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The navigation team confirmed the location of the comet. Another team made the final checks on a probe. A third team prepared to receive and analyze the data the probe would return. Meanwhile, the flight surgeon moni
tored the health and well-being of the crew on the space station, while a life support team made sure the environment on the station remained normal.
Finally, the big moment came. After the crew and ground controllers made one more series of checks on the probe, the final steps in the countdown were complete. Three... two... one... launch! A success! The probe was on its w
ay to return data on the comet. Time to go back to school.
School?
This wasn't the launch of another NASA mission, but it was another successful day at mission control. Only here, the mission control was not in Houston or Florida, but in Framingham, Massachusetts, and the true mission wasn't
the launch of a probe but a boost in the education of a class of students.
Bruce Matson, the Flight Director of the Challenger Center at Framingham State College, part of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence, described t
he Challenger Center's programs and more at the January 9th meeting of the Boston NSS.
Matson explained that the Challenger Center was established by the families of the crew of the shuttle Challenger to "take... the situation and turn it into something productive." The centers use the theme of space to "bust o
pen the myth" that math and science are hard, not fun, and a lot of work.
Their efforts have been very successful. In addition to the center at Framingham St., there are 26 other centers in the United States plus two in Canada, with more to come.
The heart of the Challenger Center experience is a two-hour "mission" in a simulator at the center. Classes of two to three dozen students split into several teams. Half of them take up positions in "mission control" while th
e other half go to work on a "space station". Halfway through the simulation the two groups switch so that everyone has the opportunity to work in mission control and on the station.
Each team of students is assigned a specific task that's part of a larger goal, such as launching a probe to Halley's Comet, as described above. These hands-on activities, Matson explained, are designed to build teamwork, eff
ective communications, decision making, and the ability to solve unforeseen problems and take necessary risks.
While the two-hour simulator stay is the heart of the program, each class's experience with the station begins weeks before, as their teachers go over the project in the class and the students perform exercises to prepare the
m for the simulation. After the simulation the students return to class with the "data" they collected during the simulation and go through exercises to analyze it.
During his talk, Matson described another project the local Challenger Center is working on with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to teach the basics of astronomy to grade-school students.
"Project Aries" got its inspiration from a film made at Harvard several years ago. "A Private Universe" showed interviews with Harvard graduates during their graduation ceremony, as the graduates were asked some basic astrono
my questions, such as why there are phases of the moon. The graduates of one of the world's most prestigious universities gave, Matson said, "bizarre and contrived explanations" to these most basic questions.
Project Aries is designed to instill a basic knowledge about astronomy, and science in general, to students using the most basic of materials. Rubber balls, plastic mirrors, grocery bags, and cardboard tubes are used in a var
iety of experiments to show why the moon has phases, why seasons exist, and more.
Matson said the basic, simple tools are used to keep costs down. That way the students can keep the tools, including a small telescope, home with them at the end of the unit to continue experimenting on their own. Matson said
it costs about $100-$200 to equip an entire class with the kits.
Matson said the Challenger Center is helping the project by providing teachers with training and certifying them to teach the program in their schools. Currently there are 200 teachers in the program with an "exponentially in
creasing" number joining the program.
Matson concluded his talk by saying the Center is looking for more funding and volunteer efforts. He hopes the Boston NSS can get involved in some manner in the project, if not financially then by providing other services.
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