New Projects Bring Exciting Opportunities
Like a business, we compete for the customer's dollar. Our customers in this case are government and private entities seeking organizations to carry out their education-related goals and projects. In 2008 our long-standing reputation as an innovative leader in educational research and curriculum design helped us land funding to carry out efforts that will build on that reputation:
- The National Science Foundation awarded a nearly $2 million grant over four years for the CyGaMEs project to study learning and assessment in educational videogames.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded $188,000 to create another meteorology-related module in the successful STORM-E e-Mission™ we created in 2005. The new distance learning module will target students in grades 4-6.
- NASA awarded the Challenger Learning Center $282,000 to build the Micronauts Education Simulator within the ground floor of the Center for Educational Technologies. The simulated space station and multipurpose room will give younger students a place to conduct experiments and explorations with the guidance of Challenger Learning Center flight directors.
- The state of West Virginia awarded the Challenger Learning Center an extra $60,000 to carry out distance learning missions throughout the state, for a total of $125,000.
- In addition to a $1 million line item in its budget, NASA added $200,000 more for the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future to continue its educational research for the space agency.
- The International Union of Operating Engineers contracted with us to produce an improved version of its manual for hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER). We also produced a similar HAZWOPER manual specific to construction work for the union. We also created a course on avian influenza response for the union.