BANGOR – Aiming to help teachers enhance math and science curriculum, the Challenger Learning Center of Maine will open the state’s only official NASA Educational Resource Center, providing learning materials and professional development opportunities to teachers throughout Maine free of charge.

The announcement was made Friday after NASA officials toured the Challenger Learning Center on Cleveland Avenue across from the Bangor International Airport.

“We’re very impressed with what you did here,” Robert Gabrys, NASA education officer, told staff, educators and other supporters.

Maine is the last state to open a NASA Education Resource Center and the only one to house it in a Challenger Learning Center.

Resource centers – which are designed to help teachers learn about NASA’s educational materials – typically are located in museums, universities or other nonprofit organizations.

The Challenger Learning Center opened in March and offers middle school pupils the opportunity to learn about the science of space travel as they take on the roles of astronauts, engineers and navigators.

The new resource center “will bring our relationship with NASA to a higher level,” said Gov. John Baldacci, who was on hand to urge NASA representatives to locate the new facility in Bangor.

Baldacci pointed out that the University of Maine has been doing research for NASA and that astronauts have visited the state.

Baldacci said the resource center “will give us all an economic rocket boost,” by helping Maine young people excel in math, science and technology, which, in turn, will entice businesses to locate here.

Bangor teacher Ellen Holmes, who has received training at NASA centers throughout the country, said up until now Maine educators who wanted space related materials from NASA had to order them from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The information often would be slow to arrive, she said.

But thanks to the new resource center, NASA learning materials on a plethora of subjects – including earth science, biology, and the history of flight – will be readily available at no cost.

Books, curriculum guides and assessments, videos and compact discs will be on hand, as well as collectibles like pencils, pictures of astronauts and mission patches.

Interactive video conferencing will be set up, enabling teachers from all across Maine to participate in workshops with world renowned scientists, physicists and researchers, Holmes said.

Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin called the new center a valuable local resource that will “give teaching a huge boost.”

As a former superintendent in a number of smaller districts, Ervin recalled that it was “sometimes hard to find the resources that make teaching special.”

Noting that students in Maine scored poorly on recent math and science assessments, Ervin said “there’s a real need to provide teachers with the kind of materials that can accelerate achievement.”

A grand opening for the new center is scheduled for Oct. 14 from 6 to 8 p.m.

NASA educator Gabrys said he was pleased that a number of officials including those from the University of Maine College of Education and the Maine Department of Education came Friday to lend their support for the resource center.

“We wanted to know that the [education] commissioner saw the resource center as an important part of her agenda to help teachers in Maine,” he said. He also liked that the University of Maine planned to use the resource center as part of its teacher training program.

Annette Brickley, co-director of the Challenger Learning Center, said the resource center was “something we talked about and worked on for at least a couple of years.”

“It’s exciting just to see it start to happen,” she said.