Spellings

Nancy Reagan and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will be on hand Sunday to open the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's new interactive educational exhibit, the Air Force One Discovery Center.

Rather than reading about historical figures, students will participate in exercises based on the United States invasion of Grenada in 1983 under President Reagan.

Students from fifth through eighth grades will have the opportunity to play roles ranging from the president and his Cabinet members to military generals and reporters.

The Discovery Center is in the bottom of the pavilion and is open to classes and by appointment only.

"It's always been very important to the Reagan Library to have educational outreach programs," said Melissa Giller, spokeswoman for the library.

"This allows students to be at the forefront with an interactive, immersive experience."

Library officials said the exhibit will bring in up to five classes a day and will take a student up to 80 minutes to experience. Giller said appointments for teachers to take their classes through the exhibit are filling up.

"We're already taking reservations for summer groups and schools for the fall," Giller said. "We held a teacher preview in April and had overwhelming response from the 160 teachers there."

The $3.5 million exhibit has four permanent sets: the Oval Office; the Command Decision Center, modeled after the USS Ronald Reagan; a White House pressroom; and a real Air Force One simulator, the same one used to train pilots.

The invitation-only event Sunday will include student, media and teacher walk-throughs of the exhibit. About 30 students from Lang Ranch Elementary in Thousand Oaks will give a gift to Nancy Reagan and Spellings.

Before the class visits the exhibit, the education staff have compiled curricula including a pre-visit video, pre-visit guides for teachers and students and a post-visit debriefing manual for students.

Before coming to the Reagan Library, teachers will choose the role each student plays, from president to pilot to reporter.

Each will get background knowledge of the national issue the exhibit explores, which will change periodically.

The Oval Office is about three-quarters of the actual size, with replicas of Reagan's desk, paintings, couches, chairs and statues that filled his office. A sign that reads "It Can Be Done" sits on the corner of the desk.

At the end, students will have the opportunity to analyze and compare their decisions with those of historical figures, library officials said.

For more information, visit http://www.reaganlibrary.com.