Chris Liu, who worked in LHC’s lab from 2009 to 2013 as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, was accepted to University of Saskatchewan’s law school in September 2013. He sends us an update on life as a law school student in Saskatchewan:
“Saskatoon is a very friendly and charming little city once you can get acclimatized to the frigid cold! Law school has been challenging and required me to work the hardest I’ve ever had to, but it has also been rewarding and opened me up to a new perspective. I hope to further my experiences gained in Dr. Hurd Clarke’s lab and pursue avenues relating to health law and/or elder law.”
As part of the School of Kinesiology’s Distinguished Speakers’ series, Dr. Emmanuelle Tulle visited UBC for two days in May 2016. On the first day of her visit, she kicked off a socio-cultural workshop with a talk entitled “Becoming a woman hill walker: Personal experiences as instances of a more general state of affairs” followed by presentations from our graduate students. After lunch we went on a walk to the UBC Botanical Gardens. Here are some of the group members below – with Dr. Emmanuelle Tulle featured on the left.
StandUP UBC: Impact of a low cost standing desk on reducing workplace sitting
Are you tired of sitting at work? The Population Physical Activity Lab in the School of Kinesiology at UBC is conducting a workplace intervention aimed at reducing employee sitting through the provision of a low-cost standing desk.
WHO:
- Employees aged 18-65 years
- Desk-based office workers
- Work at least 3 times per week
WHAT: This study involves wearing an activity monitor and completing a few surveys 3 times over a 6-month period. Participants will receive $60 for their participation.
WHEN: Starting in January 2018
CONTACT INFO:
Principal Investigator – Dr. Guy Faulkner
Research Coordinator – Katie Weatherson
To receive more information or if you’d like to sign up for this study, please email us at: pop_pa.lab@ubc.ca
Nov. 20, 2017 – New paper out by Negin Riazi, Meghan O’Neill, and Guy Faulkner on the new, integrated 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the early years (0-4 years), exploring the perceptions of stakeholders and end users regarding their acceptability, barriers to uptake, and dissemination. Read it here.
The first Lab Crawl for the 2017/18 Winter term took place on Friday, November 3rd at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre and hosted 18 KIN students across all year levels. The Blusson Spinal Cord Centre is a unique facility dedicated to advancing world-leading integrated research and care for people with spinal cord injury. It is also home to three of the School of Kinesiology’s leading-edge research laboratories directed by Dr. Tania Lam and Dr. Chris West.
Over the course of the 90 minute tour, we visited the Physical Activity Research Centre (PARC), Human Locomotion Research Laboratory, and the Translational Integrative Physiology Laboratory. Through presentations by Sharon Jang, Alison Williams and Preet Gandhi in PARC, students learned more about the adaptive equipment that is used by the local spinal cord injury community while participating in research on exercise and physical activity.
Alex Williams from Chris West’ lab gave two students an opportunity to participate in an ultrasound demonstration of the heart, and introduced the group to explore the heart through its different chambers and angles. Her research focuses on cardiac function and its effect on spinal cord injuries.
Gevorg Eginyan, one of Dr. Lam’s research assistants, led a demonstration where students were involved in identifying different landmarks on the body and then applied sensors to build a digital skeleton.
Alison Williams, Human Locomotion Research Laboratory’s Lab Coordinator wrapped up the Lab Crawl by showing us some of the high end robotics she is using in her masters thesis; the Lokomat and Ekso Bionic exoskeletons – tools to assist getting patients back on their feet by supporting the re-learning and correction of step patterns.
Lab Crawls are held once per term and are a great way to introduce and expose undergraduate students to the diverse range of research and opportunities available within the School of Kinesiology. There are multiple ways to get KINvolved in research, as a participant or volunteer.
If you want to find out more information about ICORD, visit: http://icord.org/
If you’d like to get involved in KIN research as a participant, visit https://kin.educ.ubc.ca/research/research-subject-recruitment/ and fill out a subject recruitment form.
iCORD, Research, Students, UBC
Nov. 14, 2017 – New paper out by Dr. Guy Faulkner examining school- and student-level characteristics associated with likelihood of students’ meeting the Canadian physical activity guidelines in the COMPASS study. Read it here.
Nov. 10, 2017 – Congrats to PhD student Negin Riazi who successfully completed her comps.
Christiane “Chrissy” Job graduated from UBC in 2008 with a Masters of Arts in Kinesiology followed by her PhD at the University of Calgary. With high energy and a dynamic personality, Chrissy played Varsity basketball at UBC under coach Deb Huband while at the same time pursued academia under the tutelage of UBC’s Dr. Patricia Vertinsky. Chrissy’s lauded research focused on the intersection of sociology of sport, feminist theory and sport history. Her particular interest over the years has been the narratives of older women athletes – such as former UBC star athlete Ruth Wilson – with the aim of creating new policies and practices for promoting and inspiring older athletes.
More recently Chrissy has taught at the University of Calgary, has started a family and is now working in the medical field as a Research Director at the School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Even though it is still early in her career it will be her passion for whatever she pursues, whether it be the awareness of sport history and those who comprise it or the promotion of healthy practices, that will be the force that leads ultimately to social value.
According to her mentor Patricia Vertinsky, “. . . she is as exuberant and happy as ever and doing really well.”
Alumni
Arnie Smith, Physical Education graduate, 1962, provided another example of the unique and varied experiences those from this faculty have undertaken. While at UBC Arnie played Thunderbird football under coach Frank Gnup and following graduation had a tryout with the Montreal Alouettes. He then quickly embarked upon a teaching and coaching career in Vancouver.
In June 1977 there was an urgent need for appropriate schooling for young children of Canadian parents working in Iran. Arnie was selected to be the principal of a school in northeast Iran, find teachers, materials and a suitable building for all grades K to 12. Under difficult circumstances Smith was successful in pulling this challenge together. However in the fall of 1978 anti-Shah riots, arson, demonstrations and strikes ravaged the country. With the country in turmoil all Canadians were told in the spring of 1979 to quickly evacuate Iran with only one bag per person.
As a teacher, Arnie recalls this as an experience of a lifetime. It was “. . . such an adventure I would never pass up . . . we had a cultural immersion and learning experience.”
With his Masters of Education, Smith continued to teach, coach and administrate on the North Shore until retirement. Later, while living in the Okanagan, Arnie hosted events for UBC Okanagan before relocating to Ontario. In 2017 Arnie was pictured in Trek magazine along with president Ono as the two connected at a UBC alumni event in Toronto.
– Fred Hume,
October 2017