WNC students bring augmented reality sandbox to life

Students in Professor of Geosciences Winnie Kortemeier’s class experienced learning via enhanced teaching tools, including an interactive topographic map featured in an augmented reality sandbox.

Kortemeier worked with students to lead efforts to build and bring this teaching tool to WNC. The interactive map gives students details on the forces that shape our geography such as mountains, wind and bodies of water.

The AR sandbox was initially conceived and launched as part of a grant from NSF EPSCOR Undergraduate Visualization and Modeling Network and then worked on by NASA-funded students in Nevada Community of Practice groups in subsequent years. Marianne Denton to Lecture on ‘Water Bears’ on Oct. 27 at WNC.

They’re smaller than a millimeter, live on fluid and are tough enough to survive radiation and starvation.

Tardigrades, or more commonly water bears, will be the topic of Marianne Denton’s Oct. 27 lecture, “Teeny-Tiny Tardigrades: The Wondrous World of Water Bears,” at Western Nevada College’s Jack C. Davis Observatory.

Denton is a full-time aquatic ecologist, part-time student and astrobiology enthusiast who’s active in preparing, promoting and/or presenting science-based events in Northern Nevada.

“When I’m not collecting tardigrades for research, I am collecting benthic macroinvertebrates — the little creatures that live in the bottom of streams, lakes and wetlands,” she said.

Water bears are an eight-legged minute invertebrate that prefers to live in moist areas such as water and mosses. Some believe they will remain on Earth longer than people.

The free lecture is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

UNR Transfer Day on Oct. 17 in Dini Library

Students planning to transfer to the University of Nevada, Reno will be provided an informational day in WNC’s Library, located in the Joe Dini Building, on Wednesday, Oct. 17 from noon to 4 p.m.

Students planning to transfer next fall or in the future can get information and admissions support.

Transfer Day will include:

• Onsite admission with UNR advisers

• Hands-on financial aid workshop

• Opportunity to enroll early for UNR scholarships

• Reps from nine different UNR colleges, including Nursing, School of Business, Engineering, Education, Division of Health Sciences, School of Journalism, Agriculture and Biotechnology and Natural Resources, Undecided and Liberal Arts

For information: 775-445-3267.

Free Climate and Health Presentation on Oct. 10

Learn from experts how “Smoke, Heat, Mosquitoes and Ticks” are affecting Northern Nevadans’ health during a free presentation Wednesday, Oct. 10 at Western Nevada College.

A panel of experts representing the Western Regional Climate Center at the Desert Research Institute and the University of Nevada, Reno will share their expertise on fire, extreme heat and biting insects from 6 to 8 p.m. in Marlette Hall in the Cedar Building on the Carson City campus.

The speakers will include Dr. Tim Brown, director of Western Regional Climate Center at DRI, wildfire trends and health effects of breathing smoke; Dr. Andrew Nuss, assistant professor of entomology at UNR, spread of mosquitoes and ticks and diseases they carry; and Stephanie McAfee, Nevada deputy state climatology and UNR assistant professor of geography, incidence and health effects of extreme heat events.

Refreshments will be provided.

For information, phone Bill Prowse at 775-883-0902.