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Written by Mark Griffin
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008 10:33 |
Julie Muffler, who has been director of the Challenger Center of Lucas County in Oregon since the 2003 opening of the space education facility, is launching into a new frontier herself.
Muffler is resigning Dec. 23 to take a position as the deputy director of NASA’s education specialist program at Penn State University’s Aerospace, Education, Services Project (AESP) in University Park, PA. Penn State has a cooperative agreement with NASA to administer the education specialist program.
“There are educators assigned to each of NASA’s installations,” Muffler said. “There are 10 of them all over the country. These specialists go to the schools (K-12) and do programs with students and professional development with teachers.”
Muffler said she was approached about the position because she has previously worked with a couple of the specialists at the Challenger Center. Her new job will be to work with the content that the education specialists will deliver to the classrooms and to the professional development workshops.
“We take the NASA programs … and build them into educational units,” Muffler said. “We will develop the workshop for the teachers to distribute the education materials that NASA has developed.”
The units will include discussing space shuttle missions, the design of space suits and why astronauts need them.
“We want to give teachers up-to-date information on the NASA programs,” Muffler said.
While doing that, the lessons are geared to the state standards that the teachers are teaching the students. It’s a different way of teaching what is to be taught at the grade school level with an exciting, real world connection.”
Before moving to Oregon, Muffler spent three years as manager of the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, Calif. She said she will miss the Challenger Center of Lucas County, located in the Shuer Center at 4955 Seaman Rd.
“I love the Challenger Center and what we do,” she said. “The students are totally committed. The motivation that I have to have taken this new job when it was offered was career growth for me. It allows me to work on my Ph.D., which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Professionally, I’ll be working with teachers and educators on a nationwide scale.”
Muffler said that nationwide focus was a draw for her after working with Challenger Centers for the last 14 years as a flight director at various places.
“I feel the Challenger Center is the best program I’ve ever seen to work with students and teachers,” she said. “It is time for me to work with a university connection and move forward.”
Reed Steele, who has been the lead flight director at the Challenger Center since 2003, will take over as interim director, Muffler said. She said a new flight director would be assigned at the beginning of 2009.
“We have to have somebody else to fly the mission with him, so that’s why we have to have another flight director,” Muffler said. “We want to make sure the rest of this year goes smoothly.”
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