Gene Kranz Scholarship Fund
Apollo-era Flight Director Gene Kranz wears his iconic Apollo 13 vest in Starship Gallery.
While we preserve the past, we also need to invest in the future. By developing and motivating the children of today, we are able to shape tomorrow’s leaders of human space exploration. Space Center Houston established a scholarship fund at Space Center Houston in honor of retired Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz for this purpose.
Space Center Houston’s Gene Kranz Scholarship Fund offers scholarships for local students to participate in Space Center University®, a multi-day, hands-on engineering design program open to students from middle school through college, as well as adults.
Space Center U® promotes teamwork, problem solving, communication and engineering solutions to space related situations. It is also designed to develop critical thinking skills, accountability, fiscal responsibility, teamwork, and the ability to respond to adversity–the same skills that Gene Kranz instilled in his flight controllers in Mission Control.
Underserved access to youth STEM education programs
Middle school girls review mission objectives in their mission logs in our Girls STEM Academy.
High school students examine one type of robot they will work with in our Stars & STEM program.
Most of a person’s science learning takes place outside of the five percent of their lives spent in a traditional classroom setting. Informal learning experiences, such as the programs, exhibits and activities available at Space Center Houston, are ideal ways for students to engage in meaningful learning experiences.
In informal learning environments, students have the ability to ask their own questions and explore solutions or next steps on their own. This practice helps create excitement, drive curiosity and helps contribute to a person’s knowledge and interest in STEM. The experience can spark creative and innovative thinking and heighten their motivation to learn.
Space Center Houston provides a broad array of programming for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, as well as educators, focusing on STEM disciplines.
We rely on donations to extend these opportunities to low-income students who otherwise would not be able to visit Space Center Houston.
Space Center Houston’s education programs and outreach initiatives include, but aren’t limited to, the following programs:
- Title 1 School Visit Program, which provides greatly reduced or free admission for schools in and around Houston that qualify under the federal Title 1 Program;
- Exploration Academy, a program developed in collaboration with experts at NASA Johnson Space Center that immerses middle school students and their teachers in space and science learning over 16 weeks;
- Girls STEM Pathway, a multiphase educational and mentoring initiative featuring Girls STEM Academy, a gender-specific program that encourages middle-school girls to apply STEM concepts and skills through hands-on, inquiry-based learning; and
- Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC), our premier educator professional development program, now in its 26th year, which brings close to 600 teachers from around the world to Houston annually to prepare them to successfully integrate the latest space science into their curricula.