Christa Mc Auliffe Space Education Center
The Christa Mcauliffe Space Education Center has been closed by the Alpine School District. Please help support us in helping the district understand why we love it. Simply 'Like' the Facebook page 'Save the Space Center' to help.
The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center (known as the McAuliffe Space Center or CMSEC), in Pleasant Grove, Utah, teaches school children about space and is visited by students from around the world. It has a number of space flight simulators.
The center, named for educator Christa McAuliffe, was started in 1990 by Victor Williamson, an educator at Central Elementary School. It is a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) building added on to Central Elementary. It aimed to teach astronomy and social studies through the use of simulators; the first, Voyager, proved itself popular. As the years passed, the demand for flights expanded and new ships were commissioned. As of a press release on October 24, 2012, the space center is closed at Central Elementary. A new sister space center at a different location is being discussed. (Please do note, however, that the CMSEC is NOT a part of the iWorlds Space Center or the Cache Valley Space Education Center). The simulators have included:
- The Voyager (1990) The Voyager appears as the USS Enterprise-D. It can hold from nine to eleven people.
- The Odyssey (1995) (Decommissioned 2012) The Odyssey's appearance was created by Paul S. Cargile, an independent sci-fi artist. It took the appearance of the Banzai-class fighter. It held six to eight people.
- The Galileo (Original Mark-5: 1998, New Mark-6: 2009) The Galileo is a shuttlecraft. It differs from the other simulators because it can physically be seen from the outside.
- The Magellan (Original Space Station: 1998, Renovated: 2006, Starship: 2012) The Magellan has the appearance of Deep Space 9. It is being planned, though, to recreate the Magellan as a starship. The bridge crew can be anywhere from eleven to fourteen people.
- The Falcon (2000) (Decommissioned) The Falcon showed students what space travel might be like in the future.
- The Phoenix (2005) The Phoenix is a Defiant-Class escort, like DS9's USS Defiant. It is the Space Center's only battleship and most advanced simulator. It can hold five to six crew members.
Each simulator also has its own plaque. The plaque displays the ship's names and other things about that specific simulator. Some are inside the simulator, and some of them are hidden out of plain sight.
Most missions are based on, or at least contain aspects similar to the Star Trek universe. The Simulators themselves are replicas of Star Trek ships and various races (like the Romulans) are often involved in missions.
The center, and its founder were honored in a ceremony in its 15th year by many individuals, including Gary Herbert, the Lieutenant Governor of Utah. At that time, with its five spaceship simulators, it was educating 16,000 students a year.
The center's mission statement is A Utah Arts, Sciences, Technology Education Initiative. We Practice the Discipline of Wonder.
Read more about Christa Mc Auliffe Space Education Center: Teaching Method, Technology, Staff, Programs and Camps
Famous quotes containing the words space, education and/or center:
“Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education, I call it intrusion.”
—Muriel Spark (b. 1918)
“Placing the extraordinary at the center of the ordinary, as realism does, is a great comfort to us stay-at-homes.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)