Thirteen health education students accompanied Judy Ary, senior lecturer of health, nutrition and exercise science, to the 29th annual Minnesota School Health Education Conference in Bloomington on Feb. 9-10. The conference is designed to provide health educators with effective lessons and strategies focusing on the achievement of national, state and local school health education learner outcomes.

Kristen Aas, Alana Carmony, Suri Clark, Kelly Fogarty, Kendra Frank, Marja Janson, Cathy Jorgensen, Shannon Lonski, Kayla Peterson, Henry Ruud, Danielle Schoeler, Jacob Stenzel and Gabriel Strube are the students who attended the event.

“Most of the students were attending their first professional conference and were experiencing networking as well as attending presentations given by professionals in the world of health education,” Ary said. “Health education focuses on teaching the skills and behaviors within the National Health Education Standards which challenges us to use behavior change strategies as a foundational piece of health education.”

The students were introduced to new ideas on how to achieve and sustain student success in skill learning and instruction. They were shown lesson plans that use positive behavioral change strategies. “Not only were these strategies fun and innovative, they modeled how to pass along healthy messages to students and demonstrated ideas that could be easily incorporated into the daily curriculum that helps students learn about healthy habits, including nutrition and exercise,” Ary said.

Ary joined the faculty at NDSU in 1994. She teaches the course Personal and Community Health (General Education Wellness). She is affiliated with the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

She is the recipient of several Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers awards, a 2009 Apple Polisher Award from Bison Ambassador Andrea Weber, the 2006 Merit Award in Health from the Central District Association of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.