Five hundred students in Manhattan, Kan., got the opportunity to ask Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger shuttle commander Dick Scobee, questions about her life and work during a teleconference Friday afternoon at UTC's Challenger Center.
The students recently held a multidisciplinary performance memorializing the Challenger crew and got the opportunity to hear from Rodgers herself when she found out about the event.
The performance is "a score of original lyrics, music and script that honors the seven astronauts lost during the mission and tells the story of how the Challenger inspired the space program to continue to pursue exploration despite tragedy," according to a news release.
Rodgers, who also is the founding chairwoman of the Challenger Centers, addressed a monitor in the lobby of the UTC building which showed the hundreds of students gathered in their schools.
She fielded questions from individual students and encouraged them to use their education to become tomorrow's innovators, just as the crewmembers desperately wanted.
"They wanted to inspire students around the world," she said.
Rodgers said she had the idea for the Challenger Center two days after the space shuttle exploded after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven crewmembers aboard. It came to her as she was at a memorial ceremony, sitting next to then-first lady Nancy Reagan, who held her hand during the event.
"It was important to me that we focused on what was important to that crew," she told the students. "I decided we would bring the families together and continue that mission."
She said they started with one center to honor the crew, but over the last 30 years, 43 Challenger Centers have been built all over the globe and another 20 are in various stages of construction.
"[The result] was beyond my wildest dream," she said.
Rodgers also praised the work of teachers like Scott Freeby, the director of bands for both of the participating middle schools in Kansas, who extolled the benefits of multidisciplinary projects like his students' performance.
"Students who participate in this style of learning become collaborative workers, creative thinkers, innovators, self-directed learners, community contributors and effective communicators," she said.
Rodgers said students like that are essential for the continuing mission of space exploration and innovation, adding that anyone can take advantage of the Challenger Center's "Martians of Tomorrow" platform online at challenger.org.
Parents, teachers and students can download lessons and quizzes among other resources or simply pledge to support efforts to land a human on Mars.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.