“Inspiring, exploring, learning. It’s our mission. That’s hard to beat.”

John Glenn
Mercury Astronaut

The Challenge

Imagine if we could entice 5th to 8th graders to love science, technology and math by enticing them with voyages to the Moon and Mars — actually working at a Space Station or Mission Control, exploring space in a journey of their imaginations grounded in hands-on experience.

The core of the Challenger Learning Center’s programs is teaching science curriculum, problem-solving and teamwork during more than 300 annual missions. In an even-broader role, Challenger will act as a catalyst for career pathways in science, math and engineering to help develop the future workforce of New York State’s Tech Valley.

The Challenger Learning Center is one of a network of similar Space Education Centers throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Our Center in Tech Valley will reach students throughout the Capital Region, Mid-Hudson Valley, the North Country all the way to the Canadian border, and Western Massachusetts. Initially, we will serve 10,000 students, drawing from the 93 school districts in our 19-county region, and 35,000 students from 77 districts in the surrounding
counties.

Tech Valley’s Challenger Learning Center will give middle-school students the rare opportunity to actively participate in simulated space missions in a state-of-the-art facility based in the Schenectady Museum of Science and Technology.

"The Challenger Program:

begins in the classroom where students prepare for their mission with a comprehensive science curriculum. The culmination of the classroom work is a simulated mission, for example, to launch a space probe into a comet’s tail or a flight to Marsin 2054.

The mission takes place at the Challenger Learning Center where, on NASA-type
equipment, the students use science, computer technology, communication, and math
skills to tackle projects as a team.

The focal point of the Center is the simulator – modules resembling the appearance of NASA’s Mission Control operation in Houston and the interior of a Space Station. Students are assigned to each aspect of conducting and coordinating a space journey and are completely engaged in the “flight” of about three hours.

The missions are educational experiences developed by the National Challenger organization, age-appropriate to ignite curiosity about science and technology.

The learning continues after the mission in programs designed to extend the experience into the classroom with analysis of mission data, post-flight briefings, and student-run news conferences.

As a fully funded, up-and-running program, the Challenger Learning Center has contracted with the Capital Region Board of Cooperate Educational Services (BOCES) to handle operation of the program and meet New York State academic standards. BOCES will take the lead in marketing the program to school districts."



The Challenger Learning Center is about innovation, opportunities and aspirations.
We want you to be part of its shared success!


Our Regional Project Takes Flight

As the high-technology industry takes root in our region, opportunities are unprecedented
and plentiful to attract and retain the nation’s and the world’s leading nanotechnology
and microelectronic companies.

Recognizing that an educated, talented workforce will be essential, and aware that the Challenger Learning Center will be uniquely qualified and located in Tech Valley, visionary and early leadership investors have given $625,000 to launch the project.

Present and near-future contributors to the Challenger project share our hope that
today’s students will be intellectually and technologically prepared, not only for their
own fulfilling futures, but for responsible positions right at home in our region.