The Challenger Learning Center has renamed its planetarium to the “Fogg Planetarium” in honor of the Fogg Charitable Trust, which gave the facility a landmark donation of $750,000.
In a press release from the center sent Monday, the donation is the largest ever received in its 20 year history. The money will be placed into the Challenger’s endowment.
The decision for the renaming was made after a Florida A&M Board of Trustees meeting where the FAMU naming committee made the recommendation. While the Challenger Learning Center is managed by Florida State University , some maintenance support is provided by FAMU; the facility serves as the K-12 outreach extension of the universities’ joint engineering school.
The money will go to supporting the center’s mission to promote STEM education, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The funds will enable the center to expand educational offerings, develop new curriculum materials, provide scholarships and host workshops in astronomy and space science.