An ancient mammoth unearthed in September 2015 by a team of University of Michigan paleontologists that included undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in a farmer’s field southwest of Ann Arbor may provide clues about the lives of early humans in the region.

Over the years, the remains of about 300 mastodons and 30 mammoths have been recovered in Michigan. The team was able to recover about 20 percent of the animal’s bones, including the skull and two tusks, numerous vertebrae and ribs, the pelvis and both shoulder blades. Most of the mammoth finds in Michigan have not been this complete.

The bones are from an adult male mammoth that likely lived 11,700 to 15,000 years ago, says Daniel Fisher, director of the U-M Museum of Paleontology and a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, who led the dig. The site holds “excellent evidence of human activity” associated with the mammoth remains, he said.

Depending on the age of the mammoth and confirmation of the suspected links to human hunters or scavengers, the research conducted by Fisher and his paleontology students on this find could help push back the date for human habitation in what is now Southeast Michigan.

The Bristle Mammoth (pronounced BRIS-lee)—named for James and Melody Bristle, the farming couple who found the remains on their property and donated them to the university— will be on display at the U-M Museum of Natural History from Nov. 5, 2016 to Jan. 15, 2018. It will then be moved to the museum’s new location, which will open in 2019 in the U-M Biological Science Building.

Museum visitors can touch some of the Bristle Mammoth’s real bones, see some of the evidence for human activity at this site (such as the removal of edible tissues from parts of the carcass), and explore how the Bristle Mammoth’s bones, teeth and tusks will help scientists understand how these animals lived and why they became extinct.

U-M graduate student Ashley Lemke and paleontologists Joe El Adli and Daniel Fisher examine a stone flake found near the animal's tusks during the excavation. The flake may be a tool that ancient people used to cut the mammoth. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

U-M Paleontology Professor Daniel Fisher leads the dig. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

The team harnesses the mammoth bones with straps before hauling them out of the pit. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

The mammoth skull and tusks are loaded onto a flatbed trailer. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

The bones are brought back to the lab to be examined. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

The remains were identified by Dr. Fisher and his student researchers as an adult male mammoth that likely lived 11,700 to 15,000 years ago. Michigan Photography: Daryl Marshke.

There’s no question that demand for entrepreneurial skills is growing nationwide—and not just for individuals who want to start their own businesses. Companies in Michigan and across the nation are searching for employees with “innovative, creative and entrepreneurial mindsets” according to Indeed.com, a job search website.

With the launch of a new campuswide minor in entrepreneurship in January 2015, an entrepreneurial education became available to all students at the University of Michigan. The 15-credit program attracts students from diverse areas of study, with enrollment currently representing over 46 majors in seven undergraduate colleges.

Recognizing its growing track record of excellence in entrepreneurship education, the University of Michigan was recently ranked as the nation’s 7th top institution for undergraduate entrepreneurship education, according to the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Michigan’s undergraduate program was recognized for making the largest upward leap of any other higher education institution in the 2016 ranking. In addition, the University of Michigan was named the No. 4 program for graduate entrepreneurship education.

“In this past decade, the field of entrepreneurship has become a necessary part of higher education curricula across the United States,” said Oscar Ybarra, director of Innovate Blue, U-M’s campuswide innovation and entrepreneurship education initiative. “In 2012, the university formally recognized this need and created Innovate Blue as a way to expand and connect programs in business, engineering, liberal arts, health, information and more, to create a truly collaborative entrepreneurial environment.”

U-M has seen tremendous interest and activity in innovation and entrepreneurship, from students across all schools and colleges on campus. In addition to its minor program, there now exist at least 15 centers and programs related to entrepreneurship, focusing on different aspects of entrepreneurship education, student challenges and community events. There are also more than 30 student organizations with an entrepreneurial focus.

Leaders of a major effort to transform health sciences education at the University of Michigan have launched a new center that brings together the seven health science schools, with the goal of preparing health professionals of the future. The Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education serves more than 4,000 U-M students and expands upon on a program more than a year in the making.

Offering interprofessional education is not new but the scope and scale of Michigan’s program, a national and international effort involving all of its health sciences schools and a highly ranked health system, make it unique, leaders say.

“We represent a very broad spectrum of health science educators from nationally recognized schools that address most of the health issues confronting our society today.”

– Frank Ascione, founding director of the center

“We represent a very broad spectrum of health science educators from nationally recognized schools that address most of the health issues confronting our society today. We also are affiliated with a large, highly regarded academic health center in which we can develop optimal collaborative care models that our students can participate in and apply their new training,” said Frank Ascione, founding director of the center and former dean of the U-M College of Pharmacy.

The interprofessional education project, designed to break down the traditional silos that separate health professions by creating opportunities for collaborative and engaged learning across disciplines, will be managed by the center with collaboration from the health science deans. The end goal is to prepare professionals who will work more effectively together to improve patient care.

The program is supported by a five-year, $3 million grant from the provost’s Transforming Learning for the Third Century Initiative, which is matched with an additional $3 million from the deans of the schools: School of Dentistry, School of Kinesiology, Medical School, School of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, School of Public Health and School of Social Work.

Prior to the center’s launch, engaged faculty, staff and students already have made significant achievements. Highlights include an award-winning, team-based decision-making course that brought together more than 250 students and 11 faculty from five schools; the first U-M-only massive open online course (MOOC), which engaged more than 800 health-focused students in discussions around health policy; and student-driven efforts to create two student organizations focused on interprofessional collaboration.

TeachingWorks, a national organization based at the U-M School of Education dedicated to improving professional preparation for teaching, received a $6.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a Teacher Preparation Transformation Center.

The Teacher Preparation Transformation Center Initiative, developed by the Gates Foundation, is designed to create a diverse national network of teacher education providers that will build—both independently and collectively—effective pathways for the preparation of beginning teachers.

The other centers in the initiative are University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation National Center, based at Texas Tech University; Teacher2, led by the Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City; the National Center for Teacher Residencies Transformation Center in Chicago; and Elevate Preparation, Impact Children, led by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Through this initiative, TeachingWorks will offer direct professional support—including workshops, modeling and coaching — to staff members in the national centers and, as needed, to teacher educators in each center’s provider network. This work will focus on strengthening teacher preparation by engaging in continuous improvement, supporting the effectiveness of teacher educators and coordinating professional preparation with school systems and the communities they serve.

TeachingWorks also will lead the development and implementation of formative and exit assessments of novice teachers’ capabilities and will collaborate closely with the other centers in disseminating their own learning, helping to develop and package products that come from the centers’ work and creating a digital resource center that will catalog, house and make these products accessible to others.

The University of Michigan Office of Digital Education and Innovation launched its first four courses on the edX platform in April 2016. U-M, one of the first universities to offer free massive open online courses (MOOCs), became a charter member of edX in October 2015.

The courses included Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making; Data Science Ethics; Social Work: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era; and Practical Learning Analytics.

“Our first four MichiganX MOOCs reflect our aspirations to make the resources of the university available to the broadest possible range of global learners,” said James DeVaney, associate vice provost for digital education and innovation. “We have learned a great deal from our first 40 MOOCs and continue to seed faculty-led academic innovation aligned with our values of diversity, inclusion and academic excellence.”

DeVaney said with the new MOOCs, the Office of Digital Education and Innovation continues progress toward a goal to transform at least 200 courses by 2017.

Founded in 2012, edX endeavors to increase global access to high-quality education for everyone via online learning and the enhancement of teaching and learning through research. It has partnerships with more than 90 members, and is the only nonprofit and open-source MOOC provider and online learning destination.

To date, U-M has reached more than 4 million lifelong learners through MOOCs developed by faculty in partnership with the Office of Digital Education and Innovation. As part of a diverse, digital innovation strategy, U-M partners with edX, Coursera and NovoEd.

2015 Fall Term Enrollment

2015-16 Degrees Granted