Challenger Learning Center Receives Grant from W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Spanish-speaking middle-school students in economically challenged areas will learn math, science and technology through e-Missions simulating space missions that are delivered by Wheeling Jesuit University's Challenger Learning Center (http://clc. wju. edu), thanks to a $50,000 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan.
(PRWEB) April 3, 2004
As part of the grant, three additional Challenger Centers will now offer e-Mission: Operation Montserrat – Spanish to schools in their region, providing more students in other areas of the country to take part in the simulated mission. Funding will also cover the cost of training teachers to use the curriculum supplements, as well as cover the cost of 40 e-Missions to schools selected by Wheeling Jesuit University's Challenger Learning Center (http://clc. wju. edu (http://clc. wju. edu)) and the three new centers set to deliver the program.
"This grant allows us to provide an innovative hands-on activities that motivate and engage students, whose first language is Spanish, with the power of math and science. Our goal is encourage them to pursue careers in these areas," says Nancy Sturm, education director of the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV. “The program will utilize distance learning technologies to create a live simulation in classrooms in selected schools across the country. ”
E-Mission: Operation Montserrat – Spanish allows participants to fill the roll of earth science experts. During the course of a two-hour live mission, the participants become members of the volcano, hurricane or communication team. The program engages participants to work as scientists in order to solve problems in real-life situations and challenges them to apply their mathematics and science knowledge to a real-life event..
"This education package places participants into the roles of scientists and astronauts trying to solve a real-life problem. Once a young person participates in the program, they are hooked and their fascination with space science exploration permeates their hearts and minds,” Sturm says.
Founded in 1994, The Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University is part of a growing network of centers nationwide established by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in memory of the ill-fated Challenger Shuttle. Wheeling Jesuit's Challenger Learning Center conducts nearly 400 on-site simulated missions annually, more than any other Challenger Center in the network, and “flies" more than 430 e-missions to more than 100 classrooms, across the country and overseas, each year.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth, accepts responsibility for self, family, community and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions and healthy communities.
To achieve the greatest impact, the foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development, youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to the cross cutting themes of leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity, and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Wheeling Jesuit University integrates the Jesuit traditions of intellectual excellence with the best of advanced technology to help students develop lives of service, success and significance. The University's mission is to educate students for life, for leadership, and for service with and among others. U. S.News & World Report ranks Wheeling Jesuit University 16th in the "Best MasterÂ’s Universities in the South," making it the highest ranked institution in West Virginia for the seventh consecutive year. Wheeling Jesuit--the only Catholic institution of higher education in West Virginia--offers more than 30 undergraduate programs of study and six graduate degrees to about 1,500 students each year. It has a student-to-faculty ratio of 13 to 1, and 17 intercollegiate NCAA Division II athletic teams. The 65-acre campus located in Wheeling, W. Va., includes 15 modern buildings, multi-million dollar Acker Science Center, and residence halls, and a modern recreation and athletic facility that includes a soccer/track and field complex. The campus is home to the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center, the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies, a Challenger Learning Center and the Clifford M. Lewis Appalachian Institute.
To arrange a visit of the Wheeling Jesuit University campus, or to apply, call 1-800-624-6992 or e-mail admiss@wju. edu or visit Wheeling Jesuit online at www. wju. edu
