CASTINE – Scores of Maine teachers left Saturday’s 2003 Space Showcase at Maine Maritime Academy convinced that science education in the state is about to lift off into orbit. Sponsored by the Challenger Learning Center, the in-service training program and conference introduced educators to tools they can use to build on their science curriculum and foster their students’ appetite for learning.

“There are a lot of aspects to it that I can use to supplement and complement things I’m already doing,” observed Marc Chappe, a seventh-grade astronomy and writing teacher at Conners-Emerson School in Bar Harbor. “It looks like they have fabulous resources and materials, and I’m looking forward to working with the Challenger group in the ensuing years.”

Challenger Learning Centers were formed by the families of astronauts lost when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986. That shuttle mission carried “Teacher-in-Space” Krista McAuliffe and a number of student-designed experiments. Keeping a space-based educational component focused on science and math programs was the goal of the surviving families.

Maine’s Challenger Learning Center will open this February in Bangor after three years of planning and preparation. It is the 51st Challenger Learning Center to open and was funded through $2.5 million in grants.

According to center director Annette Brickley, the learning center is designed for pupils in grades five through eight. The center trains teachers to prepare students to fly a simulated mission in space. The pupils use their math and science skills to direct the mission to rendezvous with a comet. The center will contain simulators of current space technology. Half the pupils will operate the mission control systems while the other half will operate within a mock-up of an orbiting space station.

Each pupil is assigned to one of eight teams that make up the “crew”: Medical, Life Support, Isolation, Remote, Probe, Navigation, Communication and Data. Halfway through the mission, the pupils will change places so everyone has an opportunity to experience being in mission control and the space station lab.

Student crews will rendezvous with a comet as they maneuver real robot arms, locate stars, grapple with emergencies, communicate between mission control and the space station, scan computer databases to solve problems, and assemble probes during realistic two-hour space flight simulations.

Brickley said the goal is to have every middle school pupil in the state take part in the program by the time they reach high school. She said she accompanied a group of pupils to the Challenger Learning Center in Framingham, Mass., (McAuliffe’s hometown) and they were impressed by the program.

“It’s such a powerful experience,” Brickley said Saturday. “They were absolutely captivated. They thought they really were in space.”

Brickley said the programs at the learning center are designed to change the way students learn and teachers teach. By using the power of simulation, educators create a cooperative learning environment that exposes pupils to the challenges and rewards of teamwork, problem solving, communication and decision-making.

The mission scenarios provided at the learning center are designed to exceed National Science Educational Standards and to support Maine’s Learning Results requirements in science, mathematics, language arts and technology.

“We’re very fortunate in Maine that our plant propagation program under Learning Results match well with the national standards,” said Ellen Holmes, a fourth-grade science teacher at Bangor’s Fairmont School, during her class on plants in space.

Michael Aaskou, a science teacher at Old Orchard Beach High School, said he attended the conference because he wanted to see what pupils will have the opportunity to participate in. He said he attended a program at Challenger Center in Framingham and was pleased that Maine’s center was about to go into operation. Aaskou predicted the Challenger program would be a big hit with pupils.

“I’m really excited about it,” he said. “We are going to make some great strides in science because it’s such a great resource. I think only good can come out of it for the future.”