Columbia Memorial Space Center
by Lorine Parks
How to make Downey’s Columbia Memorial Space Center relevant for the 21st century: that has been Director Ben Dickow’s self-set goal.
One year ago, when Ben was new to Downey and first spoke to us, he was just beginning his job. He vowed that he was going to make the Downey’s Space Center relevant not only to Downey but also to a much larger community, the greater Los Angeles Basin, and even beyond.
The Columbia Memorial Space Center is now the only space science learning institution in the Los Angeles area dedicated to hands-on robotics, and boasts LA’s only Challenger Learning Center. It is also dedicated to preserving the history of aerospace engineering in Downey and Downey’s place in the exploration of space flight, from the Apollo capsules to the Space Shuttle Orbiters.
The Center is currently working to preserve and display several major space engineering artifacts, ranging from test capsules to a full-scale Space Shuttle mock-up. Every Apollo Command Module and Space Shuttle was conceptualized, designed and assembled on this site. Downey put the man on the moon, and that’s why the new shopping center development, which is built on the old North American Rockwell property of 160 acres formerly known as the Downey NASA site, is called Downey Landing.
Since Ben started here, the Columbia Space Center has participated in the Long Beach Comic-Expo, among many other outreaches; has hosted a regional STEM Festival; and has connected with Richard Branson’s Future Virgin Galactic Astronaut Program. The future of space flight came to life for hundreds of children across the country at the Columbia Memorial Space Center when the Downey-based center hosted a question-and-answer session with future astronauts and experts from Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, that plans to begin commercial flights into orbit around the Earth.
The presence of Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and Captain America is nothing out of the ordinary for the Columbia Memorial Space Center. Two days of innovative programs connected space exploration, science discoveries, movies, comic books, sci-fi and pop culture. “You can’t do this anywhere else,” Ben pointed out.
Staging Events, Exhibits and Exotic Programs isn’t enough for Ben. He has gone further in thinking about changing tastes and times. By studying methods of education, he gave us a quick class in Science Education 101, behaviorism versus a more constricted classic approach.
19th century education was teacher-centered. And throughout most of the 20th century, the student came to school with an empty mind and the teacher was there to give information and fill it. But even by the beginning of the twentieth century, such innovators as John Dewey, working at the University of Chicago and the Columbia University in New York, had deduced from experiments that learning, especially in the STEM fields, can proceed much better, if the experience is student-centered.
Today the learner is seen, not so much as an empty slate, but as a subject curious and full of wonder. The learning is structured so that the teacher assists in letting students learn for themselves, by touching, tasting, even rolling in the new material. And now there exists a vast computer network for inquiry-based learning.
That’s the set-up at Downey’s Columbia Space Center. Experiments, materials, and tools are placed for children to wander into and see what happens. An “Impossible Science” exhibit awaits. Girl Scout Patch Workshops are side by side with the Girl’s Stem Club. And in a bold move, the Downey city council voted to make admission to the Space Center absolutely free to all students in the Downey Unified School District.
Ben’s mission aims at creating an involved community of creative and critical thinkers. By nature, science is a creative human endeavor. The Columbia Space Center steps into the future of scientific discovery and exploration.
For example, projects for this summer stress discovery, creativity, and fun at CMSC 2016 Summer Camps. Each camp is one week and covers a variety of STEM Fields including Biology, Engineering, and Geology. This summer in the 3D-Printing Workshop July 6 – July 8, youngsters will learn how to create their own figurine, and put their face on a rocket. In this summer’s first ever 3D-Printing Workshop, they will learn how to build and design 3D models on the computer, then watch as the design prints right before their eyes.
For grades4th – 5th and 6th – 8th, there’s a brand new engineering camp. Engineers make the world go round; they create our houses, cars, and even our beloved cell phones. In Workshops they will build bridges, learn about electricity (making battery powered light sabers), and clean energy (constructing solar powered rovers.) In Robotics Camp, 4th and 5th graders will be learning all about the basics of robotics. Why do we need robots? What do we do with them? In Robotics 101, kids will be programming and building extensions for our NXT robots, play robot tag and more fun games in a class set up for Robotics beginners. 6th to 8th graders will be programming our EV3 robots to do multiple critical tasks on our Mars surface. They will work in teams to rescue stranded astronauts, gather important rock samples for our researchers, and “do cool tricks with our robots too.”
Other June events include Junior Explorers- Astronomy vs. Astrology, and Saturday Science – Marine Biology. The Center continues on the path of taking the material to the student, not bringing the student to the school setting, as Satellite Science Clubs are being set up around the Los Angeles basin, furnished with some of the Downey’s Center’s unique moon exploration material. Downey becomes a hub for STEM learning.