Bringing NASA Technology to the Classroom: One Educator's Mission to Transform STEM Learning
Video Summary
An innovative teacher is using NASA’s STELLA instrument to bridge the gap between space technology and K-12 education, creating hands-on learning experiences that prepare students for tomorrow’s workforce.
Lynn Nichols discovered a remarkable teaching tool when she was introduced to NASA’s STELLA instrument—a 3D-printed handheld spectrometer that combines everything she loves about STEM education. “I love working with STELLA because it is so based on Arduino technologies and other kinds of microcontroller pieces,” explains the Instructional Technology Coach at Gilman School.
From Robotics to Space Technology
Her path to educational technology leadership wasn’t traditional. Through the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, Lynn participated in BLAST camps and dove into First Tech Challenge robotics competitions. This hands-on experience with microcontrollers, Arduino programming, and electronics became the foundation for her current work with NASA’s STELLA instrument—a 3D-printed handheld spectrometer that embodies her STEAM education philosophy.
Real-World Impact in the Classroom
The STELLA instrument naturally incorporates multiple STEAM disciplines: students engage in digital fabrication through its 3D-printed casing, develop electronics skills through soldering components, and apply data science concepts through real-world environmental monitoring. Lynn’s students use these NASA-developed tools to monitor urban heat islands, assess vegetation health for food security, and measure air quality—directly connecting classroom learning to global environmental challenges and space missions.
Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce
Lynn’s approach represents more than just innovative teaching—it’s workforce development in action. By combining traditional mathematics and science curricula with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies, robotics programming, and NASA applications, she is preparing students with the practical skills and problem-solving mindsets needed for careers in engineering, manufacturing, and technology fields.
Her work with STELLA demonstrates how educators can successfully integrate NASA technology into accessible classroom experiences, making STEM education more relevant and engaging while building the technical workforce of tomorrow.
Transcript
Lynn Nichols: I am currently a pre-K through 12 instructional technology coach at the Gilman School. I also teach mathematics and robotics and technology.
I am also working on a PhD in instructional technology at Towson University. Specifically, I’m looking at how makerspace technologies can be used to broaden access to STEM. And I also do a lot of work with microcontrollers as part of my work with robotics. I love working with Arduinos, and I’ve done some really cool BattleBots activities with microcontrollers, which are really fun too.
And so I love working with STELLA because it is so based on Arduino technologies and other kinds of microcontroller pieces. I also love playing Ultimate Frisbee and I enjoy doing any astronomy activities that I can get my hands on.
Mike Taylor: How did you first learn about the STELLA instrument and what drew you to focus on them as educational tools?
Lynn Nichols: Yeah. So Elana Resnick introduced me to you, Mike. And you introduced me to this STELLA tool, to sort of our work at how we can leverage it to enhance mathematics curriculum. And I saw that as a really incredible opportunity to get teachers connected with NASA and connected with handheld spectrometers that they can really easily employ in their classrooms.
So, the work that we did with Towson University, their National Science Foundation Noyce Grant teacher fellows, I think really demonstrates how it can be used in an effective way. We used STELLA to talk about all of the data applications of using the handheld spectrometers to measure temperature and look at urban heat islands and talked about how it can be used to check vegetation health in order to make sure that we have access to nutritious food across the country and crops are not endangered.
And then we also looked at how it can be used to check air quality. We know that that is just such an important piece of student health. And so all of those really help connect students with digital fabrication and industrial manufacturing and all of the amazing things that NASA is doing with Landsat and how Landsat really helps protect our health and our access to nutritious food and our air quality.
Mike Taylor: What made you see the connection between STELLA and STEAM making?
Lynn Nichols: It’s 3D printed.
I mean, that’s the first and foremost piece is that it’s all the 3D printed casing. And that is just so naturally related to digital fabrication. Also, all of the soldering pieces—you know, soldering is something that we do really regularly in our robotics classes. And so that’s something that students are used to and we do pretty regularly and felt like a natural connection to STELLA. The data analysis that goes into taking the readings and then looking at the results is also something that is a natural connection to our math classrooms and curriculum.
And I always think that the microcontroller connections are just so cool. I love using Arduinos for different kinds of things. It’s a great introductory tool to electronics and to coding for students. They’re very powerful for really helping students segue into more advanced coding topics. It gives nice introductions to things like loops, arrays.
You can also do a lot of conditional logic pieces with them. And so it’s just like a nice coding tool and all of that is wrapped up in a STELLA.
