Abstract
Since 1998, educators at Wheeling Jesuit University's Challenger Learning Center and Center for Educational Technologies have created realistic live simulations of science and medical emergencies in which students act as astronauts, scientists or doctors to solve STEM problems such as diagnosing diseases, stopping epidemics, picking a safe spacecraft landing spot, and rescuing stranded astronauts. These 90 to 120-minute simulations, e-Missions, are video-conferenced into classrooms, with companion websites providing pre-mission preparation, supplemental resources and teacher tutorials. e-Missions have been used more than 11,000 times at schools in 50 states and 22 nations. More than 310,000 elementary, middle and high school students have role-played STEM experts, and 10,000 teachers were trained to use technology and problem-based learning. Shorter live missions, e-Labs, were created to demonstrate science topics in 3-9 grade classrooms, and e-Labs Jr do the same for K-3. The simulations and e-Labs are developed with funding from agencies, foundations and corporations, and are maintained through payments by schools of $400 to $550 for each e-Mission, and $200 for e-Labs, often year after year as culminating events for relevant curricula. More than $5 million dollars have been earned over the last 20 years, supporting the sustained delivery of these innovative STEM experiences, and software and hardware updates. Evaluations have identified positive changes in e-Mission student attitudes and perceptions toward science and science careers.
Highlights
Twenty-two years ago, the Wheeling Jesuit University Challenger Learning Center (CLC) team created an online version of a CLC simulation – an e-Mission – that would recreate the uniqueness of an onsite spacecraft mission but on computer screens in classrooms, while maintaining live video communication with an educator dressed in a blue jumpsuit
Seventy-six percent of students said that the simulation increased their interest in pursuing a career in epidemiology or a biomedical or healthcare field, and 82% reported that participation increased their confidence that they had the abilities to pursue such careers
Every year Wheeling CLC (WCLC) is ranked as one of the top Centers in terms of the number of students and teachers who participate in Challenger missions
Summary
Many excellent STEM education activities result from external funding that typically supports the cost of creation and evaluation of the new activity. The activity’s actual use is not supported by continuing funding and there are few opportunities to financially support its future use. Even a legacy website, such as Exploring the Environment We have seen no relevant data, it is likely that many other STEM activities, even excellent ones, have limited and perhaps little long-term use because of failure to include sustainability in project design. Since agencies are unlikely to continuously fund dissemination and activity use, schools and sponsors must (and we find, will) pay for activities as long as they advance learning goals of the schools
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
