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UNO’s AI-CCORE to Lead Hands-On AI Session, Host NA’WI Exhibit at NATS Fall Conference
UNO’s AI-CCORE will lead an Oct. 9 hands-on AI session for educators at the NATS Fall Conference and host a NA’WI exhibit featuring the initiative’s approach to practical AI literacy across Nebraska.
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Science teachers ask students to question a claim, test it, and look at the evidence before deciding what to believe. On Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, educators attending the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science (NATS) Fall Conference at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium can apply those same habits to artificial intelligence (AI).
Two University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) computer scientists will lead a hands-on morning session on what AI tools can do, where they need guardrails, and how teachers might use them in real classroom work. The session will introduce the Nebraska AI Literacy and Workforce Infrastructure Initiative (NA’WI), led by UNO’s Artificial Intelligence Center for Collaborative Outreach, Research, and Education (AI-CCORE). AI-CCORE will also host an exhibit on NA’WI throughout the day.
What educators will do in the session
The session, “Demystifying AI: A Hands-On Exploration of LLMs, Guardrails & Classroom Applications,” is scheduled for 8 to 8:50 A.M. in the Bison Classroom on the main floor of the zoo’s Robert B. Daugherty Education Center. Mahadevan Subramaniam, Ph.D., director of AI-CCORE and chair of UNO’s Department of Computer Science, will lead it with Parvathi Chundi, Ph.D., a professor in the department.
Attendees will explore large language models (LLMs), the technology behind AI chatbots and writing assistants. The session will also cover policies, guardrails, and responsible-use strategies for AI in the classroom, with activities that reach beyond science into middle and high school English, social sciences, humanities, and STEM pathways.
In the hands-on portion, attendees will try AI tools on planning tasks teachers already know: mapping lessons to standards, designing courses, and building assignments that fit a school’s or district’s AI policy.
For teachers, the practical questions are familiar ones. Is this output accurate? Is it right for these students? Does it fit the school’s rules? Those calls still belong to the teacher.
NA’WI is designed for people who are not technologists
The initiative assumes no prior AI experience. Its planned curriculum takes learners from recognizing AI in familiar tools, to using it responsibly, to applying it to a real problem.
Early activities include hands-on demonstrations of everyday AI tools and myth-versus-reality exercises. Later work covers privacy, security, bias, and evaluating AI-generated content, including what should stay out of public AI tools. The last stage asks participants to design an AI solution concept for a local challenge.
NA’WI plans to reach people close to home: through in-person workshops at sites such as public libraries, community centers, and college classrooms; through online learning; and through holographic technology, which will be part of the exhibit. It also plans to train local educators, librarians, and others as “AI Champions” who can lead introductory sessions in their own communities. The initiative is built in partnership with Nebraska EPSCoR.
Why AI literacy matters in Nebraska
In the July 2026 Nebraska Snapshot, a statewide survey report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), 53% of Nebraskans said they had read or heard little or nothing about AI. In the same survey, 45% said they had little or no control over AI in their lives.
The Nebraska Rural Poll last published a report on AI in 2024; its 2026 AI report has not yet been released. In 2024, 53% of rural respondents said they were not at all or slightly informed about AI. Those who considered themselves more informed were more likely to be at least moderately confident that AI is being used in the public’s best interest.
That is a correlation, and it does not show that learning about AI changes anyone’s view of it. NA’WI’s emphasis is practical judgment: helping people decide for themselves when AI is useful, when an answer needs checking, what information to protect, and when not to use AI at all.
At the exhibit: expertise that can travel
Conference attendees can stop by the NA’WI exhibit any time from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. to learn about the initiative and see Proto holographic technology, one of the ways NA’WI plans to deliver instruction. Proto displays show a presenter, live or recorded, in an image that appears three-dimensional, with no headset needed.
The display is a delivery tool, not the lesson. Much of Nebraska’s AI expertise is based in Omaha and Lincoln. In NA’WI’s plans, an instructor at UNO could appear live and interact with learners at a library in Scottsbluff or a community college in North Platte, bringing AI learning to communities instead of asking them to travel.
Fifty minutes will not settle every question about AI in schools. Educators who want to keep exploring can visit the NA’WI exhibit after the session, and those who cannot attend can read more about the initiative on the AI-CCORE website.
If you go
• Session: “Demystifying AI: A Hands-On Exploration of LLMs, Guardrails & Classroom Applications”
• Date and time: Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, 8 to 8:50 A.M.
• Location: Bison Classroom, main floor, Robert B. Daugherty Education Center, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
• Speakers: Mahadevan Subramaniam, Ph.D., and Parvathi Chundi, Ph.D.
• NA’WI exhibit: Friday, Oct. 9, 8 A.M. to 4 P.M.
• Conference: NATS Fall Conference, Oct. 8-10
Details and registration:
https://www.nebscinats.org/natsfc
• Session listing: NATS conference schedule