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CalvaryChapelAcademy-61

NASA PARTNERSHIP

GROWING BEYOND EARTH

One of the academic achievements at Calvary Chapel Academy is being the only school, private or public, on the Space Coast which participates as an active research site for the Growing Beyond Earth Challenge (GBE.)

The GBE Challenge is a STEM education program designed to have middle and high school students conduct botany experiments, designed in partnership with NASA researchers at Kennedy Space Center, that support

NASA research on growing plants in space. GBE was initiated by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in collaboration with NASA’s Exploration Research and Technology Programs and Miami-Dade County Public School District.

As STEM students are actively testing edible plant cultivars to assist scientists at NASA it's incredible to think their work, and the data they collect, will be used in future space missions.

The Goals of the GBE Challenge are to:

  • Improve STEM instruction in schools by providing authentic research experiments that have real world implications through curricular activities that meet STEM education needs, comprehensive teacher training, summer-long internships and the development of replicable training modules.
  • Increase and sustain youth and public engagement in STEM related fields. 
  • Better serve groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields.
  • Support current and future NASA research by identifying and testing new plant varieties for future growth in space. During the 2016-17 academic year, 131 school classrooms participated in the program. To date, students have tested 91 varieties of edible plants and produced more than 100,000 data points that have been shared with the researchers at KSC.

 

This school has a good use of technology, down to the VPK program where students have computer lab at least once a week. In the classroom once a week my daughter gets to play learning games on an ipad and have media time as well. They go to the media lab, also the library. My daughter loves the vibrant chapel time she tells me about dancing and singing to "Jesus music." They learn how to use the computer mouse and answer game questions. She plays hands on learning games in her class and when I volunteer I see all that is happening here. Students get to go into the different fun area of class called centers. My child is learning so much and will be successful in her Kindergarten entrance test. I feel like they are right on the level.
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