12th-grade students visiting a remote-sensing lab: linking school curriculum and geoscience research activities

As part of the Science and Innovation Week in Spain, researchers from the Environmental Remote Sensing and Spectroscopy Laboratory (SpecLab) CSIC organized an outreach activity for secondary students comprehending: 1) a dissemination lecture presenting remote sensing history and main applications as well as the laboratory's scientific activities, 2) a virtual tour using virtual reality glasses to explore the international research station of Majadas de Tiétar, the first ICOS-ecosystem (Integrated Carbon Observation System) station in Spain, where remote and proximal sensing activities combine with biogeochemistry and ecology research, and 3) a visit to the SpecLab laboratory, where students learnt about scientific instrumentation and measured with it.

These activities were attended by a group of 8 students from the final year of secondary school (grade 12) who are following a specialization course in physics and chemistry. The aim was to introduce them to the field of remote sensing research, show them the multi-disciplinary nature of the laboratory's activities, and make them aware that many of the scientific contents studied in the school curriculum find their application in real-life geosciences research.

We analyse the student´s notes taken at the conference, their answers to questionnaires on the content covered, and their impressions. With this information, we identified a major interest in this type of outreach activities organized by a scientific laboratory: “the ecology of knowledge”. Indeed, school knowledge is decontextualized, which means students can construct new knowledge through various activities and relate what they know to what is presented to them. We propose this approach can help students to value their knowledge and stimulate their interest in geosciences.