STELLA Workshop – June 2 and 3
Preperation Phase
In spring 2025, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center began planning an ambitious STELLA workshop scheduled for June 2-3. The planning committee consisted of Rachel White, Mike Taylor, Paul Mirel, Alicia Joseph, Bri Lind, Joseph Eimer and others, who started meeting as early as April 28 to organize what would become a significant educational event. The team carefully selected participants, ultimately finalizing a roster limited to 14 attendees.
Workshop Design
The committee crafted a comprehensive two-day agenda focused on introducing educators to STELLA technology. The workshop was designed to provide hands-on experience with the STELLA-Q2 instruments – affordable spectral instruments that allow users to essentially “become the satellite” through ground-based remote sensing.
Each participant would build their own Q2 spectrometer. The planning team ordered these components well in advance, ensuring everything would be ready for the June workshop.
Day One: June 2, 2025
The workshop began at 8:45 AM with refreshments and a pre-survey as participants arrived at NASA Goddard. At 9:00 AM, formal introductions started with an icebreaker where participants shared their favorite natural phenomena – from cloud types to preferred crops.
Paul led a session explaining what STELLA is and the purpose behind its creation, emphasizing how it bridges satellite-based comparison, field research, citizen science, and classroom applications. The holistic approach highlighted how users effectively “become the satellite” through these handheld instruments.
By 9:30 AM, Bri presented an introduction to remote sensing, covering the basics of spectral signatures, infrared light, and how vegetation appears differently based on its health status. This foundation prepared participants for the hands-on activities to follow.
The late morning saw participants building their own STELLA-Q2 devices, programming them, and conducting initial tests with construction paper to ensure proper functionality. An informal visit by NASA DEVELOP to discuss the program happened around lunchtime. After lunch, teams of four or fewer ventured outdoors to collect data, learning about calibration and measurement techniques firsthand.
Day Two: June 3, 2025
The second day began with participants reflecting on their new capabilities. Having built their own instruments, they discussed what they wanted to learn and how they might apply STELLA in their own educational environments. Teams developed simple measurement plans and compared their expectations with actual data results.
Morning activities included taking field notes by batch number and time, with various measurement options including tests on paints, plants, built surfaces, water with food coloring, and even an apple placed on grass. By 11:00 AM, participants were extracting and plotting their data, learning to isolate specific measurements from the total dataset and analyze differential data between measurements. Dr. Petya Campbell, the STELLA Lead scientist, came by to talk to and instruct participants while taking their measurements.
Representatives from NASA Acres visited to discuss their program and STELLA’s applications for agricultural learning.
During lunch, the workshop featured a sneak peek at upcoming STELLA versions (1.2 and AQ). The afternoon concluded with team presentations of their findings, with the workshop officially ending at 1:30 PM. Some participants took the opportunity to visit the Goddard Visitor Center and gift shop, while others stayed behind for further discussion until the final departure at 2:30 PM.
Impact and Outcomes
The workshop successfully brought together educators from different institutions, providing them not only with the knowledge but also the physical tools (STELLA-Q2 devices) to implement remote sensing education in their classrooms.
The approach emphasized the collaborative nature of science, demonstrating how collecting and sharing data contributes to a clearer understanding of our world. Participants learned that unexpected results aren’t failures but learning opportunities, building resilience in scientific inquiry while connecting curiosity with problem-solving skills.
By the workshop’s conclusion, these educators had transformed from passive learners into instrument builders and data collectors, ready to bring satellite science down to earth for their own students and contribute to NASA’s broader educational and scientific goals.
