Applications due for Awards for IPE Innovation and Excellence
The Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education has announced the second annual call for nominations for Awards for IPE Innovation and Excellence. The awards were established to recognize students, faculty and teams who demonstrate excellence in teaching, scholarship or leadership with regard to implementing or developing innovative, effective and sustainable interprofessional education or interprofessional practice across the University of Michigan health sciences schools and practice settings. The faculty award is $1,000, and the student award is $500. If the winners are teams, the awards will be split accordingly. Awardees will be honored April 14 during a presentation at the Health Professions Education Day event. The deadline for nominations is noon Feb. 24. For more information, go to myumi.ch/LBY07.
Rackham invites higher education leaders to reimagine graduate education
The Rackham Graduate School will host a national symposium, “Advancing New Directions in Graduate Education,” from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Feb. 7 to discuss issues and share a new vision for graduate education. U-M has invited higher education leaders from top research universities to participate as panelists at the symposium, including representatives from U-M, Duke, Yale, MIT, Georgia Tech, University of California, Los Angeles, and UC, San Francisco, as well as several major foundations and research organizations. Rackham Dean Mike Solomon said it is time to look at how universities have traditionally taught those earning advanced degrees, in light of current opportunities for graduates and the pressures on higher education. Learn more about “Advancing New Directions in Graduate Education” at myumi.ch/mnA2z, and register at myumi.ch/lxgrp.
School of Nursing launches new branding campaign
The School of Nursing has launched a new branding campaign, “We Dare,” to highlight how the school’s students, faculty, alumni and staff make an impact in the health care field and beyond. Officials said the “We Dare” branding capitalizes on an opportunity for the school to not only distinguish itself in a highly competitive environment, but also connect members of its own community through a relatable and empowering message. “At the U-M School of Nursing, we dare every day, using our knowledge, skills, innovation and compassion to advance the public good and prepare nurses who will reinvent health care,” Dean Patricia D. Hurn said. Learn more about the campaign at myumi.ch/lxg3Q.
New online certification program offers teachers technology training
A new online certification program from the School of Education, developed in partnership with the Center for Academic Innovation, offers current K-12 teachers, technology coaches and administrators the opportunity to learn how to effectively integrate technology into classroom teaching so that it adds value to learning. The Advanced Educational Technologies Certificate Program focuses on the pedagogy behind effectively using technology in the classroom, rather than just on the use of specific tech tools. The semester-long certification launched as a pilot in January with 18 people who are in K-12 positions across the United States, plus a few U-M students. Successful participants will earn a U-M Advanced Education Technology Certificate and 45 hours of the State of Michigan Continuing Education Clock Hour credit. The program will accept new participants this fall.
Research: ACL tears cause harmful changes in brain structure
New research from the School of Kinesiology shows that structural changes in the brains of patients who underwent ACL reconstruction can hinder recovery and may contribute to performance deficits and re-injury, according to study co-author Lindsey Lepley, assistant professor of athletic training. Lepley and colleague Adam Lepley, clinical assistant professor of athletic training, took MRI brain scans of 10 ACL-reconstructed patients. The scans showed that part of the corticospinal tract — the pathway that scuttles messages from the brain to muscles — had atrophied in the patients. The corticospinal tract runs from front to back through both hemispheres of the brain. The side that controlled the ACL-reconstructed knee was about 15 percent smaller than on the uninjured side, meaning less information can get from the brain to the muscle, researchers said.
WCED to start publishing political science newsletter
The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies will be the new publisher of Democracy and Autocracy, the newsletter of members of the American Political Science Association’s organized section of the same name. Previously published at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden as The Annals of Comparative Democratization, the newsletter moved to U-M under executive editors Dan Slater, director of the Weiser Center, professor of political science, and Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies; and Robert Mickey, associate professor of political science. Volume 18 of Democracy and Autocracy will be released in February, and will address the theme, “Is democracy promotion dead?” Contributing authors will gather for a panel discussion at 4 p.m. Feb. 4 in Room 1010 of Weiser Hall.
— Compiled by Ann Zaniewski, The University Record
