New Challenger Learning Center hopes to call eastern NC home

Science: many know it’s the key to a healthy economy.
 
Eastern North Carolina is home to an ambitious plan: to inspire the next generation of scientists, starting at a very young age.
   
The idea: to build a new challenger learning center in Pitt County.
   
Today sixth graders got a taste of how this effort can capture a child’s imagination.

“It was based on Newton’s Law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, we did balloon rockets,“ said Jamie Stanfield, a 6th grade science teacher, refering to the events held.

They also got to hear from a real life rocket man, thanks to the Challenger Learning Center, and its first international, live videoconference between kids and an astronaut in space.

“Is there any signs of a magnetic field in space?  If so what are the signs?” asked one student.

“Cathy, that’s one of the most interesting things I’ve been able to do up here.  I’ve had a few magnets that you can float in the air,“ replied the astronaut.

“It was just an incredible experience just to think that we’re over in North Carolina and that we actually got to see an astronaut communicate with kids of our age,” said Jessica McClellan, one of the students at the event.

“It inspires me to learn more, because science is really fascinating,” said another student.

“It was a really big opportunity for us to learn about the really big vast space which is really cool,” commented Larry Yang, another student who attended the event.

“They sleep floating and go to the bathroom really weird,” said Kiara Gardener, a fascinated student.

They’re excited about plans for a Challenger Learning Center in eastern North Carolina.

“Since I wasn’t able to do things like that as a younger kid and learn about space like I wanted to it’d be really really cool, it’d just get me more into science,“ continued Gardener.

“The Challenger Learning Center is serving schools in the entire eastern part of the state and we had 35 schools that participated in today’s downlink,“ said Richard Wilkerson, the Pitt County Schools Science Coordinator.

Organizers are looking for funding for the Challenger Learning Center in eastern North Carolina.
 
The charitable group, GoScience is spearheading efforts to create the new science center in downtown Greenville.
 
For more information just enter the keyword: “challenger”, right here on WNCT.com