By Anne Gabbianelli
Mike Preble is in space and beyond these days in his new role as education director of the Challenger Learning Center (CLC) in Bangor. “My current focus is to help translate the awe-inspiring in-person missions into fun and engaging virtual missions,” says the Old Town native. Preble joined the CLC at the start of November and Kristen Hibbard, executive director says, “He has already gone beyond making waves…he has moved mountains!”
Preble brings a vast background to this new job. He was most recently at Eastern Maine Community College as a faculty member in the Computer Technology department. He says, “I built and sustained partnerships with high schools, technical schools, and companies like Amazon. I was the first teacher in Maine to be Amazon Web Services certified.” Then Preble advanced to curriculum developer working with faculty and staff from across the entire Maine Community College System on micro credentialing (mini-qualifications that demonstrate skills, knowledge, and/or experience in a given subject area or capability).
His array of skills goes beyond that, however, ultimately leading to where he set his eyes some time ago. “Having worked for a nonprofit, a technical high school, and starting my own after school STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education business, the Challenger Learning Center has been on my radar for years.”
Combining his passion for education and his technical expertise, Preble is now on his celestial mission. “We currently have a small number of virtual missions that we’re considering and I need to be an expert on all of them.” He goes one step further now to, “help plan for the future and make sure that our programs can work with technologies and systems in schools and classrooms. The virtual nature of our new missions allows for an incredible opportunity for classroom integration and student access that the CLC is excited to explore.”
Hibbard contends Preble is the perfect match for the CLS’ pandemic-altered mission. “We have been translating our mission from a hands-on, in-person experience to a virtual experience where students connect with the Challenger staff and perform a space mission simulation to the moon, mars and beyond!”
She acknowledges more students and teachers across the state are connected to the CLC missions, “So their geographic location does not have to limit a teacher’s ability to use Challenger as another resource/lab/tool of STEM enrichment.”
Hibbard has her eye to the future, “To go further into space you have to be innovative and daring” while utilizing all that has been put in place in 2020, “Even after we are able to allow students into our space simulations at our center again, we will continue to use the programming developed during this COVID time.”
In our world of virtual engagement, Preble notes, “I see translating the magic that happens at 30 Venture Way in Bangor into a virtual experience as my biggest challenge. The Challenger Learning Center and our flight directors are second to none when it comes to creating an engaging, fun, and memorable STEM education learning experience for students.”
Once the virtual education experience is on course, Preble sees brighter stars yet to come. “On the horizon, I see digital badging being a vehicle to convey the story of the amazing learning that happens in a mission and will help our teachers and school systems integrate learning experiences from the CLC directly into the curriculum in their classrooms.”
Digital badges indicate individual successes, abilities and skills and goes beyond a grade or certificate. Preble offers fifth-grader Sam as an example. “After successfully going through our Europa Encounter virtual mission, Sam comes away with a “physics exploration” digital badge and is excited and inspired to learn more about rockets. In addition, his learning ties into the curriculum.”
Preble, married and a father of two, is using his own fifth- and second-grader as test pilots. “I’ve already brought home a 3D pen and some robots from work for Lilly and Andy to playtest with and they loved them!” His wife is a school-based counsellor which blends well with the ongoing mission, “Joanna and I are huge advocates for education in and outside of school.”
So for the CLC and Mike Preble, space is not really the final frontier but rather a new, virtual frontier.