Published: February 27, 2009 01:03 am      

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Challenger Center still in the money hunt

Challenger Learning Center of Orleans, Niagara and Erie counties is trying to ramp up its public profile as it appeals for funding to open a learning center and planetarium in Lockport.

Three years after a volunteer organizing board first raised the prospect, the effort has banked $330,000. It needs $1.5 million to renovate space in the Historic Post Office, 1 East Ave., and equip it with “mission simulators” and a portable planetarium.

The going is slow, but organizers are projecting their fundraising mission positively. Executive Director Kathy Michaels insists it’s a question of when, not if, they’re able to open a Challenger Learning Center to serve school children in the three counties. She said a renewed effort to publicize the center is starting in Niagara County but will also hit up charitable foundations and industries in Erie and Orleans counties, as well as the state and federal governments.

Learning centers are authorized by a national foundation formed to promote science and math education as a tribute to the crew of Challenger, a space shuttle that exploded in 1986. Among the riders on the ill-fated flight was schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was aboard to teach space-related science lessons that would have been broadcast by PBS all over the country.

Learning centers help teach science and math literacy by way of simulated space “missions.” More than 50 centers are open around the United States and Canada, including two in New York state. Thirty more are in formation around the country.

Through learning centers, middle school teachers train students over a period of about nine weeks to undertake a hands-on Mission Control experience at their local learning center. Whole classes work as a team, some at computer consoles, others inside an orbiting space lab, to accomplish a given mission; realistic emergencies like oxygen loss or water contamination may crop up along the way.

The experience shows students the real-life applications of science and math in an unforgettable way, according to Martin Schwartz, Northeast regional director of the national center.

“The whole purpose is to engage schoolchildren in inquiry-based learning,” he said. “These three-hour programs produce some of the most excited school children in the country.”

On a larger level, learning centers claim to advance local economic development by supporting science and math competency in a region’s population. Schwartz said statistics show every engineering job requires seven support jobs, and industries prefer to locate where competent labor is available.

CLC-ONE would have exclusive rights to work with public schools in the three counties; its partner in the venture is Orleans-Niagara BOCES, which already works with the schools in those counties.

For Lockport, BOCES Supervisor of Instructional Services Joe Steinmetz said, a CLC would mean buses full of young visitors during the school year and potentially, while they’re here, visits to local landmarks that mesh with middle school study topics such as the Erie Canal and the industrial revolution.

When school’s not in session, the center would be open to the public at large. In addition to family-friendly activities for locals, CLC-ONE board member Rosanna Sandell suggested, a Challenger center would give tourists another reason to visit, or linger in, Lockport.

“This can help return downtown to what it used to be,” she said. “It’s that big.”

Raising the money to open a center remains challenging, organizers acknowledged. Directors of the Grigg-Lewis Foundation, which pledged $50,000 last year to help CLC-ONE land licensing rights, inquired of learning center board members Thursday what other money sources they’re attempting to tap, particularly outside of Lockport. Local interests, alone, will not cover the tab, Norm Sinclair and Ben May warned.

The board is trying to line up presentations for community leaders in Erie and Orleans counties and has already met with the Oishei Foundation and several other larger charitable groups, Michaels said; it’s also appealing to the area’s state and federal political representatives for earmarks in whatever categories the project might fit.

A page in a new CLC-ONE promotional packet describes the learning center as:

“Shovel ready to: Create 5 to 8 well paying jobs in an educational venue for 250,000 students, as well as a tourist destination with state-of-the-art audio and visual media technologies in a historic building on Main Street, Lockport, near the Erie Canal locks.”

From the time the money is raised, it would take about 18 months to get the center opened, Michaels said.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.