University of Nevada, Reno

Multidimensional climate hazard perceptions and adaptation in rural Nevada's Humboldt River Basin

Climate adaptation decisions are often made locally, yet evidence remains limited on how rural residents in inland, natural-resource-dependent regions perceive and respond to multiple climate hazards. This study examines multidimensional perceptions of drought, heat, and wildfire...

AI Across the Curriculum: Early Insights from UNR Students and Faculty

In July 2025, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) joined librarians, educators, and administrators across 15-20 institutions to participate in an Ithaka S+R AI cohort. Ithaka S+R has worked with academic libraries, teaching and learning centers, and college administrators across...

Core Mathematics Applications using AI

This presentation examines ways to use prompts with AI to build on the applications of core mathematics topics involving algebra, finance, probability, and statistics. We will use AI to discover how the topics in core mathematics could apply to students regardless of their major.

Enhancing Mathematics Learning with NotebookLM: From Passive Study to Active Engagement

This 25-minute interactive session explores how NotebookLM can be used to enhance student learning in mathematics by transforming passive study habits into active engagement. Rather than focusing solely on the capabilities of AI, this session emphasizes practical, classroom-cente...

Hatching plasticity and embryonic learning in chorus frog ( Pseudacris triseriata ) embryos in response to predatory burrowing crayfish ( Lacunicambarus chimera )

Crayfish represent a profound threat to amphibian populations worldwide, often acting as keystone predators that disrupt breeding success and contribute to local declines. In particular, voracious predation on eggs can consume substantial proportions of clutches, exacerbating vul...

Designing with Intent: A Comparative Analysis of Custom AI Chatbots as UDL-Aligned Tools for Multidisciplinary Instruction

The growing presence of AI in higher education has prompted instructors to move beyond passive adoption, to deliberate theory-grounded design. This session presents two custom AI chatbots (DisneyBot and Rico) developed within a teacher preparation course as the technology-enhance...

Engaging with Student Perspectives of AI to Build Better Assignments and Enhance Learning

This workshop will present data from recent student focus groups and surveys that collected students’ common uses and attitudes about AI. Additionally, anecdotal evidence from faculty workshops that include conversations about AI will be presented. This data will be used to gener...

From “I’m Not a Coder” to “I Built a Website”: Teaching Business Concepts Through AI Vibe Coding

This presentation shares my experience developing an AI vibe coding project for business students with little or no coding experience. Students first replicated a website, then created their own improved version and learned from peer feedback. Through trial and error, they revise...

Building Bots That Teach Thinking: Using Custom AI Chatbots to Enhance Critical Thinking and Decision-Making

Generative AI is increasingly common in education, but its effect on student learning depends largely on how it is used. This interactive session will introduce practical strategies for creating custom AI chatbots that encourage students to think through problems rather than simp...

Simulating the Clinical Encounter: Using AI Personas for Risk-Free Mental Health Assessment Practice

Mental health assessment requires students to navigate complex conversations involving depression, anxiety, mania, psychosis, suicide risk, and other sensitive clinical situations. Yet opportunities to repeatedly practice these conversations in a safe, low-stakes environment can...

AI-Aware Student Recommendations for GenAI in Higher Ed

What do well-informed students say about the use and integration of AI in their college educations? In Spring and Summer 2026 semesters, students in three sections of ENG 102 at UNR wrote AI-aware white papers with policy recommendations for the integration of genAI into higher e...

Designing Custom Chatbots for Classroom Use: Practical Examples, Benefits, and Current Limitations

Recent advances in generative AI have made it increasingly possible for individual educators to design and implement their own custom chatbots without advanced programming skills (Abe & Kaneshige, 2025). This workshop introduces practical examples of custom chatbots developed for...

Resisting AI with Paper: Possibilities, Concerns and Protest

While there are a number of commercial benefits involved in incorporating AI usage and training into college composition classrooms, to many the perils and problems involved in student AI use outweigh these possibilities. A growing number of composition instructors have chosen to...

STEM teacher leadership profiles: Connecting innovative teaching and leadership role enactment

This study identified teacher leadership profiles among 229 mathematics and science teachers and examined how these profiles relate to innovative teaching and role enactment. Using k -means clustering, four distinct profiles emerged: High-Engaged Leaders ( n = 25) showed consiste...

Highlights from an early base camp in Beringia 13,800 years ago: Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ and the Late Pleistocene peopling of Alaska

Human dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge (BLB) was a key event in the peopling of the Americas, but Beringia’s archaeological record remains poorly understood. In response, the Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ site in interior Alaska has been the focus of a multi-disciplinary study since 20...

A Unified Quadratic Scaling Relation Between Potency and Local Earthquake Magnitudes for −1.8 ≤ M L ≤ 7.5

Abstract Quantifying earthquake size across scales requires linking physical source parameters to empirical magnitude measures, especially for microearthquakes where attenuation, scattering, and instrumental limitations complicate source characterization. We combine regional resu...

Microbial Degradation of Lignin Generates Iron-Binding Organic Ligands

Abstract The association of organic carbon (OC) with iron (Fe) minerals is a primary mechanism governing soil OC persistence, yet the molecular agents mediating Fe–OC binding remain poorly defined. In this study, we demonstrated that microbial degradation of lignin, one of the ma...

Synaptic connectome of a neurosecretory network in the Drosophila brain

Abstract Hormones mediate inter-organ signaling which is crucial in orchestrating diverse behaviors and physiological processes including sleep and activity, feeding, growth, metabolism and reproduction. The pars intercerebralis and pars lateralis in insects represent major hubs...

UV Inactivation of Bacteria and Viruses on Surfaces: Mechanistic Insights and Testing Method Comparisons

Abstract Accurate evaluation of UV surface disinfection requires understanding of the impacts of testing methods and microbial characteristics on observed inactivation performance. This study evaluated the surface inactivation kinetics of two bacteria and two bacteriophages using...

Quantifying Free-Roaming Horse Body Condition: A Methodological Investigation Using Game Cameras and Observer Bias Corrections

Large populations of free-roaming horses (Equus caballus ) inhabit the western United States, Australia, and other arid and semi-arid rangelands globally. In the United States, horse body condition has been the impetus for gathering and removing horses under an emergency designat...