Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces

The Las Cruces Space Festival is returning!!

The Space Festival will run September 7, 2024 - September 14, 2024. Exciting event details will be revealed later, but for certain, Challenger will be offering free public missions for the event. Right now please share this opportunity with your students - they have the whole summer to work on and submit their design!

CLCLC Commanders joined in Family Day at Myrna’s Village, the Early Childhood Center on the NMSU Campus. Students were excited to build humanoid robots and learn about Snoopy’s recent trip to space!

REMINDER:

Registration for our last day camp this school year opens tomorrow morning at 8am. We will post a google link here on our page at that time. Keep in mind:

1. The camp will be on April 22nd from 9am to 3pm.
2. The camp is open to all Kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders who did not attend our last two K-2 day camps this spring.
3. Cost is $30 (scholarships available).
4. The camp will take place at our center at 505 S. Main St. in Las Cruces.
5. We expect the camp to fill quickly so don't hesitate if you have high interest.
6. Feel free to post any questions below in the comment section.

Send a message to learn more

Send a message to learn more

One important aspect of the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces is our community involvement. When we get asked to support an event (STEM or otherwise), we do our best to say “yes” to every request.

Thursday, March 28th was a day full of exciting space outreach for the CLCLC. The crew presented information about careers in the aerospace industry at the Alameda Elementary Career Exploration Day. They also presented Destination Mars, a research mission to three 5th grade classrooms. That evening, half of the crew supported STEM Night at Sonoma Elementary and half of the crew participated in the Literacy Festival in the Downtown Plaza! Lots of robot prototypes and comet models were created!

On Saturday, March 30, Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces joined in the fun at Spring Fest at Young Park. Young engineers built humanoid robots along with a lot of other springtime festivities.

April 22nd is an educator planning day for LCPS and students will not attend school that day. We offer an alternative for kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders. This will be our last day camp this school year. It is open to all K-2 who did not attend our two previous camps this semester. Registration opens at 8am on April 15th. Links will be posted here on Facebook at that time.

Both Comet Camps are now full. We will have one more K-2 camp later in the semester for those who missed out on these two.

Does your Kinder, 1st, or 2nd grader love space and need something to do on Parent Teacher Conference Day or Educator Planning Day? Earth's Planetary Defense Team needs some good students to protect us from the dangers of space.

Las Cruces Leadership visited our center last week. After a mission to Mars, we had the opportunity to share with them all the various ways our center impacts our community and beyond. They were a very enthusiastic and involved crew!

Students from Deming, NM High School visited us this week for a day of STEM activities and a Lunar Quest Mission to search for a suitable future colony site in ancient lava tubes.

Our first mission for 2024 was a local homeschool group with students aged 4 to 14. If you have a group of students who would like a mission to Mars or the Moon, contact us and we'll prep for launch!

Our main focus for the spring semester is presenting a research project (entitled "Destination Mars") where students help decide the best possible location for the first Mars colony. We visit every single 5th grade classroom in the LCPS district. We needed to test our equipment and get the project up and running so we enlisted the help of Mrs. Clark's 5th graders this week. Great work students! It was a perfect mission.

Pictures of the Challenger crew attending STEM Nights at the following elementary schools: Alameda, East Picacho, and Hillrise.

Yesterday was our final Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids day camp. The next opportunity for 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders will be summer camps in June. During the spring we will be offering 3 separate day camps for Kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders. Watch our FB page for announcements.

Do you need support for a STEM event? We can offer a variety of elementary and middle school age appropriate activities. Request a catalog of our services and we'll check our calendar for availability. This semester has been one of our busiest ever for community involvement. These photos represent the following events from the past two months: Camino Real MS Planetarium visit, LC Catholic School STEM Night, Mesilla Park ES Spooktakular, LC Scout Jamboree, St. Paul's Fall Festival, Sunrise ES STEM Night.

Our November 10th camp has filled up and registration is now closed. For those students who are registered, we'll see you next week!

Tonight's the night!

* Tour our Simulator
* STEM Activities
* Space Art
* Representatives from NASA and LC Space Festival
* Collect all the pieces of a souvenir necklace

See you then!

Just a reminder, our open house is this Thursday, 6:00 - 7:30pm!

* Tour our Simulator
* STEM Activities
* Space Art
* Representatives from NASA and LC Space Festival
* Collect all the pieces of a souvenir necklace

See you then!