While on a field trip, Indus School students observe a nurse at Rainy Lake Medical Center demonstrating a new machine used to evaluate a newborn.
Students in a child development and parenting class at Indus School visited International Falls Feb. 5 to learn more about resources available within the area.
Their first stop was at Rainy Lake Medical Center to tour the birthing facilities. They then learned about parentage laws and child support from Kathy Howdahl at Koochiching County Community Services.
In the afternoon, students visited Koochiching County Public Health Department to find out from nurse Deb Larson about using child carseats and preventing fetal alcohol syndrome.
During the day, students also received packets of information about starting up a daycare business from Renae Whitbeck at the county licensing office.
Indus Student Council members Holger Olesen, Chanaya Wheelock and Emma Morgan deliver items collected for the Student Council Service Project to the Food Shelf.
The Indus School Student Council joined student councils from around the state in collecting a variety of items for community resources who serve those in need.
These items were collected as part of a state service project and were delivered to the Food Shelf and a local church.
The Northeast Division of Student Councils held a competition to see which schools could collect the most items and gave point values to each item donated. The Indus collection added up to over 3,000 points.
Indus School students celebrate receiving mittens and headbands donated by local citizen Cheryl Miller.
The Indus School kindergarten class marked the 100th day of school Feb. 9 with their teacher, Miranda Gustafson, by creating hats to wear and learning about the number 100 through class activities.
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Participation in clay target shooting is booming at Minnesota schools.
The St. Cloud Times (http://on.sctimes.com/1JpGhCV ) reports 185 teams competed last year in the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League. That’s up from 13 teams in 2010.
League vice president John Nelson says more than 40 additional teams have signed up for 2015. School districts new to clay shooting this year include Rocori, Sauk Rapids-Rice and Sartell-St. Stephen.
Rocori Superintendent Scott Staska says students won’t be allowed to bring firearms to campus, following state law. Practices and competitions take place away from schools.
Nelson says the clay target shooting league has not seen an injury since it began in 2001.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota health officials and university researchers said Tuesday they’ve found 21 new cases of a rare form of lung cancer among a group of miners who they’ve been following since the late 1990s.
That brings the number of mesothelioma cases in the study group to 101. The state Department of Health and the University of Minnesota have been tracking 69,000 taconite workers to assess the risk from exposure to tiny mineral particles.
Dr. Ed Ehlinger, the state’s health commissioner, told reporters Tuesday that researchers expected the additional mesothelioma cases, as the usually fatal disease can take decades to manifest.
“This is not new news. This is the continuation of what we normally would do,” Ehlinger said.
The workers were employed in Minnesota’s iron mining industry between the 1930s and 1982. Health officials say the 21 new cases and the previous ones occurred in individuals who worked in a number of places across the Iron Range and weren’t limited to any one mining company or location.
The 21 new cases were all men, Ehlinger said, and all but three are now dead.
Exposure to asbestos is the biggest risk factor for mesothelioma, officials said. Commercial asbestos use has declined in the past decades, but Ehlinger said it’s still a problem in some workplaces.
