From Orbit to Earth: Agricultural Workforce Development using Real-Time Spectrometry

Elisa Mai, Assistant Professor of Crop Production Technology at Garden City Community College, shares how she integrated STELLA (Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment) handheld spectrometers into her Technology in Agriculture course in Fall 2025. Working with NASA Acres and Kansas State University, her students used these instruments to measure plant reflectance and compare ground data with Landsat satellite imagery, transforming abstract remote sensing concepts into tangible, hands-on experiences. "Remote sensing is not much fun to look at from a PowerPoint perspective," Mai explains, describing how students measured everything from pavement to crops, seeing real-time wavelength changes that made the science come alive. She also brought STELLA to a campus STEM fair, demonstrating spectral differences between bare dirt and plants to engage the broader college community. Looking ahead to the course's next offering in Spring 2027, Mai plans to deepen the technical content and take students into actual agricultural fields to compare healthy and stressed crops, while exploring collaboration with the college's robotics program to have students build their own instruments—combining agricultural application with engineering skills.