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NASA Joins in Apple Valley Science and Technology Center Demonstration

Sarah Keegan
Headquarters, Washington, DC           April 3, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1600)

John G. Watson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 
(Phone:  818/354-5011)

RELEASE:  98-54

NASA JOINS IN APPLE VALLEY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER DEDICATION 

     NASA has assisted in recycling an old space communications 
and tracking antenna into a radio telescope for the use of 
students and teachers around the nation.  The telescope is 
controlled through a new NASA-supported facility to improve and 
expand science and technology education which was dedicated in 
Southern California's Apple Valley today.  
 
     The Apple Valley Science and Technology Center, renamed the 
Lewis Center for Education Research in honor of supporter U.S. 
Representative Jerry Lewis, features an innovative Internet-linked 
system that allows students across the country to remotely control 
the resurrected NASA space communications antenna to conduct radio 
astronomy experiments. 

     Among those scheduled to participate in the ceremonies today 
were Mrs. Gayle Wilson, wife of Governor Pete Wilson of 
California; NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin; NASA Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory (JPL) Director Dr. Edward C. Stone; retired NASA 
astronaut Dick Covey; and Congressman Jerry Lewis. 

     Staffed by a small professional staff and hundreds of 
volunteers, the Lewis Center for Education Research is a hub of 
learning for students of all ages interested in meteorology, 
astronomy, environmental studies and aviation, among many other 
subjects. 

     In 1996, the center took over operation of a nine-story-high 
tracking antenna within the Goldstone site of NASA's Deep Space 
Network, near Barstow, CA.  Instead of tearing down the 
decommissioned antenna, JPL entered into an agreement allowing the 
center and the school district to operate the antenna as a radio 
telescope for use via the Internet by students from around the 
United States.  NASA and JPL staff and volunteers participated in 
converting the antenna into a radio telescope and linking its 
control system to classrooms via the Internet. 

     Goldin, Lewis, Stone and Wilson were scheduled to staff the 
center's mission control today to join students in Michigan and 
Kentucky as they operated the giant radio telescope from their 
classrooms.

     The original Science and Technology Center facility, built 
nearly 10 years ago, now houses an observatory, Air Force jet 
flight simulator, computer center, weather station and related 
hands-on learning tools for students.  It has drawn more than 
80,000 students and teachers from across the nation.  The center, 
affiliated with the Apple Valley Unified School District, has 
drawn the support of many business and community leaders from its 
inception in 1985 for its effective experiments with new, creative 
educational methods. 

      In 1997, the center was awarded a federal grant to expand 
its facilities.  In addition to adding offices, the new facility 
offers several innovative new educational spaces, including 
mission control, a high-tech control room where students from 
around the world are able to control the decommissioned Deep Space 
Network antenna.  A digital TV studio, amateur radio station and 
control room were built with support from NASA and the Desert 
Community Bank and will allow students to produce and broadcast 
educational programs to more than 35,000 homes in cooperation with 
Hi-Desert Cablevision.  The facility also features a library, 
sponsored by the Assistance League of the Victory Valley; and a 
Gateway to Excellence technology classroom sponsored by GTE, which 
includes a science education laboratory with a climate-controlled 
greenhouse.  

     The center also operates the Academy for Academic Excellence, 
a K-12 California Public Charter School, chartered by the Apple 
Valley Science and Technology Center.  It combines classroom and 
lab work at the center with parental schooling in an innovative 
program to explore new effective learning programs.  Classes are 
offered at the center for both students and parents. 

     JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, 
Pasadena, CA.

                           -end-

NOTE TO BROADCASTERS:  NASA TV will air a video file about the 
center throughout the day on April 3.  NASA Television is 
available through GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West 
longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 Mhz, 
and audio at 6.8 Mhz.