A multidisciplinary science experiment was performed in K-12 classrooms focusing on the interconnection between technology with geology and chemistry. The engagement and passion for science of over eight hundred students across twenty-one classrooms, utilizing a combination of hands-on activities using relationships between Earth and space rock studies, followed by a remote access session wherein students remotely employed the use of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to validate their findings was investigated. | Journal of Technology and Science Education JOTSE, 2018 – 8(1): 86-95 – Online ISSN: 2013-6374 – Print ISSN: 2014-5349 CONTEXTUALIZING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM VIA REMOTE ACCESS: USING SPACE EXPLORATION THEMES AND SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AS TOOLS TO PROMOTE ENGAGEMENT IN GEOLOGY/CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTS Brandon Rodriguez1 , Veronica Jaramillo2 , Vanessa Wolf2 , Esteban Bautista2 , Jennifer Portillo2 , Alexandra Brouke2 , Ashley Min2 , Andrea Melendez2 , Joseph Amann3 Abdon Pena-Francesch4 , Jared Ashcroft2 1 , EPDC at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (United States) 2 Pasadena City College (United States) 3 4 Seattle Colleges (United States) Penn State University (United States) , VIJARAMILLO@, vwolf@, , , abrouke@, ashleymin97@, amelendez12@, , abdon@, JMASHCROFT@ Received November 2017 Accepted January 2018 Abstract A multidisciplinary science experiment was performed in K-12 classrooms focusing on the interconnection between technology with geology and chemistry. The engagement and passion for science of over eight hundred students across twenty-one classrooms, utilizing a combination of hands-on activities using relationships between Earth and space rock studies, followed by a remote access session wherein students remotely employed the use of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to validate their findings was investigated. Participants represent predominantly low-income minority communities, with little exposure to the themes and equipment used, despite being freely available resources. Students indicated greatly increased interest in scientific practices and careers, as well as a better grasp of the content as a result of the lab and remote access coupling .
