Upper Peninsula Teaching & Learning Conference - 2026

The farm-to-table movement has demonstrated how eating locally can promote rural economic development, decrease transportation costs, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Northern Woodshed Project has explored the possibilities for heating locally in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Northern Michigan University’s Carbon Neutrality Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gases 50% by 2040 by reducing energy demand and investing in renewable energy technologies. Specifically, the plan states that NMU will “develop a plan to potentially transition from natural gas to a renewable fuel, such as biomass or renewable natural gas, at the Ripley Plant.” The Northern Woodshed Project has engaged students, researchers from different departments on campus, and community partners to examine how NMU might reduce its dependency on fossil fuels by heating campus with woodchips from sustainably managed forests. This presentation will share some of the key lessons learned from the project, and will explore possible future opportunities for teaching and learning within the Northern Forest.

In this 20-minute session, Instructor Crystal Keso will share her experience and lessons learned from implementing a high-impact experience in a Forensic Chemistry course. Forensic Chemistry is an upper-level course required for NMU Forensic Biochemistry majors. Instructor Keso teaches the DNA identity testing unit and has replaced a traditional lecture exam with a unit project assignment. The unit project requires students to select a topic of interest within the scope of DNA identity testing and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the field. Students work in collaborative groups, share information with peers, and engage in reflective writing. In this session, Instructor Keso will share how she aligned this experience with high-impact principles and the lessons she has learned over the past three years.

Arts integration isn't new, but often general education teachers don't know where to start. However, we are potentially doing some of our students a disservice by not doing so. Within this session, I will hopefully help you learn that arts integration is as scary or difficult as it may seem. I will also go over an example of integrating art with language arts. Through the use of shoes, students design something that represents them while talking about qualities that make them uniquely themselves. I will also talk about the importance of arts integration and briefly touch on ways of grading it. 

Academic Service Learning (ASL) at Northern Michigan University has a proud history, with a particularly robust campus-wide program through 2015. While ASL has never fully disappeared—a dedicated core of faculty has continued to integrate service learning into their courses—the program has not reached its full potential in recent years. 
This presentation shares NMU’s experience as a case study in reinvigorating ASL at a regional university, with lessons and a replicable framework relevant to faculty across the Upper Peninsula.
Grounded in the democratic civic engagement model of service learning—where students, faculty, and community members serve as co-educators and co-generators of knowledge—this session will walk attendees through three interconnected goals: 


1) looking at the history and documenting existing ASL activity as a foundation for growth; 
2) describing a faculty mini-grant model (up to $750) designed to lower the barriers to ASL adoption; and 
3) exploring strategies for building and sustaining reciprocal community partnerships. 


Ample time for Q&A, an opportunity for two-way conversation and sharing successes from other institutions, as well as a possible NMU faculty roundtable will be included.

College students who are navigating high levels of stress, perfectionism, and fear of failure often experience difficulties with motivation, resilience, and academic performance (Kahn et al., 2023). Simultaneously, faculty are expected to maintain academic rigor while responding to growing student needs, often without additional time or resources (Riba, 2025). This session explores how mindful self-compassion can be integrated into the classroom as an evidence-based approach to support student learning and faculty well-being. This session emphasizes practical, easy-to-implement strategies that faculty can apply across disciplines, including compassionate syllabus framing, resilience-building feedback practices, and brief in-class techniques that support student attention and engagement. Presenters will also discuss how faculty can manage stress through mindful self-compassion strategies. Participants will leave with concrete tools, examples, and language they can immediately apply to support student resilience, improve classroom engagement, and create learning environments that benefit both students and educators.
 
Kahn, J. H., Fishman, J. I., Galati, S. L., & Meyer, D. M. (2023). Perfectionism, locus of control, and academic stress among college students. Personality and Individual Differences, 213, Article 112313.
 
Riba, E. B. (2025). Towards defining the faculty role in supporting student mental health. Current Psychiatry Reports, 27, 319–325.

Courageous Care recognizes that transformative education emerges when universities genuinely prioritize student and educator learning, well-being, belonging and success. In this session, Dr. Joubert will share her takeaways from the recent Conference on Learning and Student Success (CLASS) hosted by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. She will showcase proven practices foundational for learning as demonstrated at CLASS with a focus on evidence-based teaching and high-impact educational practices and experiences (HIPEs) that elevate student outcomes. Additionally, she will demonstrate a wellbeing centered general education curricula to support student success as future wellbeing change agents. Courageous care supports the Okanagan Charter and Limerick Framework Actions by enhancing human connection; linking academic, cocurricular, and social supports; sharing solutions for diverse student realities; building institutional capacity through professional development; and redefining what it means to foster measurable success for every student.

Come explore the integration of heart-based learning in educational practice in this 50 minute participatory session. Northern Michigan University teacher and re-Searcher Jaime VanEnkevort and co-presenters will facilitate conversation on what heart-based teaching and learning is and share an example of an arts-based method called, "A Walk in Your Shoes." Presenters will speak and share from their experience as teachers and high school students in the classroom and re-Search setting.