Established as the Second State Normal School in 1858, it was designated in Mankato in 1866, and officially opened as Mankato Normal School in 1868. It is the second oldest member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. It is also the second largest university in the state, and has over 123,000 living alumni worldwide. It is the most comprehensive of the seven state universities and is referred to as the flagship of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. It is an important part of the economy of Southern Minnesota and the state, as it adds more than $781 million to the economy of Minnesota annually.Minnesota State offers 130 undergraduate programs of study, 75 graduate programs and 4 doctoral programs. It hosts the only nationally, regionally, and state accredited aviation program in Minnesota. Students are served by 750 full-time faculty members, creating a 21:1 student to faculty ratio. In addition to the main campus, it operates two satellite campuses: one in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina and the other in Owatonna. Through the College of Extended Learning it provides bachelor's degrees at the Normandale Partnership Center in Bloomington and programs online through an online campus..
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has been a viable technology for decades, yet widespread adoption in healthcare and academic settings has remained limited to research. One possible explanation for this is limited understanding about the beliefs around GenAI use amongst faculty and students training in biomedical disciplines that frequently lead to non-physician healthcare careers, including physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), allied health (AH), and biomedical engineering (BME). Furthermore, no known studies exist assessing differences that may exist across those disciplines. Given the significant number of professionals in those disciplines and the outsized impact they have on the healthcare system, investigating their beliefs around GenAI use is vital before widespread adoption. Accordingly, we investigated the perceptions of GenAI among students and faculty in the aforementioned fields that frequently lead to careers in healthcare. We found that knowledge of GenAI significantly influences comfort with its use completing college coursework including whether respondents believed it contributed to the process of completing that coursework and whether use of GenAI enhances learning. Interestingly, however, there were no statistically significant differences in perceptions of GenAI across disciplines, roles, or institution sizes. Qualitative findings revealed concerns about plagiarism, decline of critical thinking skills, and ethical challenges, while also recognizing GenAI's potential to enhance learning efficiency and idea generation. Critically, the study results emphasize the need for proper training and guidelines to ensure GenAI is integrated responsibly into healthcare-related education.
BackgroundUniversities are well suited for tobacco-free advocacy efforts; university tobacco policy can change social norms around tobacco use, reduce secondhand smoke exposure, and help prevent occasional tobacco users from transitioning to daily use.PurposeThis study took place in 2019 at a Midwestern public regional comprehensive university as part of a campaign to update campus tobacco policy. Researchers sought to increase the visibility of tobacco waste on campus under the current policy.MethodsResearchers invited undergraduate students to create collages using nonhazardous tobacco waste collected on campus and participate in focus group discussions about their experiences. After verbatim transcription, researchers conducted template analysis to identify key themes.ResultsUndergraduate students (N = 16) shared concerns about human health and the natural environment on campus. Though students were passionate about reducing tobacco use on campus, they were uncertain that policy changes would be effective.DiscussionIn addition to engaging students in advocacy, policy change, and research, collages were displayed on campus and via social media. Students were able to create art to express their feelings about tobacco use and contribute to successful efforts to update university policy.Translation to Health Education PracticeCollage can be an effective way to elicit discussion and create powerful visuals to use in advocacy. Engaging young adults in policy advocacy as students and increasing their civic engagement may help them develop skills and self-efficacy for advocacy activities in the future.
PurposeThis paper shares findings from a research project focused on the ways preservice English Language Arts teachers see possibilities for their own future climate literacy pedagogy at the intersection of artifactual writing practices (Pahl and Rowsell, 2010; Author, 2019) and climate education, which we refer to as artifactual climate writing. This paper aims to highlight the ways artifactual climate writing practices shift preservice teachers' beliefs about bringing climate literacy practices to their future classrooms.Design/methodology/approachThis study is qualitative and interpretive (Erickson, 1986). To understand the shifts that teachers' experience through artifactual climate writing, analysis focuses on artifactual climate writing responses and reflections, with a consideration of the ways mediational means impact preservice teachers' experiences in teaching climate writing.FindingsFour interpretations highlight how preservice English Language Arts teachers in methods courses are making space to incorporate climate writing pedagogy through their own artifactual climate writing.Practical implicationsFindings from this study the ways English Language Arts methods courses can support preservice teachers in navigating their implementation of climate writing practices.Originality/valueThis study provides new theoretical and practical practices for English Language Arts methods courses and preservice English Language Arts teachers through artifactual climate writing.
To investigate whether patterns of ploidy state variation known to occur in macrophytes at broad global scales can be detected at finer site scale, we examined macrophyte assemblages present in 1239 individual inland lentic and lotic waterbodies sampled from 2000 onwards. The sites include lakes and reservoirs, rivers and streams, slow-flowing or static water bodies associated with rivers (such as oxbows), man-made channels, and temporary or ephemeral lentic waterbodies in 22 countries worldwide. The latitude range for these sites was 10.58-68.40 degrees N and from 0.01 to 54.88 degrees S, covering climatic conditions ranging from tropical to temperate/Arctic. We examined the influence of geospatial variables, current or historic climate variables, and additional local water physical and chemical variables measured for each site, as potential predictors of the incidence of ploidy state (diploidy, polyploidy, and mixed-cytotype) in the macrophyte species assemblage. At fine scales (individual sites), we observed the same latitudinal and climatic patterns influencing all macrophyte ploidy states, especially diploid species, compared to findings at a broad spatial resolution of 10 degrees x 10 degrees latitude-longitude. Ploidy state of macrophyte assemblages slightly, but significantly, differs between lentic and lotic environments. Along with geospatial and climate variables, local physical and chemical variables also helped predict the occurrence of polyploid and mixed-ploidy species. Our results support previous findings on ploidy state distribution and drivers at broader scales but also unravel new information on key drivers for the distribution of polyploid and mixedploidy species, relevant to understanding macrophyte adaptation mechanisms and evolutionary processes worldwide.
