Each of us has vivid memories of those particular moments as students when our ideas became organized and we suddenly “got it.” Teachers feel a similar exhilaration when they lead their students through a difficult concept and see it suddenly transform into knowledge. The challenge school instructors face is coming up with innovative lessons that explain increasingly complex topics. There is a frustrating quandary at play for educators in the Technology Age. While the need for science, math, and computer literacy has never been more crucial for American students, they consistently rank behind their counterparts in other nations. Students have an obvious fascination with space and technology, but how to turn that enthusiasm into an understanding of it?

A visit to the Challenger Space Center is one solution. Our programs, designed for students in grades preschool through high school, are active, not passive. They’re hands-on and minds-on experiences. Once students pass through the portal of the Space Center, they encounter an interactive computerized simulator with a Mission Control room modeled after the NASA Johnson Space Center and an orbiting Space Station. Students rev up their imaginations and transform themselves into astronauts, engineers and scientists.

A three-hour mission simulation at the Challenger Space Center is an innovative and exciting co-curricular experience. Prior to flying a mission, students have already worked through a series of preparatory materials in their classroom. These activities go beyond science to encompass a variety of interdisciplinary themes, from oral and written communication to math and art. A student’s experience at the Challenger Space Center becomes much more meaningful because it culminates weeks of classroom preparation and study. It is not uncommon to hear an eruption of cheers when students successfully complete their mission’s objective.

As students participate in one of four available mission scenarios, they use the study of science as a springboard to understanding essential life skills such as teamwork, communication and decision-making.

Mission Scenarios

When students arrive at a Challenger Space Center, the class is divided into two groups-half of the students are assigned to Mission Control while the others are transported to the Space Station. Each student is assigned a partner on one of eight teams: Medical, Life Support, Isolation, Remote, Probe, Navigation, Communications and Data. At the mission’s halfway point, the partners exchange places so every student experiences both learning environments.

Commitment to Standards

All of the Challenger Space Center’s educational programs impart content information and process skills to students through experiential learning. These experiences generate understanding and learning by engaging students in simulation-authentic, meaningful and illuminating reproductions of real-world experience. These processes and content areas are found uniformly in a host of national and state educational standards, chiefly the National Science Education Standards, developed by a consortium led by the National Research Council. All of the challenger Space Center programs meet or exceed state and national education standards in the areas of mathematics, science, language and workplace skills.

Pre-Mission Activities

Key to each student’s learning experience at a Challenger Space Center is the preparation that takes place in the classroom in the weeks leading up to a mission. Prior to the students’ mission, it is recommended that teachers first attend an orientation program. During this half-day workshop, they receive preparatory materials that they use in their classrooms. These materials are specially designed to prepare the students for their mission. The teacher is also given curriculum materials to help the students understand the thematic topic of their simulated space flight. These activities go beyond science to encompass a variety of interdisciplinary themes, from math to the fine arts. It is this essential classroom component that lifts a mission at the Challenger Space Center from the confines of an everyday field trip. Instead, the mission becomes a touchstone for knowledge and camaraderie that will last throughout the school year.

Prior to a mission simulation, teachers and students are encouraged to spend classroom time learning about the particular theme behind their chosen scenario. They have at their disposal a collection of activities that are scientifically sound and educationally rich.

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