Supporting Students\u27 Emotional Wellbeing while Teaching Climate Change Curriculum

Numerous researchers have described climate change as the single greatest threat to humanity. In 2022, a survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse reported that at least 81% of students are worried about climate change, and many consider campus sustainability when deciding where to attend college. As concerns regarding climate change have grown, so have the impacts on mental health, which are often categorized under terms such as climate anxiety and ecological grief. This has increased professional advocacy for climate change education in many disciplines across campuses. The Association for Counselor Educators recently proposed adding climate change/environmental justice competencies and curriculum standards for counselor education and supervision. Further, many universities are developing specific climate change degree programs and incorporating climate change education into general education coursework. The literature suggests that climate change education should be incorporated into every major on college campuses and in the K-12 curriculum standards. Incorporating mental health implications of climate change is a key component of climate change education. This presentation will provide an overview of mental health concerns related to climate change. It will provide strategies from positive psychology to support students’ well-being while meeting the need to incorporate climate change education into coursework. This practical project hopes to contribute to climate change advocacy by demonstrating the need for climate change education standards to be developed across disciplines while supporting students’ emotional well-being and offering exercises in meaning-making and resilience. In the future, this exploratory study plans to gather data using a quasi-experimental pre/post design comparing students\u27 self-reports on climate anxiety, ecological grief, and resilience measures in two courses offered at UM. The data will help inform teaching practices and curriculum standards in climate change education

Episode 129: Beaks and (fitness) peaks (with Trevor Price)

Which factors lead to the evolution of reproductive isolation? What role does hybridization play in speciation? Why are there so many bird species in the tropics? In this episode, we host Trevor Price, a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and a Fellow of the Royal Society to talk about the evolutionary process driving speciation in birds. Our chat covers the decades he spent studying birds on the Galapagos Islands and in the Himalayas. We also discuss the challenges of doing this research in the wild,why bird distributions are limited along elevational gradients, and a bit about the role of phenotypic plasticity in evolution. Cover art: Keating Shahmehri.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/bigbiology_podcasts/1131/thumbnail.jp

Science in the Studios: Communicating Science on Social Media Using On-Campus Resources

Social media platforms offer powerful tools and spaces in which to communicate science to the general public. However, these platforms are equally available for the sharing and spread of pseudoscience and anti-science content. The widespread use of these platforms means an audience of people already exists who use social media as a source of news and information. The burden is on us as scientists and researchers to understand how to use these platforms. To aid in this process, the University of Montana’s Mansfield Library offers spaces in which to create content for social media that are free for us to use. This poster is an exploration of different social media platforms and the studio spaces available on campus

Craig Cowie and Constance Van Kley on the legal questions of Trump’s second term (part two)

In part two of our conversation with University of Montana law professors Craig Cowie and Constance Van Kley, we continue the discussion about the constitutional challenges emerging in the early days of President Trump’s second term. The conversation delves into the implications of shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the looming government funding deadline, and the legal complexities surrounding executive power. They explore key lawsuits, the role of the judiciary, and what happens if the executive branch refuses to comply with court orders.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/anewangle_podcasts/1384/thumbnail.jp

Recreation Repair Reimagined

Textile waste, including that produced by the outdoor industry, is a huge environmental and social problem. An incomprehensible number of items are discarded each year, many of which end up contributing to pollution across the globe. Some of this equipment is costly, both in terms of the externalities of production and disposal and the price tag consumers see, the latter of which poses an issue of accessibility to many people. We have worked to address these challenges by facilitating an opportunity as well as a space in which people can repair and repurpose worn gear and textiles so as to give them new life. This project has been intended to reduce waste entering our landfill—making our economy more circular—as well as save consumers money. By collaborating with the UM Makerspace to host this project, we have laid the groundwork to provide the knowledge and skills to UM students, faculty, and staff, to join us in making our closets and gear stashes more environmentally conscious. We have researched similar efforts and ways of repairing and reproposing common items and focused on these in our workshops and dissemination of information. We believe that shifting how we treat and maintain our possessions can lead to a reduction in our negative impact on the planet, while also making it easier to experience the environments that need us to be active participants in their protection, and issue that is important now as ever

Montana Residents\u27 Attitudes Towards Tourism - 2024

A summary of Montana residents\u27 attitudes towards tourism from the 2024 season. Overall, results from this study show that, in general, Montana residents hold a positive yet balanced attitude towards tourism within the state. For example, a majority of residents feel that the benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts, while also being in strong agreement that tourism promotion by the state provides an economic benefit to their community. At the same time, over 40% of respondents felt that the state was becoming overcrowded because of the number of tourists, while close to half felt that their community was dealing with issues of crowding during the summer season. At the state level, results from 2024 show little to no change from 2023 for many of the questions asked, indicating some continued leveling off from record highs seen in 2021 and 2022

An Acceptable Time

This scholarly work is my interpretation of the art in the exhibition, An Acceptable Time, which ecompasses a diversity of media that varies as much in material and process as the span of my life as mother, a steward of the domestic home, and a spiritual child-at-heart myself. At the center of the work is a contemplative beauty inviting the viewer to linger with the art and reflect upon the echoes of the past as they might affect the present. The formal delivery of illustrative realism, a mirage of pattern, and abstract layering draws out major themes of memory, nostalgia, sentimentality, childhood, pattern, and time. Through a descriptive analysis of the exhibition and its artworks, I examine media processes and visual content and how they determine thematic ideas while referencing historical and contemporary influences that have impacted the development of the exhibition An Acceptable Time

Make Yourself at Home

Set in 1990’s Vermont and New York City, Make Yourself At Home tells the story of twenty-six-year-old Alison (Sonny), as she navigates graduate studies in Arabic, a difficult love relationship, and increasing debt and self-doubt. This is a coming-of-age novel, narrated mostly in the second person, in a darkly humorous tone, close to Alison’s point of view. The work incorporates journal sections written by Alison in Arabic, as well as sections that tell or retell fairy tales and myths. The novel deals with themes of language learning, autonomy, self-doubt, moral ambiguity and love

MSW Portfolio

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/grad_portfolios/1476/thumbnail.jp