Discovery’s Challenger Learning Center, one of a few dozen in the world and the only one in Connecticut, is an in-house mission control and spacecraft environment that is used to promote critical thinking and teamwork in addition to space science learning as classes work together to run a simulated mission. With funding from NASA and the State of Connecticut, the entire Challenger Learning Center has been fully upgraded. In 2019, Discovery began offering a set of new missions through the Challenger Learning Center. These missions offer new and engaging learning opportunities and are supportive of achieving Next Generation Science Standards.
$34,500 from the Town of Fairfield will cover programming for 3,000 3rd, 4th and 5th grade Fairfield students in 2023 – 2024, allowing more K-6 classes to take advantage of Science Center offerings.
As in the past, funds will be used to engage Fairfield students in learning activities designed to educate, excite, and engage them in science. Typical visits include one or more hands-on classroom sessions, a science demonstration and/or planetarium show in our newly upgraded, state-of-the-art Henry B. duPont III Planetarium, and time in our exhibit halls.
