Rocks, Fossils, and Meteorites: UH Scientists Bring Earth’s Greatest Hits to Elementary School
University of Houston Researchers Turned a Classroom Into a Hands-On Discovery Experience for Second and Third Graders
On November 19, 2025, three students and a professor from the University of Houston’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences visited Dr. James “Red” Duke Elementary School. They set out with one mission in mind: capture the attention of a few dozen 2nd and 3rd graders.
Dr. Michael Antonelli, a professor and researcher of isotope geochemistry, along with three graduate students, Amberlee Enger, Zachary Guess and Melania Maqway, were invited to speak about earth, atmospheric, and space-related topics by Hannah Fortune, a teacher at the school. Each of them spent time crafting lectures and engaging demonstrations for the students. The result was a presentation that linked weather/climate processes and the carbon cycle, volcanoes, dinosaurs and the asteroid that delivered their demise. The presentation was followed by multi-station demonstrations related to each topic. The weather/climate table performed two experiments demonstrating the atmospheric composition and how carbonates dissolve in increasingly acidic waters. The volcanology table consisted of various intrusive and extrusive igneous rock samples from around the world. The fossils table displayed vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, including a mosasaur jaw and allosaurus femur bone. And finally, the meteorite vs. “meteor-wrong” table displayed rocks commonly mistaken for meteorites alongside a true meteorite from a planetesimal that exploded 4,565 million years ago.
The incredible engagement of these students made this experience equally rewarding for Antonelli and his graduate students. Events like these provide students and faculty of the UH EAS department with an opportunity to share the same topics they investigate in their research with a much younger audience than usual, strengthening their science communication skills through education. This type of community outreach is imperative to the continuation of scientific education, but it wouldn’t be possible without the curious minds, eagerly raised hands and interesting factoids belonging to these brilliant young students. Finally, the participants wish to thank the educators who made this event possible. Dr. Antonelli and his lab group hope to return to James “Red” Duke Elementary in the future to inspire more students to follow their STEM dreams.