What's Happening?
$125,000 to bring Challenger Learning Center to miSci
A grant from The Schenectady Foundation is helping to bring the experience of space exploration to area students. With the $125,000, miSci, the Museum of Innovation and Science, is completing the development of the Challenger Learning Center.
Based on the space shuttle and NASA space exploration program, the Challenger Learning Center (CLC) will enable students to experience a space-themed science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program. The program – the first of its kind in the region -- will include two months of classroom study to help students apply and enhance their decision-making, problem solving, and communication skills. The program will culminate with a simulated space mission. Using NASA-type equipment, student teams will use navigation, life support, computer technology, and math skills to launch a space probe into a comet’s tail or a flight to the moon or Mars. One team of students will operate the mission control room, while the other operates the space vehicle. During the mission students will use the science, math, technology and other skills they learned in the classroom.
"This is an exciting opportunity to expose students to STEM and some of its real life applications," said Robert Carreau, TSF Executive Director. "We are delighted that $25,000 of the TSF grant will help Schenectady youths involved in the Foundation’s Strengthening Families program to take advantage of the CLC experience."
When complete, the CLC will join miSci’s Suits-Bueche Planetarium and the Dudley Observatory, which moved to miSci in 2013 -- three outstanding aerospace teaching tools at the region’s science center.
“We are grateful to The Schenectady Foundation for these funds for the Challenger Learning Center and student scholarships,” said miSci Executive Director Dr. Mac Sudduth. “miSci and the Challenger Learning Center are collaborating to offer a unique resource for STEM education in the Capital Region and a center for excellence in aerospace education.”
