Friday, April 29th, members of Michigan Tech’s administration and legislative representatives broke ground on the new H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex, which will house the KIP department when it’s complete in 2024.
Read more about the ceremony and the state-of-the-art building in the Daily Mining Gazette’s article.
Dr. Elmer was appointed to serve on the American Physiological Society Science Policy Committee beginning next spring for a three-year term.
This national committee advocates for sound science policies at the federal level to advance the interests of physiological science and the broader scientific community. He was nominated for this committee largely based on his efforts with the COVID-19 Town Hall Series and also his involvement on the executive committee with the Michigan Physiological Society.
The KIP department congratulates our graduate students, undergraduate students, and alum for their recent accomplishments. Our compliments go out to them and the faculty who support their efforts.
Undergraduate Students
Megan Keranen and Leah Preston earned 2nd and 3rd place awards for the top World Water Day Presentations. PFAS Groundwater Contamination in Michigan
The Physical Impacts of Water Carrying in Relation to Groundwater
MS Students
Isaac Lennox and Carmen Scarfone were awarded the Midwest American College of Sports Medicine President’s Cup Award for their Exercise is Medicine on campus research. They will now travel to the National ACSM Meeting to compete against the other regional winners for the National-Level President’s Cup Award. This is one of the most prestigious student awards through the ACSM.
Exercise is Medicine on Campus: A National Analysis and Implications for Rural Health
PhD Students
Isaac Wedig was awarded 1st place for one of the top oral presentations at the MTU Graduate Student Research Colloquium. A Practical Application of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise
Alumni Josh Gonzalez had part of his dissertation research accepted for publication in American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, a very reputable APS physiology journal. Gonzalez JE and Cooke WH. The influence of an acute fast on ambulatory blood pressure and autonomic cardiovascular control. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. In Press, 2022.
Michigan Tech University is one of only 156 universities and colleges around the world to be honored by Exercise is Medicine® for its efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus. Michigan Tech’s “UP and Moving” Program housed in the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology played a large part in helping the university to earn a silver level designation from the Exercise is Medicine® On Campus (EIM-OC) program. The University also increased awareness of the health benefits of physical activity through a series of public seminars and town hall presentations.
“We are thrilled to recognize these campuses’ commitment to make movement a part of daily campus culture and equip students with tools to cultivate lifelong physical activity habits, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Robyn Stuhr, vice president of Exercise is Medicine. “These campus programs are nurturing future leaders who will advance a key tenet of Exercise is Medicine: making physical activity assessment and promotion a standard in health care.”
For substantial health benefits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults engage in at least 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity each week and limit the amount of time spent sitting. To facilitate physical activity on campus and in the community, the UP and Moving program offers free virtual home-based workouts to keep students, staff, faculty, and community members active. Steven Elmer, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, emphasized, “Engaging in regular physical activity promotes good physical and mental health, improves quality of life, and reduces risk for chronic conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Importantly, regular physical activity also lowers risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes.”
The home-based workouts do not require any specialized equipment and are easily adapted to fit a wide range of ages and ability levels. Workouts are led by a team of graduate students (Isaac Wedig, Carmen Scarfone, Isaac Lennox) at Michigan Tech and range from muscle strengthening exercise (i.e., weightlifting) to aerobic exercise (i.e., walking) to yoga and everything in between. The live workouts are also recorded and available to watch anytime on the program’s website and YouTube Channel. “Moving forward, the UP and Moving program at Michigan Tech aims to partner with local health care providers to establish physical activity as a health vital sign,” explained Isaac Lennox, a master’s student in Kinesiology.
Of the 153 campuses recognized this year, 73 received gold, 60 silver and 23 bronze. All gold, silver and bronze universities and colleges will be officially recognized on June 1 as part of the 2022 Exercise is Medicine World Congress, held in conjunction with the American College of Sports Medicine’s Annual Meeting. Professor William Cooke, ACSM Fellow and Acting Chair of the Department of Kinesiology & Integrative Physiology at Michigan Tech, said, “faculty and students in our department were instrumental in educating both university and community members about the necessity of activity during the worst of the pandemic. The positive response we received from their outreach efforts was overwhelming.”
EIM-OC calls upon universities and colleges to promote physical activity as a vital sign of health and encourages faculty, staff, and students to work together to improve the health and well-being of the campus community. EIM-OC launched its recognition program in 2014 to honor campuses for their efforts to create a culture of wellness. Schools earn gold, silver or bronze status based on their activities. Gold level campuses have created a referral system where campus health care providers assess students’ physical activity and refer students as necessary to a certified fitness professional as part of medical treatment. Silver campuses engage students, faculty and staff in education initiatives and make movement part of the daily campus culture while bronze level campuses promote and generate awareness of the health benefits of physical activity.
View a complete list of EIM-OC recognized schools at the Exercise is Medicine website and learn more about the UP and Moving program at UP and Moving’s website.
About Exercise Is Medicine
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) co-launched Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) in 2007 with the American Medical Association. ACSM continues to manage the global health initiative, which seeks to make physical activity assessment and promotion a standard in clinical care, connecting health care with evidence-based physical activity resources for people everywhere of all abilities. EIM is committed to the belief that physical activity promotes optimal health, is integral in the prevention and treatment of many medical conditions and should be regularly assessed and included as part of health care. Visit www.ExerciseisMedicine.org for additional information.
About the American College of Sports Medicine
The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 50,000 international, national and regional members and certified professionals are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine. More details at www.acsm.org
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.
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.
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.”