The Challenger Learning Center 

at Indiana, Pennsylvania

What type of events can take place at the Allegheny Challenger Learning Center?

• Educational Opportunities

• Team Building

• Business Meetings

• Weddings

• Conferences

• Boy/Girl Scout Events and BADGE Programs

• Parties

• Semi-Public Movie Events

• Public or Private Events

• NASA Events

The Challenger Learning Center will be located in Indiana County, Pennsylvania situated with the Indiana County Technology Center.  The Center is a newly organized Pennsylvania non profit organization licensed by the national Challenger Foundation in Washington D.C.  The Center will serve twenty two counties in western and central Pennsylvania – from east Pittsburgh to Altoona, from Somerset north to Elk County.

There are over 40 Challenger Learning Centers world-wide, and this will be the first one in Pennsylvania. Challenger, a NASA affiliated foundation, was established in 1986 to honor those astronauts who died aboard the tragically aborted space mission in January of that same year.

The primary mission of all Challenger Learning Centers is to provide hands on learning experiences in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for students and adult learners of all ages.  The Center places a particular emphasis on middle school students in order to build interest in pursuing careers which require advanced technology and STEM skills.

All Challenger Centers are equipped with a NASA simulator and physical space that is designed to look like the mission control room in Houston, a flight transport room such as the one used to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, and the Space Station rooms which look much like the actual station.  In addition, the center features two large classrooms and a briefing room.

At the Center, students “fly” NASA designed missions (for example to the moon or Mars) in which they are required to use the math and science skills they have been learning for the prior six weeks in their home district classes.

During the mission, they are expected to solve problems and conduct experiments aboard the aircraft and in mission control. The total experience is meant to be “hands on”, challenging, and fun and is designed to interest students to take higher level STEM classes when they enter high school.

In addition to regular school days, we intend for our Center to operate on evenings and weekends and to serve diverse learners, such as, adult learners who wish to use custom designed simulations for first responders, or for corporations who want to do team building missions, for high school science and math clubs, for summer camp learners, for eMissions and eLabs designed to promote distance learning, or introductory “micronaut” missions for K-3 students.

The Affordability of the Experience

The entire Challenger mission experience is reasonably priced. The cost per student is about $25 which includes one day of teacher instruction in Challenger curriculum, six weeks of classroom studies based on that curriculum, and a trip to the Challenger Center to fly a mission.  Each mission can fly between 24 and 32 students at one time.  Each Challenger region is designed to accommodate students within a two hour driving distance of the Center.

The annual budgets of most Challenger Centers is between $350,000 to $600,000 per year.  Because we project it will take us about two to three years to promote our Center and build a solid customer base, we hope to raise at least one or two year’s annual budget before construction starts.  This is included in the amount we are seeking to raise to build our Challenger Center.