter Edition of Kinesiology Today.
This post is dedicated to showcasing the research of master’s students Carmen Scarfone and Isaac Lennox, and PhD student Isaac Wedig. Carmen and Isaac presented their work to colleagues and faculty during February’s KIP Seminar. Read their abstract on what they found from analyzing Exercise is Medicine on Campus programs throughout the United States.
Exercise is Medicine on Campus: A National Analysis and Implications for Rural Health
Carmen J. Scarfone, Isaac M. Lennox, Isaac J. Wedig
Physical inactivity is in itself, is a major public health issue. Four out of every five US adults do not meet the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate level intensity. In rural, non-metro areas, physical activity is even lower than the national average. To counteract these public health problems, the ACSM created Exercise is Medicine on Campus (EIM-OC), which is a global health initiative that calls upon colleges and universities to promote and increase physical activities. Exercise is Medicine on Campus fulfills this by promoting the health benefits of physical activity through bronze level status, and the use of education initiatives for silver level campuses. Gold level campuses take it a step further by incorporating exercise as a vital sign in the clinical setting.
Our purpose was to perform a National analysis of the 131 recognized EIM-OC programs in the United States. The programs were stratified by state, as well as metro and non-metro counties defined by the United States department of agriculture. Of 131 U.S. colleges and universities with a recognized EIM-OC program, 59 were gold, 53 were silver, and 19 were bronze level status. Thirty-five states had at least one EIM-OC program. Stratified by state, the most EIM-OC programs were California (12), Pennsylvania (9), and Michigan (8). Twenty-six states had at least one EIM-OC gold level program with California (7) and Michigan (5) having the most. The average population for a city with an EIM-OC program was 274,071 and 237,755 for cities with gold programs. Our analysis found that out of the 131 U.S. colleges and universities with a recognized EIM-OC program, only 11 of the 150 or 8% of all EIM-OC programs are located in non-metro counties. Additionally, only 6 out of 59 or 10% of gold EIM-OC programs are located in non-metro counties.
Two thirds or about 66% of US states have an EIM-OC program – however, 92% are located in metro counties. Efforts to promote physical activity during the pandemic are especially important in rural communities, where over 46 million Americans reside. Compared to urban and suburban residents, those living in rural areas have lower physical activity levels. Even though rural communities typically possess fewer resources, the U.S. Department of Education identifies over 500 colleges and universities that are located in rural areas. These institutions may be able to help provide valuable resources for promoting and facilitating physical activity in their surrounding rural communities such as Michigan Technological university starting the Up and Moving Program.
Please join us on Friday, February 4, from 3 to 4 pm through Zoom for a special student-led presentation.
KIP graduate students will be presenting their research to a virtual audience. Everyone is welcome to attend, and all attendees are encouraged to participate as the students field questions during their presentations.
Please see the flyer below for more details and for the Zoom meeting information.
The speakers and presentations have been finalized for the spring semester’s KIP Seminar Series.
We hope that you join us for the presentations. Stay tuned for future announcements with more details about each seminar!
Dr. Kelly Kamm was recognized at the 16th annual Fraternity and Sorority Life Awards Ceremony on January 23 at the Rozsa Center. Order of Omega, the Greek Life Honor Society, coordinates the event to honor exceptional faculty and staff, who are nominated by individual students and supported by entire sororities and fraternities.
All of the nominees and winners can be found in Tech Today’s announcement of the ceremony.
Congratulations to Dr. Kamm on this well-deserved award!
Deedra Irwin has been named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team. She was at Michigan Tech from 2010 to 2015 while earning her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with a Coaching minor.
Congratulations to Deedra and wishing her the best of luck when the Biathlon competes February 5-19 at the 2022 Beijing Olympics in the Zhangjiakou Zone!
To read more about Deedra’s accomplishments and career highlights, find the full announcement on the Michigan Tech Athletics website.
KIP’s COVID-19 Graduate Student Team published a letter to the editor online in December 2021. The publication will also appear in print in the March 2022 issue of Advances in Physiology Education. The contributing students include Ashley Hawke (PhD student), Xinqian Chen (PhD student), Isaac Lennox (MS student), Carmen Scarfone (MS student), Isaac Wedig (PhD student), and Jamie Phillips (DPT student). The full publication can be read on the Advances in Physiology Education website.
KIP alum and current Central Michigan University DPT student, Jamie Phillips wrote a blog post on blood flow restriction and the Tokyo Olympics that was posted on the American Physiological Society’s I Spy Physiology Blog.
What started out as a simple class project in Professor Steven Elmer’s Advanced Exercise Physiology course, has turned into something much more impactful. Led by doctoral student Ashley Hawke, the team of graduate students (Ashley Hawke, Xinqian Chen, Isaac Lennox, Carmen Scarfone) created the video “Staying Healthy and Safe During Covid-19” to provide: 1) updates on latest COVID-19 trends, 2) recommendations on how to stay safe, 3) travel tips, and 4) strategies to maintain physical and mental health.
The video stresses the importance of relying on credible information from sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, educational institutions, and non-biased news sources. The two-minute YouTube video offers a COVID-19 snapshot and has been circulated on campus and in the community. It has also been featured in the Daily Mining Gazette, Keweenaw Report, and on ABC 10 TV, and posted on the Western UP Health Department, Copper Country Strong, UP COVID-19 Town Hall, and Frontline UPdates Joint Information Center social media pages.
With Michigan COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations recently reaching an all-time high, communication of health information to help keep the campus and community safe and healthy is critical. Rural communities continue to face challenges, as they typically have a limited number of medical providers, hospital services, and public health resources compared to urban communities. “These students leveraged their broad-based training in health science to contribute to the COVID-19 response in their community,” explained Elmer.
Elmer also emphasized that the students’ video was in response to the US Surgeon General’s Advisory Statement to Build a Healthy Information Environment. The Advisory Statement tasks educators, researchers, and professionals to confront misinformation and help improve the quality of health information so that community members can make informed decisions about the health of themselves, their family, and community.
Isaac Lennox, a master’s student who aims to become a physician specializing in family medicine and rural health, explained that in addition to the video, the team created a COVID-19 resource website page along with a bi-monthly COVID-19 infographic for students, staff, and faculty in the department. With the rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic and amount of misinformation circulating, it can be difficult to keep up and stay informed. The student team collaborated with Assistant Professor Kelly Kamm, an expert in infectious disease and epidemiology in the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, to ensure accuracy of all materials created.
To stay safe during this pandemic, especially with the upcoming holiday season, the students encourage everyone to get vaccinated and get a booster shot if you are already vaccinated. They also recommend following the 4 W’s whenever possible – Wear a mask, Wash your hands, Watch your distance, and Walk to stay physically active. Looking ahead, the team of students will continue to do their part and use their expertise to help both the campus and community. As future health professionals, they want to learn as much as they can from the current pandemic, so they are better prepared to lead during the next pandemic. The COVID-19 video can be accessed here and on the MTU “Unscripted Research Blog.”