“If you go strictly by the official account, heatstroke was the cause of death for University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair. McNair died earlier this year following a grueling practice in which training staff failed to properly diagnose and treat his condition. But there’s another culprit – or at least a contributing factor – that should not be overlooked,” says Joseph Cooper, an associate professor of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education.

In this episode of GatherGeeks, David Adler, C.E.O. of BizBash, and Beth Kormanik, editor in chief of BizBash, hear from Neag School alumna Amanda Slavin, the CEO and founder of experiential marketing agency CatalystCreativ. Slavin dives into the seven levels of event engagement and how brands can utilize them.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Anna Cutaia announced the appointment of Dr. Amy Fedigan to the post of Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Milford Public School district.

Over 75 students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 participated in a free STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) enrichment program at NFA this summer. Guided by NFA faculty in collaboration with aspiring teachers from UConn’s Neag School of Education, the young students from Norwich and surrounding towns received a summer boost in their STEM education with hands-on learning to explore creative approaches to scientific questions, applying mathematics to modern day problems, and solving complex STEM problems, while having fun working in teams with new friends.

The Siberian Husky that serves as the mascot for the University of Connecticut is taking on another role: assistant ring bearer for two university alumni.

Public Advocates, a nonprofit law and advocacy organization, is pushing for greater oversight, clearer accounting measures and more parental involvement in charter school financial affairs in a recently released report indicating most California charter schools are either failing to fully disclose how special assistance funds are spent or are not reporting the spending altogether.

Project SPARK at Brookside and Kendall elementary schools, part of a federal grant for gifted education run by researchers from the University of Connecticut, seeks to train teachers to better identify children with advanced potential for learning.

An intervention designed to promote healthy growth, which taught first-time moms how to respond with age-appropriate responses to their babies’ needs, resulted in children having lower body mass indexes (BMIs) when they were 3 years old.

Devin Kearns, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Connecticut, told the Register he believes genetic research has “a lot of really amazing potential to help kids of all kinds.” Reached for comment last week, Kearns, who has an appointment at the Haskins Laboratory at Yale but claims no affiliation with the Lexinome Project or its staff, said his research has to do with neuroimaging, or tracing development of young people’s brains as they are exposed to different reading interventions.

The new assistant superintendent of elementary schools in East Hartford is Elsie Torres, a teacher and administrator from Meriden, school officials announced Thursday. Torres, who starts her new job on Aug. 15, most recently worked as supervisor of bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language programs for Meriden public schools.