Reagan Library gets new Discovery Center
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

The year is 1983. The United States is in the middle of the Cold War, and the communist Cuban military is building an airport on the small Caribbean island of Grenada. How should the U.S. respond?

Instead of the Reagan administration making all the decisions, a class of about 40 middle school students from inside the Ronald Reagan Library's new Discovery Center in Simi Valley will decide what action, if any, the U.S. should take.

Mirah Cohen, director of education at the library, called the new exhibit "history meets Hollywood," where students in grades five through eight take on the roles of important government figures like CIA agents, White House press correspondents, the secretary of defense, and even president of the United States.

"It's an immersive experience for students to understand presidential decision-making," Cohen said. "They're getting a chance to really think about how government works, how decisions are made, what relations are with a (neighboring country)- if it matters and why it matters."

The Reagan Library's Discovery Center- a 5,000-square-foot interactive gallery containing replicas of the Oval Office, a press room, a command decision center and the Air Force One fuselage- is the first program of its kind to be implemented at a presidential library.

The gallery is located on the ground floor of the library's Air Force One Pavilion and is scheduled to open for group bookings this spring.

According to Cohen, the Grenada conflict was chosen as the backdrop scenario for the Discovery Center experience because of its relationship to the Reagan administration and its compatibility with the program structure.

"It's an experience that highlights the Cold War," Cohen said. "It's also something that happened in our hemisphere that highlights issues like Cuba and what's going on (there) right now. There are connections students can make to contemporary issues."

Prior to arriving at the Discovery Center, classes will receive preparation materials to help them learn necessary background information. At the center, students are split into three role-playing groups- each group responsible for a particular assignment.

Students playing the roles of the president and his advisers will meet in the center's oval office, which has been decorated to simulate the office during Reagan's tenure. Those assigned to the roles of Gen. John Vessey and American military officials will meet in the command decision center.

About a dozen students, playing the roles of media reporters, will be assigned with breaking the news story in the pressroom.

"It really gives a tremendous opportunity to discover and discuss the relationship between the executive branch of government and the press, and how they impact each other," Cohen said.

In each area of the center, prerecorded videos will play on large television screens, helping guide the students in their decisionmaking. The videos, mostly made up of scripted scenes, are interspersed with actual media footage recorded in 1983. Depending on the decision the students make, they see a different response on the screen.

The entire experience, lasting about one and a half hours, is designed to encourage kids within the 10- to 14-year-old age range to "dig their hands into high-level decision-making," Cohen said.

After completing their assignments, the students will gather together in the Air Force One fuselage replica, which contains an actual working Boeing 707 flight simulator, to conclude the activity.

Rob Moss, general manager of Compton-based contractor G&G Design Associates, said the simulator was the first ever created for a Boeing 707 and was completely refurbished before being installed into the replica.

Using the flight simulator, some students can fly the plane, while the rest watch an epilogue video recounting the actual events of the 1983 Grenada conflict.

"These are students who generally aren't asked to make major decisions, even in class," Cohen said. "They usually discuss and analyze other people's decisions. This time, they'll actually be analyzing their own decisions and what they did in these roles."

The Reagan Foundation plans to hold a teacher preview day of the Discovery Center on April 2. Any teachers or youth group leaders interested in booking the center should send an e-mail to afodiscovery@reaganfoundation .org.