In the Land of the Thirsty Machines: AI’s Unseen Strain on Our Water Supply

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely heralded as a solution to climate change, offering tools for energy optimization, environmental modeling, and sustainable agriculture. Yet beneath this optimistic narrative lies a largely overlooked ecological cost: water consumption. This lesson asks students to engage with topics in AI ethics, including hydrological ethics and its impacts on water scarcity, aquifer depletion, and planetary-scale extractivism

The Sustainable Development of Rehabilitation

People who have recovered from disease or injury benefit from rehabilitation practices. This has the benefit of directing people away from energy hungry hospitals to more environmentally efficient locations. It also helps prevent the return of patients to the hospital

Alcohol Use, Neuroinflammation, and a Ketogenic Diet in a Mouse Model of Alcohol Use

A Ketogenic diet (KD) is a diet with high fat, moderate amounts of protein, and low carbohydrate. KD has been known for many therapeutic purposes. This project focuses on the study of how KD affects cognitive performance in mice administered alcohol. Three groups of mice were used in this study, two groups were injected with 20% alcohol (EtOH) and one group was no-alcohol controls. Before the alcohol administration period began, the KD mice were fed KD for 1 week. Then, mice assigned to EtOH groups were injected intraperitoneally for 10 days in a row, while no-alcohol controls were not injected with anything. It is expected that mice that were injected with alcohol will have lower cognitive performance in a test of working memory and higher GFAP expression in the hippocampus compared to no-alcohol controls, and KD will rescue cognitive performance and reduce GFAP

196 - Perfectionist Self-Presentation and Social Media Motives as Mediators of Narcissism and Problematic Social Media Use

According to the Compensatory Internet Use Theory (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014), individuals may use social media to compensate for challenges they may experience socially and/or to meet certain psychological or emotional needs. This compensation may increase the risk of problematic social media use, including addiction and stalking behavior. Researchers have linked both grandiose narcissism (exhibitionism, self-importance, and reflecting self-perceptions of grandiosity and dominance) and vulnerable narcissism (hypersensitivity to the opinions of others, defensiveness, and insecurity) to problematic social media behaviors. We examined both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism as predictors of social media stalking and addiction, with perfectionistic self-presentation and social media motives as mediators. Results indicated that perfectionistic self-presentation and fear of missing out fully mediated the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and addiction and stalking. In contrast, perfectionistic self-presentation and praise/popularity motives when using social media fully mediated the relationship between grandiose narcissism and addiction and stalking. In addition, using social media to hurt/punish others fully mediated the relationship between grandiose narcissism and stalking. Implications for interventions to reduce social media addiction and stalking are discussed

Emphasizing a Student-Centered Process: Open Pedagogy Course Assessments Across Disciplines

Emphasizing a Student-Centered Process: Open Pedagogy Course Assessments Across Disciplines showcases how Open Educational Practices (OEP) empower students as active contributors to knowledge creation. Grounded in constructivist principles, this collection highlights student-centered assessments—from collaborative course design and renewable assignments to generative artificial intelligence—that foster critical thinking, active learning, and inclusivity. Through practical examples and reflective discussions, the book provides educators with actionable strategies to integrate open pedagogical practices across disciplines while addressing challenges such as institutional support, professional development, and resource accessibility.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1036/thumbnail.jp

Student Life

Photograph of a group of women gathered in a room at SUNY Geneseo. Pictured is one woman who seems to be reading from a book while the other students listen.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/cap-as-unidentified/1000/thumbnail.jp

Climate Change and Human Migration

Migration is one of the oldest human behaviors and among the most important of human survival strategies. Climate change has always been a significant driver of human migration because humans are interdependent with the ecosystems where they live. Today’s climate change is anthropogenic, and its harmful effects are made worse by social inequities. Millions are having to leave their homes, including internally displaced people, climate refugees, and labor migrants. Radical changes are needed in science, policy, law, and cultural narratives to minimize the harms of climate displacement

064 - Children’s Onlooker Behavior with Siblings and with Friends at Ages 4 and 7

As part of a longitudinal study of sibling and friend interactions, we examined children’s onlooker behavior with siblings and with friends at ages 4 and 7. We analyzed the interactions of 65 white, middle-class American children with siblings and friends at ages 4 and 7. All sibling pairs were 15-30 months apart in age; half were same-gender, half mixed-gender. At both ages, dyads were videotaped at home in semi-structured situations during separate sibling and friend visits, playing with experimenter-provided toys selected to foster social interaction. The videotapes were transcribed and coded for social engagement at 10-second intervals. Our findings reveal that age, partner, and sibling status all had significant impacts on the frequency of onlooker behavior. As expected, at both ages siblings spent more time in onlooker behavior than friends did. At age 4, younger siblings exhibited more onlooker behavior than older siblings did, whereas at age 7, older siblings spent more time in onlooker behavior than younger siblings did. The amount of onlooker behavior with friends did not change from age 4 to age 7 and did not differ between the target child and the friend. In early childhood, younger siblings may be more interested in watching what their older siblings are doing, while older siblings, may be focused on their own play. By middle childhood, as the age gap between siblings becomes less significant, play may become more reciprocal, and older siblings may become more concerned with ensuring that their younger sibling is following their ideas for play

012 - Second-Generation Biofuel Production from Rice Husks: Quantification of Glucose Utilizing Dinitrosalicylic Acid Analysis

For decades, dependence on fossil fuels has led to excessive greenhouse gas emissions, significantly advancing global warming. Greenhouse gases trap heat within Earth’s atmosphere, ultimately preventing its escape into space and intensifying climate change. As concerns over climate change grow, the search for renewable energy alternatives has become increasingly more urgent. Biomass energy presents a promising and sustainable resolution. First-generation biofuels, derived from carb-rich crops (rice and potatoes), pose challenges due to their competition with food supplies, increasing prices globally. To address this issue, researchers have turned to second-generation biofuels, which utilize lignocellulosic materials-inedible structural parts of plants-as a renewable source of ethanol. Our study focuses on rice husks, one of the most abundant agricultural byproducts, to evaluate its potential as an efficient biofuel source. The biomass is pretreated with 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride to drive glucose extraction. The resulting glucose concentration is then measured using dinitrosalicylic acid analysis and glucose refractometry. The quantified glucose levels serve as an indicator of potential ethanol yield through fermentation, offering a viable and sustainable energy alternative

206 - Identities and Nesting Patterns of Cavity-Nesting Bees and Wasps

Cavity-nesting bees and wasps lay eggs in hollow stems or other pre-made cavities and provision their larvae with food to overwinter until their emergence in spring. To observe nesting patterns, we placed nesting boxes containing “bee tubes” made of hollow reeds in five locations around the SUNY Geneseo campus. We photographed the tubes once a week over the summer, as the tubes were gradually sealed off by insects to form larval cells. We noted the type of material used to fill the tubes and analyzed the trends in the phenology and site preferences of the various fill types using the photographic record. The bee tubes were allowed to overwinter and then, over the spring of 2024, the bee tubes were dissected and observations were made to identify the immature occupants based on their morphology and the materials used to provision the young. This fall, we pinned the voucher specimens and identified them using the online tool “Discover Life”. Some of the commonly observed bee taxa in the tubes include Megachile pugnata, Megachile rotundata, Megachile relativa, and Osmia caerulescens. Wasps were also common occupants of the tubes, including taxa such as the grass-carrying wasp Isodontia mexicana, the spider predator Trypoxylon sp., and the potter wasp Ancistrocerus capra. In this study, we connected the identities of occupants to the cavity fill type, site preferences, and timing of occupation. This information gives us a better understanding of our local native bee and wasp ecology and the conservation efforts necessary to support their populations