InfiniD's Skyler Carr Featured in Marriott School of Business Online Magazine. Adults Succeed on the Space Center's Darmok Trials.The Imaginarium

Skyler Carr is a co-founder of InfiniD.  He's a hard working, dedicated entrepreneur working to take the concept of simulator based experiential learning inspired by my first simulator 'Voyager' to the world; no small task, right? Skyler was recently featured in an article from BYU's Marriott School of Business. Today I'd like to share an edited version of that article. 

Congratulations Skyler and thank you for what you're doing to change the very nature of education.

Mr. Williamson

INFINID'S SKYLER CARR FEATURED IN MARRIOTT SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ONLINE MAGAZINE

Skyler Carr grew up dreaming of traveling through space and hunting aliens. His favorite day in grade school included a trip to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove, where he could practice being a spaceman. He never forgot those days.

In 2013, Carr was a senior in the entrepreneurship program at the Marriott School when his friends came to him with the idea to take the Space Center concept to the world. After becoming involved, Carr wanted to also transformed the entire Space Center system into a software platform for experiential learning in schools around the country.

The Space Center concept of experiential education using simulator based learning was originally created in 1983 by elementary school science teacher Victor Williamson.  In 1990, Williamson founded the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center at Central School, Pleasant Grove. Schools and parents could book the site for birthday parties, field trips, and camps where kids could go on a spacecraft simulator and catch aliens.

While still in school, Carr realized evolving the space center concept  into a world wide organization would take more time and attention than he had thought. Carr had to rely on the support of professors, the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and local entrepreneurs to get his feet on the ground before taking off with a whole new company.

“I accidentally started the company,” says Carr, who graduated in 2014. “It was more of a happenstance get-together where we had an idea for a fun program, but it took off because it was bigger than we thought.”

The newly developed company, now known as INFINI D Learning, has far greater reach than the original program due to the high accessibility of its software. Rather than having students come to the actual brick and mortar space education centers, the centers can reach students anytime, anywhere. Schools can access the software to use in computer labs for less than the cost of a field trip and can use it for the entire school year.

The learning software is prebuilt, animated, and curriculum-based, and can be applied to any subject. For example, students can learn about a math theory and test it in a lifelike space simulation the following week.

“The engagements that kids get in the classroom produce incredible results,” Carr says. “It’s expanded to be anything you can imagine, and it applies to every subject, even language arts and social studies.”

Carr didn’t produce such results without facing obstacles and challenges, and to this day he reaches out to mentors he met through the entrepreneurship program for ideas and solutions.

“Some major challenges are the fact that we’re doing something no one’s done before,” Carr says. “You can’t look up how to build a spaceship that’s accessible on all school technology in every state, so there are very specific people I can go to for mentoring in that area.”

He continues to use the resources he first discovered through the entrepreneurship program to find solutions to today’s challenges, and people he met at BYU still come to him with answers and support.

“My favorite thing is waking up every day having no idea how to solve a problem, and later ending up in the office with someone who will help me solve it by the end of the day,” he says.

Adult Crew Tackles the CMSEC's Darmok 

Trials

      A transporter accident left 4 command crew members of the USS Phoenix in a state where they were not able to return to fully active duty until at the earliest March. The Phoenix had been assigned to participate in the Darmok Trials and needed highly trained officers ages 17+ to take over their duties. Their ship departed at 4:00 pm on Saturday, December 10th and returned at 10:00 pm that evening. All went well.

     I'm always pleased to see adults at the Space Center, especially when I hear them reminisce about the great times they had attending our camps and field trips when they were kids. It is a testament to the dedicated work of so many good people, people who believed in the power of simulator based experiential education. 

     Congratulations to the staff and volunteers of the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center on another successful camp.  They all make me very proud.  

Mr. W.         

The Imaginarium