by Kirk Kardashian Jul 02, 2020

Each spring, the entire first-year class at Tuck takes a significant step in their MBA journey, going from pure learners to learner-practitioners.

This development happens within the challenging-yet-safe environment of the First-Year Project (FYP), where teams of students work directly with a wide range of organizationsmultinational corporations, early-stage startups, and non-profit and governmental organizations, among otherson a host of real-world business issues of strategic importance.

This year, against the backdrop of a global public health crisis, 56 FYP teams forged ahead through video-conferencing and email communication, showing the resolve, creativity and flexibility of the students and their clients, half of whom are Tuck or Dartmouth alumni.

We could not be more proud of our teams, or more thankful to our client partners, says Becky Rice, the director of the FYP course. Clients stayed with us, even though many were experiencing significant disruption this spring. And teams excelledproviding significant and important insights and solutions. The 2020 FYP was challenging, but will better prepare Tuck students to be global business leaders, managing their organizations through times of ambiguity and adversity.

As usual, the FYPs in 2020 consulted with businesses across the spectrum of the economy. The largest percentage of clients were in the technology sector (18 percent), followed by food and beverage (16 percent), and a three-way tie between apparel/retail, athletics/sports/recreation, and nonprofit (11 percent). Clients also worked in biotech/health care, education, energy, finance, environment, and manufacturing.

Heres a closer look at three 2020 FYPs.

Just as Uber revolutionized the taxicab business by connecting passengers with independent drivers, NEXT is a startup doing something similar for the freight and drayage (trucking) industry. The company, which is based in California, has a digital platform and mobile app that allows truckers to connect with shippers, so the truckers can choose when and where to do deliveries, and also efficiently plan routes and the return of truck chassis. Theyre optimizing their platform so truckers spend less time waiting and can quickly go pickup their containers and do a couple of different runs in a day, explains Matt Ginsberg T21, a member of the NEXT FYP team at Tuck that included Haylle Reidy, Ned Scadden, Hugo Naulot, and Jocelyn Teece.

Currently, NEXT operates out of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with pilot programs at the Port of New York and New Jersey, but the company is looking to expand. Thats where the FYP came in. AJ Lee T13, the vice president of marketing at NEXT this spring, worked with the Tuck team to develop the key question: which ports should the company pursue next?

I knew, going to Tuck, that I wanted to pivot to more of a strategy-focused role. Taking my previous skillset and applying it to this strategic question was something I had really been looking forward to.

In the first phase of the work, the team examined a range of ports and ranked them based on various factors. With that aggregated scorecard for each port and its components, the team decided on a list that represented the best opportunities. In phase two, the team spoke with a number of third-party port personnel, to fine-tune the analysis and make sure that the situation on the ground lined up with the teams research. That helped the team establish strategies for sequencing and how to go-to-market.

As a legacy industry dealing with logistics, the freight and drayage market is extremely complicated. The team, therefore, had to learn it quickly from the ground up, understand the key challenges, and then shift to a problem-solving mindset. For Ginsberg, who had experience as an economic consultant in the IP field before Tuck, the NEXT project was the perfect opportunity to gain experience at a large startup and hone new skills.

I knew, going to Tuck, that I wanted to pivot to more of a strategy-focused role, he says. Taking my previous skillset and applying it to this strategic question was something I had really been looking forward to.

The International Center of Photography (ICP), based in New York City, is dedicated to the idea of concerned photography: using photographs to educate and change the world. It advances that mission through its museum and archive, exhibitions, education, and programming. Kate Duff D02 joined the organization as chief operating officer in the summer of 2019, and soon after heard from a Tuck alumnus about the FYP course. It immediately made sense to her. I knew that working with Tuck wouldintroduce fresh thinking into the organization and provide a nontraditional way to obtain strategy advice, she says.Plus, as a school ourselves, there is tremendous appeal in encouraging student work from all disciplines, from the creative to the more business-oriented.

During the fall, Duff and the Executive Director of ICP discussed two possible projects: developing a marketing and recruitment strategy for itsin-person,one-year certificate program, or researching whether to expand its online education offerings. They ultimately decided to pitch the second one. By early March, when the project began, that choice proved prescient. The coronavirus pandemic had changed the way people worked and learned, and it was clear than online education would be more appropriate than ever. Still, Duff wasnt assuming it would be a good fit for ICP, so the key question for the Tuck FYP team was this: Should ICP expand its online education program in the next two years? We wanted to explore how to expand our online program, and do it in a way that would allow ICP to preserve its sense of community and brand, Duff says.

The Tuck ICP team consisted of T21s Kate Balderston, Ethan Dobbs, Dylan Guss, Kwabena (KB) Nimo, and Elisabeth Sum. Balderston, an art history major in college, joined the project because she had been a part of the New York City art world and it was a community she wanted to support. The team members came from a variety of backgrounds, but they coalesced under the goal of making this project a learning experience, rather than a chance to polish skills they already had.

Every meeting was structuredand theyserved as trueconsultants for us, framing the problem,distilling therightquestions, and delivering a useful report with competitorbenchmarksand recommendations.

The students established workstreams for surveys, stakeholder interviews, and market research, dividing up the tasks according to the team members interests and experience. Balderston worked on the survey workstream, pairing up with a team member who had done survey analysis before Tuck. She was also the client manager, acting as the liaison between the team and ICP to set up and run meetings and make sure the team-client relationship was strong. For this, Balderston drew on her business development experience at a branding firm prior to Tuck.

During the course of the project, it was clear to Duff that the students work would be extremely helpful to ICP. They were very professional and productive, she says. Every meeting was structuredand theyserved as trueconsultants for us, framing the problem,distilling therightquestions, and delivering a useful report with competitorbenchmarksand recommendations.

Balderston and Dobbs enjoyed the project so much, they decided to keep working for ICP after it ended. Balderston is doing some volunteer work for the organization before her official summer internship begins at another employer, and Dobbs is doing his internship for ICP. This project reminded me how much I do love the art world, Balderston says. It definitely opened my eyes to the business challenges in the arts and non-profits.

Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services. Part of its business provides chemicals to oil refineries so their equipment doesnt get contaminated by the various types of crude oil they process. Over the decades in this business, Ecolab has collected data that can predict the stability and risk of mixing crude oils from different locations. The company has baked this data into its proprietary software platform CrudeFlex Digital. The key question for the Tuck FYP was how to best position this platform in the next 12 months.

This project is about one of our most important new products launched last year in our division, says Flora Tian T19, a financial analysis manager at Ecolab who worked with the Tuck team this spring. The team was composed of T21s Travis Fei, Soichiro Ochiai, Tiago Lemos Franciscone da Rosa, Louis Liu, and Henry Zuo.

The team collaborated with Tian and others at Ecolab to divide the main question into four sub-questions: which monetization models to use, how to prepare the organization to operate on this model, how to measure and track the success of the innovation, and what are the potential risks.

Fei chose this project because of its complexity and challenge, and to have a chance to apply lessons from courses such as Management Communications, Client Project Management, and Advanced Management Communications. In those courses Fei learned how to execute a project from end to end, how to present a slide deck, and how to facilitate a meeting with an agenda, among other things. I didnt realize how important those skills are until we put them into practice in the FYP, he says.

He also learned the power of the Tuck network. This project concerned a very technical product in an industry he and his team were not familiar with. But we had a large expertise pool we could draw on, so we interviewed a lot of Tuck alumni who are experts in oil and gas, and digital platforms. They were all very nice and helped us a lot, he says.

Luke Wegner, the vice president of finance for Ecolab Downstream, came away impressed by the teams work. The students only worked on this project for a short two months between their other courses, he says, but they produced so many great insights with many case studies and best practices that our organization can learn from.

See more here:
First-Year Projects Provide Expert-Level Consulting to a Range of Organizations - Tuck School

With schools, preschool centers, and family childcare programs across the state closed in response to COVID-19, public media outlet WGBH in Boston is partnering with theMassachusetts Department of Early Education and Careto launch theFamily Activity Initiative, a series of weekly activity resources featuring a carefully curated collection of videos to watch, free online educational games and apps to play, and non-digital hands-on activities for young children.

Public media outlets across the country are playing an integral role in supporting educators, parents and caregivers with educational resources during these challenging times, said Jon Abbott, president and CEO of WGBH. As parents and caregivers of young children take the lead in supporting their childs learning, we are partnering with the state to make trusted educational resources available for every family across the Commonwealth.

The resources in theFamily Activity Initiativewill be drawn from popular WGBH and PBS KIDS brands, such asArthur(health and emotions),Curious George,PEEP and the Big Wide World, Gracie and Friends,andtheRuff Ruffman Show(STEM) for preschoolers, andMolly of Denali(English Language Arts), andPlum Landing(environmental science). The activities will be highly accessible, require low/no cost, minimal materials or preparation, and will give families reasons to learn and explore indoors and out, offer strategies for talking through fears and anxieties, provide fun games that build math skills and much more. The resources will be offered in both English and Spanish and will be geared toward children from birth to age 8. Both WGBH and partner station WGBY, part of New England Public Media serving western Massachusetts, will help raise awareness about this initiative among families via a variety of social media platforms.

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care is proud to partner with WGBH to support parents in continuing early learning during this time, said Early Education and Care Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy. Families with young children face a particular set of challenges right now. Our goal is to support them with easy-to-use, age-appropriate tools to ensure that our youngest citizens are still learning during this critical period of their lives.

Major funding for theFamily Activity Initiativeis being provided by a generous grant from the PNC Foundation.

TheFamily Activity Initiativeis a shining example of how our state comes together to provide essential support to our communities, in innovative ways, said Jon Bernstein, PNC Bank regional president in Boston. While children and families are home together, it is critical that families have resources and support to create a rich learning environment for their children. We are committed to ensuring all children develop a love oflearning that lasts a lifetime.

Each week, families will be invited to visit the WGBH Distance Learning Center where they can access that weeks activities. Families will be encouraged to complete as many activities as possible during a weeks time and then be eligible to enter a weekly random drawing for prizes that include books as well as gift cards for essential items donated by Walmart and Stop & Shop. The Distance Learning Center will also offer a collection of resources for parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers, including short-form videos, tips and strategies, and developmentally appropriate, easy-to-do activities, drawn from materials developed by WGBH and The Basics.

To reach families that do not have internet access, WGBH will work with theCoordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) grantees, a network of close to 90 programs providing services to some 350 cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth.Each CFCE will distribute theFamily Activitypackets in their community in collaboration with their local community-based partners, such as food pantries, Head Start, drop and go food distribution sites, and shelters.

While there is no shortage of information or online resources, many families are struggling to determine what resources best meet the needs of their child. For families with limited access to the internet, this challenge can be overwhelming, said Seeta Pai, executive director of education at WGBH. TheFamily Activity Initiativeis designed to offer high-quality, turnkey educational activities parents can feel good about and children will enjoy doing.

Earlier this spring, WGBH announced a partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide students in grades 6-12 distance learning opportunities on broadcast television (WGBHs WORLD Channel), to complement programming for young children available on the WGBH Kids 24/7 channel. This ensures students learning at home continue to have access to educational programs, regardless of their access to broadband internet.The broadcast programming is in addition to other resources from WGBH Education, includingPBS LearningMedia, a free online service of thousands of compelling educational resources, aligned to state standards and contextualized for educational use in grades PreK-12, and theWGBH Distance Learning Centerwhich makes these PBS LearningMedia resources more accessible to families, as well as educators, to support students PreK-12.

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WGBH Partners With Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care to Launch Family Activity Initiative - Lynn Journal

The restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing people to rely on technology to go about their business while staying indoors.

Be it education, healthcare or other services, technology-driven solutions are coming handy to beat the lockdown blues.

The use of technology is catching up fast among the educational institutions. Considered as an education hub, Tirupati has many institutions of national repute such as the IIT and the IISER, apart from half a dozen of universities.

The trend face-to-face lessons is losing ground as all educational institutions have been closed since months, and the online education has taken it place. No only the big institutions, even schools have taken to the technology route to continue classes.

Many schools are using digital platforms in both offline and online modelive classes or recorded lessons which help the students to learn from the comforts of their homes. The schools are opting for online or offline modes, depending on various factors such as mobility of teachers and internet bandwidth at students location.

However, the online education has its own challenges. Even as online education is inevitable amid the pandemic, concentrating on lessons in this format is difficult for primary level students. The methodology needs to be reinvented to suit the need of the students, says N. Satyanarayana Raju, Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans Sri Venkateswara Vidyalaya.

Parental support, he says, would go a long way in retaining childrens attention on classes in online mode. Even some organisations offering private tuitions have started online classes. The colleges and universities are preferring webinars to seminars.

The healthcare sector is also relying on technology more than before. As the denizens are hesitant to see doctors in the out-patient wings owing to the fears of contracting the infection, doctors are reaching out to patients in the virtual mode.

The technology is playing a vital role in creating awareness on various ailments and preacautionary measures.

Senior physician P. Krishna Prasanthi, who regularly conducts diabetes awareness programmes, has now started live sessions.

Our recent webinar on diabetes self-care evoked a good response. I am now inspired to conduct more such programmes online, says Dr. Prasanthi, who is the former president of IMA, Tirupati.

As a religious centre, Tirupati is also witnessing social and religious organisations conducting online sessions on Bhagavad Gita, Divya Prabandham and slokas.

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Technology comes in handy to beat lockdown blues - The Hindu

With the social inequity in online education coming to the fore due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre has proposed long-term measures to bridge the divide, including plans to distribute laptops or tablets to 40% of all college and university students over the next five years, and to equip all government schools with information and communication technology.

In a presentation to the Finance Commission on Monday, the School Education department also estimated it would need to spend upto 1 lakh per school for sanitisation and quarantine measures in preparation for the safe reopening of schools that have been shut due to the pandemic. The measures would include ensuring basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, safe drinking water, availability of alcohol rub/sanitiser, disinfectant, cleaning material and equipment for temperature checking.

Opinion | Can online learning replace the school classroom?

Funds for these measures are being provided under the composite grant for schools, ranging between 25,000 for small schools with less than 100 students and 1 lakh for schools with over a thousand students, according to the presentation to the Commision. In order for government schools to be reopened, funds will also be provided for awareness and community mobilisation to sensitise parents, students and local leaders, as well as a sum of 1,000 per teacher to encourage them to function as first-level counsellors, disseminate basic information about COVID-19 and provide digital/online/mobile education.

For the 3.1 lakh government schools above upper primary level who do not have ICT facilities, the Centre proposes a budget of 55,840 crore to equip them with such facilities.

For college and university students, the promotion of online education, which has become more urgent due to the pandemic, will be two-fold. On the one hand, the Human Resource Development Ministry proposes to spend 2,306 crore on developing and translating digital course content and resources over the next five years.

On the other, it intends to provide laptops and tablets to 4.06 crore students that is, 40% of the projected student population by 2026, at a total cost of 60,900 crore. The largest chunk of 1.5 crore students are to receive devices in the next financial year 2021-22. An average cost of 15,000 has been assumed per device. The Centre and States are to share the cost of making devices available, in a 60:40 ratio, according to the presentation to the Finance Commission.

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Centre to focus on online education - The Hindu

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Education technology companies are seeing unprecedented investor interest as a direct result of the increased digitisation of education amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Online live tutoring platform Vedantu has held talks to close a $100 million financing round, led by US investor Coatue Management, valuing the live online tutoring service at $600 million, multiple people in the know said.

This comes close on the heels of Silicon Valley investor and analyst Mary Meekers Bond Capital backing Byjus at a $10.5 billion valuation. If the investment in Vedantu goes through, its valuation will double from the previous funding round, which was led by Tiger Global and WestBridge Capital last year.

New York-based Coatue is a known technology investor, having backed Uber, Meituan Dianping and Doordash globally, along with bets on Swiggy and Rebel Foods in India.

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi The heightened interest shown by risk investors to pump in fresh funds at steep valuations contrasts with demand cratering at many cash-guzzling Indian consumer internet businesses as their revenues slumped amid the virus outbreak.

A crush of startups have laid off staff and cut salaries as they anticipate funding to dry up due to the wider uncertainty in the economy. The online education space, though, has become a relatively secure bet, investors said.

Finally, Indian VCs have found a sector that has real revenues and high gross margins. The excitement around it is justified, said an investor who has reviewed multiple companies in the segment. However, the valuations are way ahead of reality and are likely to cause some real concerns in future. VCs who manage to sell secondary shares along the way will see good returns, the investor, who did not wish to be named, said.

Though valuations remain high, the fear of missing out has made investors back ed-tech platforms, even as there are expected corrections in later funding rounds.

These businesses are real and will be ok...the valuations will get to a certain level and then stagnate as the next set of investors will demand real Ebitda, the investor added.

Sensing huge opportunity

Vedantu, which recently invested $2 million in online doubt solving platform Instasolv, said the number of subscribers on its platform grew to 1.1 million, with revenues increasing by 80%. The company is hoping Instasolv will help it push further into Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities.

We have seen a 5X growth on our platform every month," a spokesperson for Vedantu said in a statement, without commenting on any likely investment from Coatue. Coatue did not respond to ETs email till press-time Monday.

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi The high subscriber base of companies such as Vedantu is what is attracting a slug of capital into the sector.

Covid-19 has accelerated an already ongoing shift to digital education. The number of ed-tech users has doubled in the last four months and the sector has at least gained a year in its evolution. Eager investors looking for green shoots in an otherwise battered economy are being drawn to ed-tech, which is counter-cyclical in the current climate," said another venture investor, who did not want to be quoted by name as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The overall K12 segment, or Kindergarten to Class 12, is worth $13 billion and is growing at 10% each year, with ed-tech capturing just 4% of that market with $500 million in revenues, indicating the potential opportunity, Sequoia Capital's Tejeshwi Sharma tweeted recently.

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Coatue in talks to invest around $100M in Vedantu, valuation likely to double to $600M - ETtech.com

Tony Bates says one of the things that will come out of the shift to online learning during the pandemic is a rethinking of that first-year, large lecture class experience.

The pandemic may have forced classes in grade schools and post-secondary institutions online, but we need a bigger shift in teaching methods to create the best learning environment for students, says an expert in online education.

"We have good models from past experience how to teach well fully online, but we don't have those models about what's best done face-to-face and what's best online," said Tony Bates, who is a research associate at Contact North and senior advisor at the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University.

Bates, who has authored a dozen books on the importance of technology in higher education, explained that educational institutions will have to offer a very clear value proposition for in-person classes, now that the majority of students have had some experience with online learning.

"I think the big question is going to be, 'Why get on the bus and come to campus, what are you offering that's so special that can't be done online?'" he explained.

Bates spoke with Spark host Nora Young about what he thinks the higher education experience will look like when students return to class in September, and how online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic might change how we think of education.

Here is part of their conversation.

What do you think the higher education experience is going to look like for students in Canada this fall?

I suspect it's going to be a lot better in September than it was in the spring for most students.

What's happening now is most institutions are working like mad to get that expertise out to their instructors, to get them better prepared for online instruction. The problem is, most faculty have had no training in online learning. One thing we know is that moving face-to-face teaching online isn't the best way to go. There's all kinds of problems for students, such as cognitive overload, giving the students too much information too quickly. You really have to start redesigning differently, and particularly to enable students to be more active in their learning.

Some have made the argument that what happened at all levels of education during this pandemic was not online learning but emergency remote teaching. So what has to happen in the fall to make the transition to effective online teaching?

I think the real answer is redesign of courses. I think that will come from experience, from instructors learning what doesn't work so well online and what does work online.

I think one of the things that will come out of this in the long run will be a rethinking of that first-year, large lecture class experience. It's going to be very hard to shift that model it's an 800-year-old model. But I think faculty will find that they can use video much better than using it for talking heads, for instance. They can use it to demonstrate things, they can get students to make videos to show how they're applying their learning in real-world situations.

Do you have a sense of what the students want, though? Do they want that blended learning? What I remember from post-secondary is that the social, interpersonal stuff was a hugely important part of not just my social life, but my intellectual development.

I don't see why, in the long run, we shouldn't be able to offer everything, so students can study in any way they wanted. The important thing is the learning outcome should be the same, the exam should be the same, but the students can get there through different routes, different ways of learning.

The demographics are on the side of online learning. We're seeing a flattening at the moment and I think it'll be a decline among the numbers of students coming out of high school, purely for demographic reasons. And we're going to see increased pressure for lifelong learning, because of people changing their jobs frequently. So I think the universities are going to have to restructure somewhat to accommodate these changes in demographics.

Going back sevenor eight years, there was a lot of excitement about MOOCs massive open online courses but the promise of moving everything online kind of fizzled. What did we learn from the MOOC experience in this new situation?

I think the real value of MOOCs is in the informal learning space.

What I think will happen is that we'll have much more thoughtfulness about how we combine online and face-to-face learning for credit-based teaching, so that we get the best of both worlds. And that's not gonna be done through MOOCs, because they don't provide support that learners need to succeed in a full degree program over the three or four years. The numbers are too great to give that individual, personal support.

We're talking about the new "new normal," whether COVID has been an opportunity to fundamentally change some things we take for granted. Could these changes redefine what higher education is?

Yes and no. No, because there is a huge inertia in the system, there's all these structural barriers to radical change. Secondly, there are a lot of good things about, particularly, the university, that I wouldn't like to see change the freedom of inquiry for faculty, the ability of the instructor to be in charge of their own teaching, and so on.

What I do think is needed is much more faculty development, much more training in teaching, and far less emphasis on content presentation. The content is important you gotta know stuff in order to develop a skill but I think we need some changes in the balance between content delivery and skills. Students can get the content online now anywhere. What they need help with is that learner support.

Written by Olsy Sorokina. Interview produced by Kent Hoffman. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. To hear the full conversation with Tony Bates, click the 'listen' button at the top of the page.

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Classes are moving online, but teaching methods still need to catch up, says education expert - CBC.ca

Photo provided by the City of Roseburg

July 2, 2020 11:00 a.m.

Yoga in the Park will return to Stewart Park in Roseburg beginning next week.

A release from the City of Roseburg Parks and Recreation Department said free classes will start on July 11th. The classes are open to all experience levels. Hosted by Summer Fry and other local yoga instructors, the release said students can expect fun, yet gentle yoga classes that aim to strengthen core muscles, which lead to better balance and wellbeing.

Classes will be every Saturday from 10:00 am. to 11:00 a.m. Those attending should be prepared with a yoga mat, blanket, and a strap or belt. It is recommended that students refrain from eating or drinking, at least one hour prior to the class.

Classes are held on the lawn east of the band shell. The release said there is plenty of space to allow for healthy social distancing.

For more information, call the City of Roseburg Parks and Recreation Department.

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YOGA IN THE PARK RETURNS NEXT WEEK - kqennewsradio.com

The McGraw League outdoor basketball courts are the home of Scioto Countys newest yoga class, Yoga on the Courts.

Jacob Smith | Daily Times

PORTSMOUTH Scioto Countys newest hot spot for yoga is located at a place many may already be familiar with.

Yoga on the Courts, hosted at the McGraw League outdoor basketball courts, will begin its third week of weekly classes Wednesday at their location at 1321 State Route 140. For 31 years, the McGraw outdoor basketball courts have been used for basketball but now have a new purpose.

Kurt McGraw, league director for the McGraw Basketball League, ran with the multipurpose idea of a weekly yoga class at his courts and began the first set of classes just nine days ago.

Ive been wanting to do this out here for a long time, McGraw said. Its a nice setting in the evening, its outside. Our climate doesnt allow us to have classes outside during the winter, but I enjoy practicing outside any chance I get.

Each week the class has gained attendees as social distancing guidelines as part of Ohios Responsible Restart Ohio initiative remain in place.

McGraw first practiced yoga himself after a lasting back injury would not quite recover as quickly as he would have liked. Now, he sees the method of exercise in a completely different light.

Most people are intimidated by yoga, I was for years, McGraw said. How I got into practicing yoga was I hurt my back and tried everything from chiropractic to physical therapy, and the best thing that did anything and helped was the yoga practice. I was a believer right from there.

Barbara Duncan, a longtime yoga instructor at Shawnee State University, SOMCs Life Center, and Iron Body Fitness, was tabbed by McGraw to instruct the classes during their initial stages.

Ive been to Barbaras classes many times, McGraw said. Shes been teaching and practicing at Shawnee, at the LIFE Center, working with Portsmouths football team and many sports programs. Ive always really enjoyed her classes and shes excited about this.

McGraw also mentioned that Yoga on the Courts is looking for additional certified yoga instructors to teach classes at different times during the morning and evening, potentially three-four days a week.

Anyone wishing to participate in the exercise in future classes needs only bring a $10 class fee, a personal mat and a positive attitude.

Were going to do some beginning classes for anyone new, McGraw said. People that dont know or dont have any experience with something tend to be afraid, but theres no fear with starting this for the first time.

The McGraw League outdoor basketball courts are the home of Scioto Countys newest yoga class, Yoga on the Courts.

https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2020/07/web1_McGraw-league-courts.jpgThe McGraw League outdoor basketball courts are the home of Scioto Countys newest yoga class, Yoga on the Courts. Jacob Smith | Daily Times

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1930, by email at jsmith@aimmediamidwest.com, or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT 2020 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved

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Yoga on the Courts off to hot start - Portsmouth Daily Times

485 0 Posted on Jul 01, 2020, 6 p.m.

Despite being an exercise performed for many centuries in Eastern cultures, yoga has become increasingly popular over the past few decades among the Western population and alongside it, an exponential increase in research. People are drawn to the practice due to its multitude of mental and physical benefits, which include relaxation, muscle stretching, and an increased feeling of mindfulness. The health benefits of the physical exercise have been well established, yet there is a lack of research concerning the impact of yoga practice on the brain.

Today, yoga is the most popular form of complementary therapy practiced by over 13 million adults, with 58% of adults citing maintenance of health and well-being as their reason for practice per data reported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).

Recently, yoga has gained increased attention in the scientific community as well, as a research area of interest among exercise neuroscientists due to its promising potential therapeutic benefits with potential to combat widespread increases in the prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Few studies have investigated the benefits of yoga on brain health yet recent research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aims to analyze current literature related to yoga practice and its documented positive effects on brain structure and function.

Yoga and the Brain

The team of researchers analyzed 11 studies of the relationships between yoga and brain health including the impact of yoga practice on brain structures, function, and cerebral blood flow. Of those, 5 trials engaged participants with no prior yoga experience in one or more yoga sessions per week over a period of 10 to 24 weeks to compare brain health before and after the intervention. Meanwhile, the remaining studies measured differences in brain health between participants who regularly practiced yoga and those who did not.

To determine variations in brain structure and health, each study utilized brain-imaging technologies including MRI, functional MRI, or single-photon emission computerized tomography to analyze the impact of Hatha yoga practice which incorporates body movements, meditation, and breathing exercises.

Positive Neuroprotective Effects

Overall, researchers found that the studies reported a beneficial effect of yoga practice on both the structure and functioning of the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and brain networks. As many of these regions are known to be related to age-related atrophy, the early evidence is promising and implicates that regular yoga practice could work to mitigate age-related and neurodegenerative diseases.

For example, we see increases in the volume of the hippocampus with yoga practice, lead author Neha Gothe from the University of Illinois said. Many studies looking at the brain effects of aerobic exercise have shown a similar increase in hippocampus size over time.

In addition, the review of the studies found that brain changes related to yoga practice were linked to improved cognitive performance and measures of emotional regulation.

Changes in Brain Structure

According to Gothe and her colleague Jessica Damoiseaux psychology professor at Wayne State University, many of the studies were exploratory and not conclusive. Despite this, the researchers suggest their findings underline important brain changes associated with regular yoga practice, including amygdala growth which may be directly related to improved emotional regulation in yoga practitioners.

The prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks such as the default mode network also tend to be larger or more efficient in those who regularly practice yoga, Damoiseaux explains. Like the amygdala, the cingulate cortex is part of the limbic system, a circuit of structures that plays a key role in emotional regulation, learning, and memory.

Regular yoga practice may help improve the cortisol stress response; researchers found that participants who practiced yoga for eight weeks had an attenuated cortisol response which also contributed to improved testing performance in cases of decision-making, task-switching, and attention span. Overall, researchers believe that the positive implications of yoga on brain structures and emotional regulation improve total brain functioning and thus, may have neuroprotective effects.

Not only does a regular yoga practice have well-documented physical health benefits, but it appears to also promote healthy brain function. However, researchers caution that more research is needed in this field to uncover the mechanisms underlying the evident brain changes, recommending large intervention studies that engage participants in yoga practice for long periods of time and allow for comparisons with other forms of exercise.

The science is pointing to yoga being beneficial for healthy brain function, but we need more rigorous and well-controlled intervention studies to confirm these initial findings, Damoiseaux concludes.

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Brain Health Benefits of Yoga Practice - Anti Aging News

Yoga on the Rocks returns in summer 2018. (Provided by Denver Arts & Venues)

Nothing says summer in Colorado like attending an event at Red Rocks Amphitheater. But in the midst of a global pandemic, fans have had to let dreams of summer on the Rocks go.

On Tuesday, Red Rocks kindled some hope, though, announcing that it would bring back fitness events in July. Spokesman Brian Kitts said while there are no plans yet for the return of full concerts, his team hopes to expand ways people can experience Red Rocks, from fitness activities and sunset hikes to the possibility of smaller concerts later in the summer.

Tickets for Yoga on the Rocks, Quarantine 15 and SnowShape will be available starting July 1 at 10 a.m. at redrocksonline.com. A ticket for each class is $21, including fees. Space is limited for all events.

The venue also launched a new website and app with free, original videos, hoping to create new ways to connect with the beloved park during coronavirus restrictions.

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Like everybody else in the entertainment business, were doing everything we can to provide access, Kitts told The Denver Post on Tuesday. Shutting down an entire summer would break all of our hearts. For fans who want to experience just a little bit of Red Rocks, were trying really hard to let that happen.

The venue has hosted Yoga on the Rocks for a decade, and will increase the number of fitness events for the 2020 season. Starting on July 10, yoga classes will be offered on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with multiple sessions per day. A new event, the Quarantine 15 Fitness Challenge, will be heldevery Saturday at 10 a.m. Plus, the SnowShape Winter Fitness Serieswill return in September ahead of the 2020-2021 ski season.

Red Rocks will offer more classes than it has in past seasons, aiming to provide opportunities for as many people as possible. Usually, the venue holds 2,000, but with coronavirus restrictions, it will only be able to accommodate 175 people at a time, Kitts said, and he anticipates that events will sell out.

To adhere to social distancing, participants will set up in alternating rows at place-markers. People must wear masks to enter the stadium but can remove them once they get settled at a spot.

Digitally, Red Rocks has launched a new website and mobile app, according to a press release.Kitts said the team had been looking to do online content even before the coronavirus, and now fans can experience a different side of Red Rocks concerts, from performances to interviews with bands.

The venue will produce a new series called Trail Mix, featuring acoustic performances filmed on the parks trails, from artists including AJR, Big Wild and Caroline Rose, according to a press release.

Inspired by NPRs Tiny Desk Concerts and other session content creators, Trail Mix and our additional Red Rocks original content is a love letter to our fans and the venue, Josh Lenz, marketing and communications manager, said in the press release. And while we might be on a bit of a hiatus this year recording new sessions, we promise there will be plenty more to come in 2021.

Kitts emphasized this is the first step for the 2020 season, and as the situation evolves, he hopes to welcome people back for other small events and concerts.

But for now, fitness events are a really unique way to experience Red Rocks first thing in the morning, Kitts said. Its as beautiful as it gets.

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Red Rocks starts 2020 season with Yoga on the Rocks, no concerts yet - The Know