The Voyager Club at The Space Place at Renaissance Academy Kicks off the New School Year
The Voyager Club at The Space Place at Renaissance Academy is off to a great start for the 2025-2026 school year with the Middle School Squadrons. Over the last two weeks, the 6th - 9th grade squadrons were briefed on this year's LDM mission (Long Duration Mission: A mission that starts in September and ends in May), selected their ship positions, trained, and launched on their 8 month adventure. The Young Astronaut Squadrons (grades 3 - 5) follow the middle school.
There are nearly 200 members in both clubs. They are divided into squadrons ranging in size from 8 to 12 members. The meetings alternate between flight and education / flight. Flight meetings put the cadets in the Voyager simulator for the entire two hours of meeting time. Education / Flight meetings have the squadrons split their meeting between the mission continuation in the Voyager and a one hour class session. Students do team building exercises, leadership training, and discuss current space news and astronomy in the class session.
Lindsey Matus is new to The Space Places's staff this year. Lindsey will be the instructional coach for the Young Astronauts Club and will work with the exclusively. I will do the same for the Voyager Club squadrons. In addition to her classroom work, Lindsey will train to supervise and flight direct the Starship Voyager simulator for club missions.
Voyager Club members at The Space Place may also volunteer in the Voyager. Some do volunteering only, while others will both volunteer and participate in a squadron and fly the LDM mission.
Bracken Funk is the Director of The Space Place at Renaissance. In addition to his work with the Voyager Simulator and the clubs, Bracken is one of the school's two PE teachers. He does 6th - 9th grade PE. He also teaches two periods of Space Tech classes to the 7th - 8th grade classes during the school day for school credit. Space Tech is where students learn the science and tech which operates all aspects of the Voyager simulator.
Mission.io was at Utah's Stem Festival in Sandy, Utah Last Week
We took our sixth grade classes to the Stem Festival in Sandy last week and turned them loose in the convention hall packed with displays showcasing companies, schools, and organizations who had booths set up to teach students how they use the STEM fields in their work.
I was happy to see our Mission.io friends demonstrating their curriculum and missions in a booth near the entrance. Their booth was sponsored by US Synthetic, a Utah company that makes synthetic diamonds. The booth was manned by Skyler Carr and Brooks Heder. Both Skyler and Brooks got their start in this business as volunteers at the Space Center in Pleasant Grove way back in the day. You can read more about the company is an early blog post.
Mission.io is doing well as a company. Their goal is to take the gospel of simulations based experiential education to the world, one classroom at a time. Is your school using Mission.io curriculum? If not, give Skyler or Brooks a call and arrange a demonstration for your school on this unique approach to preparing students for the world of tomorrow.
Lions Gate Space Center at Lakeview Academy Featured on Saratoga Springsopoly!
Way to go Lions Gate Space Center making a name for yourselves in your home community!
That's Jonathan, a member of the LGSC's staff, holding the game and peering off into the distance envisioning where the LGSC is today, and with publicity like this, where it is going in the future.
Awesome :)
Imaginairum Theater
The Week's Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience
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