Stony Brook Students Get a Boost at the Gemini Pop-Up Event
The Google Gemini pop-up event, themed as a "Gemini Juice Bar activation," was a hit at Stony Brook University on Thursday, May 7th, and Friday, May 8th. The event, which ran daily from approximately 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM in the SAC Plaza Circle, was designed to give students a much-needed boost with helpful study assistants ahead of finals exam season.
I asked students about their experience and this article provides a summary (with help from Gemini)
The activation invited students to select one of four emotional "need states"—Focus, Clarity, Calm, or Confidence—to explore a corresponding Gemini app feature.
One popular demo station was the Focus prompting stand, dedicated to showcasing tools for personalized exam prep and quizzes. Attendees were shown how to leverage their own class materials to quickly build a study set. Through live demonstrations, students learned to prompt Gemini to generate effective review materials, specifically creating flashcards and quizzes based on the class materials in their study sets.
A key takeaway from the experience was the deep functionality of the tools, suggesting that you can do a lot more with Gemini than initially expected. In addition to the existing quiz-generation features (which provide feedback on what went wrong), the demonstrations revealed two valuable capabilities:
- Data Export: The ability to export generated data directly into other applications, such as Sheets.
- Platform Difference: The insight that Gemini on a desktop offers significantly more features compared to the phone version.
Ultimately, the demonstrations highlighted how Gemini can serve as a powerful tool for academic success, enabling students to better understand their material and making the review process easier through the creation of customized quizzes and flashcards. These tools, which can integrate directly with NotebookLM, provide a powerful "one-stop shop" for students.
~ Diana Voss, Director of Academic Technology Services