Pupils test out new space center

BANGOR – Fourteen-year-old Courtney Graves had her hands full Thursday, analyzing meteor samples, testing plants and recording data as she traveled through space.

“There are so many different jobs. I don’t know how astronauts do it,” said the eighth-grader as she carefully used a pair of tweezers to transfer the pretend piece of cosmic material to a scale.

Graves was among 102 Sebasticook Valley Middle School pupils from Newport who got a taste of what a space mission might be like during a simulated flight at the Challenger Learning Center of Maine, scheduled to open March 1 at the corner of Maine and Cleveland avenues in Bangor.

Helping to work out any kinks, “the kids graciously agreed to be guinea pigs,” said Robin Kennedy, who had been their teacher until recently when she took on the position of flight director for the center.

The practice mission went off without a hitch, center director Annette Brickley said Thursday afternoon after two groups of pupils from the middle school had completed their missions. A final group from the same school is due to participate in a mission today.

“A lot of it is like a dress rehearsal for us,” said Brickley, a former science teacher. “It’s just a matter of practicing lines and remembering what buttons to push and the critical pieces that make a mission go smoothly.”

At the center, middle school pupils from across the state will take on the roles of astronauts, engineers and navigators working as teams in mission control and aboard a space station.

The first simulation offered at the center will be “Rendezvous With a Comet,” in which pupils assemble and deploy a probe designed to pass through the tail of a comet.

Renovations still are being completed at the center, which once served as the theater for the former Dow Air Force base. In addition to the three rooms in which the flight simulations take place, the building will house offices, a gift shop and lunchroom that are scheduled to be complete by opening day.

The center will be open only for middle school tours during the school year and will offer a space explorer camp this summer for pupils entering grades four through seven. Down the road, plans are to include an educators resource center that will provide professional development for science teachers and house a lending library of space science material such as books, tapes and videos. Missions for adult groups may be offered in the future.

The center is within $300,000 of its fund-raising goal, putting it at a total cost of $3 million.

After three years of planning, organizers said they finally could see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Pinch me,” said Bill Buckley, president of the center’s board of directors, as he waited for the Sebasticook pupils to arrive.

“You start off with a vision of what it’s supposed to look like, and, when that vision becomes a reality and the kids start coming through the door, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

Eighth-grade science teacher Jaime Deraps said Thursday afternoon after her first class had completed its mission that they “enjoyed it a lot. They’ll be able to understand that what we do in class applies to a real-life situation.”

The Newport pupils have been preparing for the visit for the last several weeks, the teacher said. Using materials provided by the center, they learned about comets and latitude and longitude, how to locate objects on a grid, and how to communicate with others who are in a different room.

Pupils obviously were having a ball. “It feels like you’re actually doing a real job at NASA,” said Casey Reynolds, 14.

Danielle Bertolini was using a robotics arm to check material inside a protected area of the space station.

“This is awesome! Rock on!” Bertolini said.

During the next few weeks, Brickley said, staff will continue to perfect the missions.

So far, 60 two-hour missions have been scheduled by middle schools from South Portland to Ashland. The center has room for another 60 missions between March 1 and June summer vacation, she said.

Missions are limited to 34 pupils at a time and cost $600 per class, which includes a daylong teacher training session. A $150 deposit is required to reserve a mission.

Buckley said some participating schools have asked for funding from local service groups and from parents to help pay for the planned missions. Some schools in Knox and Waldo counties also could apply to MBNA for a grant, he suggested.

To assist with its tours, the center has hired part-time flight directors Rosalie Rollins of Dover-Foxcroft, Victoria Baker of Glenburn, Scott Frazier of Bucksport and John Lund of Stetson, all certified science teachers.

Kathy Godin, a Challenger Center for Space Science education consultant from Kalamazoo, Mich., has been visiting this week helping to train employees.

“This is an excellent staff,” she said. “In a couple of weeks they’ll be thinking it’s a breeze.”

Open houses for teachers are scheduled for 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, and Wednesday, March 3; and 5-6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, and Friday, March 5.

To book a mission, teachers can e-mail Rjkennedy@gwi.net or call 989-9404.