Challenger Learning Center

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Allegany, NY Facility Takes Students to New Heights
By Sharon Turano

   Helping students and educators experience “the thrills, challenges and rewards of discovery” is an aim of the Challenger Learning Center of the Twin Tiers Region. The center, one of 40 worldwide, offers thousands of students a year a chance to go on a simulated space mission, all while learning to communicate, work on a team, gain confidence and put to use what they have learned in the classroom.

   Located at 182 East Union St. in Allegany, the idea to open a local center began in 2002 when area organizers secured local sponsors, got a federal grant and donated building so a flight simulator could be installed and mission accomplished in 2009.

   Since then, the local center has contributed to more than 32,0000 people from 17 countries and more than 100 public and private schools participating in missions to Mars, a comet and Earth. According to the center’s website, it is dedicated to “igniting the potential of students and opening their eyes to the myriad of possibilities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.”

   That goal goes along with what center Director Reann Ehman has to say. She said before coming to the center, she has heard students ask when they will put to use what they learn at school. The center gives them an answer to that question.

   “Today’s students are tomorrow’s inventors,” states the center’s website, which adds that too many of those pupils lose interest and therefore limit life opportunities. Instead, the center’s staff seeks to educate youth and keep them in the area.

   “To succeed in a rapidly-changing world, students need access to a variety of fields, chances to work with their fellow students in real-world scenarios and experiences that open their eyes to new possibilities for the future,” it states.

   Not only does the center’s staff want to instill chances in the future generation, it seeks to remember the past. Challenger centers across the country were established to carry on the memory and mission of the Challenger crew by their families. That crew, announced in 1985 visited space in 1986 to establish communication with orbiting spacecraft. The spacecraft exploded, with the crew lost.

   Centers across the country were established to carry on the memory and mission of the crew by helping youth discover possibilities. Each student is given a role to complete the team’s mission by solving problems, working on experiments and “sparking a passion for learning,” states the center’s website.

   Others will also have a chance to explore the center this summer, going to summer camps, partaking in a golf fundraiser or holding a meeting there. Sponsors are being sought for the center, whose staff hopes to update facilities.

   For more information, contact 379-8686. 


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