USTF Student Nate Moyer Presents Health Education and Activities

For my HEAL-405 (Teaching Methods in Health Education K-12) class we got the opportunity to present several different health activities at the 2018 VAHPERD (Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance) conference in Virginia Beach.  We prepared for this presentation weeks in advance, and practiced our health activities many times in class, and even once at a different professional development session for Prince William County Health & Physical Education teachers.  So, we had a lot of time and opportunity to refine the presentation and feel confident in the activities that we presented at the conference. 

It was very important for our class to present at the VAHPERD conference because Health education is currently advancing and it now more focused on teaching students health skills.  For many years Health education has centered around teaching students from Kindergarten through 12^th grade health information only.  However, teachers have been missing out on teaching students how to be skillful with this information.  Our class taught four different health activities that Health & Physical Education teachers can utilize in their classrooms and each one focused on one or several health skills that are featured in Virginia curriculum.  These health skills consist of decision making, interpersonal communication, self-management, analyzing influences, goal-setting, advocacy, and accessing valid and reliable information.  The teachers from all around Virginia that came to our presentation got to learn four activities that each focused on one or more of these health skills.  This is wonderful because then hundreds of students of all different ages all around Virginia are going to get new health activities to help them learn valuable health skills that they can utilize for life.

I also learned a lot about presenting at conferences and to other teachers.  We were unaware of exactly what our presentation room would look like, or how many people would attend our session.  This meant that we had to adjust our activities, and the flow of our presentation without a lot of time.  The room was smaller than we expected, so for my partner and I’s station we had to move our tables out of the way to the corner of the room until it was our turn to present our activity.  We also decided at the last minute to present each activity one at a time, as opposed to breaking the teachers up into stations and having them rotate.  This experience was great, because these are the exact same challenges that we will be presented with daily as Health & Physical Education teachers. 

Finally, I also learned to present my material confidently.  The idea of myself, as a college student, presenting an activity to professional teachers that are experienced is nerve-racking.  However, I felt confident in the activity that my partner and I were presenting, and I knew that we had prepared and practiced our activity enough that it would be very valuable to the participants in our presentation.  This helped make our presentation run smoothly, and it helped to show the value of our lesson more effectively to the teachers.  Overall, presenting at the VAHPERD conference was a great experience, and has encouraged me to find more opportunities in the future to be a leader in the Physical Education field.     

USTF Student Henry Brown Researches Goal Setting through the Game of Golf Ball

My HEAL 405 class presented at VAHPERD on how to teach skills in health. My partner and I focused on goal setting by presenting the game Goal ball. The audience wrote their goals on a half sheet of paper and then crumbled it up and threw it at a target. Then randomly they picked up a ball and revised the current goal into a SMART goal. They found the owner and explained why the SMART goal will help achieve their larger goal. After presenting we were able to visit other presentation, talk to other people in the field of physical education, and visit different exhibitors to help us bring different ideas to our teaching. I look forward to coming back as a physical educator next year to learn more and improve my teaching.

USTF Student Kara Partlow Presents Teaching Skills in Health

My few of my fellow classmates and I were able to present at the Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance conference in Virginia Beach. At this conference we presented on the topic of “Teaching Skills in Health”. My topic that I presented with a peer was on the topic of interpersonal management and communication. It focused on how negative words or the downgrading of others can not only affect ourselves but also the people we are communicating with. This was a really great experience for us. We were able to present new activity ideas to current physical education teachers as well as learn new ideas and activities as future educators. This conference was also a great opportunity to network with current teachers and other peers in not only our career field but also out state. 

USTF Student Abdulaziz Albahkali Attends the Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society

This year, Atlanta, Georgia hosted the annual meeting for the biomedical engineering society where academics, corporate leaders and healthcare providers, in biomedical engineering, gather. The things I gained through this meeting were experience, networking with people, and career development.This meeting was also a good experience to meet and talk with colleges and graduate schools from around the county. 

USTF Student Nora Malatinszky Studies the Link between Cheating and Cultural Corruption from Post-regime Change in Hungary

Throughout the past semester, I have been conducting an individualized study in which I researched the cultures of corruption. I wrote an academic paper concerning a case study on the link between cheating and cultural corruption in the case of post-regime change Hungary. While completing this work, I organized a panel of academics to present their work beside mine at the International Studies Association Northeast conference. I included a professor from James Madison University, a professor from Drexel University, a senior visiting scholar of George Mason University from the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and a PhD candidate from the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. In addition to my role as panel organizer and moderator, I successfully presented on my paper entitled, “Setting Up for Failure: Comparing Patterns of Cheating to Rooted Corruption in the Case of Post-Regime Change Hungary.” The conference also gave me the opportunity to view other panel presentations on topics such as global health and the role of gender in the international discourse of modern society. It was great to have the opportunity to dip my feet into the field of academia, which is where I hope to work at some point in the future. Overall, the ISA-NE conference was an exciting and educational experience for me.