The NASA Educator Resource Center in Cape Girardeau has received $481,607 in federal money for math and science education over the next three years.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., announced the funding at a news conference Thursday afternoon in front of the center at 222 N. Pacific.

More than 40 people, including schoolchildren from Franklin Elementary School in Cape Girardeau and the Altenburg School District, turned out for the event.

"We do not have enough young people who are committed to science," Bond told the children standing behind him.

He said science is vital to the nation's economic growth.

"Don't skimp on the math," he advised the children. "You've got to learn the math as well as the science."

Southeast Missouri State University operates the center. Dr. Ernest Kern, a geosciences professor at Southeast, directs the resource center.

The center has been open 18 months. It assists science and math teachers with NASA videotapes, slides and written material about space flight and the science of space.