Biosphere 2, a research complex leased by the University of Arizona, will become a training center for teachers specializing in science and technology, The Arizona Republic reports.

Constructed near Tucson in the 1980s and formerly managed by Columbia University, Biosphere 2 comprises a set of artificial ecosystems that housed two crews of researchers in the 1990s. The failure of those experiments led many observers to dismiss the project as a pseudoscientific effort, and some Arizona officials now see the switch to a training center as an opportunity to revamp its reputation.

“Once you see the possibilities and opportunity that exist within this whole structure, that image will go away,” said Darcy Renfro, of Science Foundation Arizona. The project will be financed by the foundation and by a grant of an undisclosed amount from the Philecology Foundation, an organization run by one of the original supporters of Biosphere 2.

Teachers will collaborate with professors from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University to develop a training curriculum, Ms. Renfro told the Republic. None of the hundreds of teachers who are expected to be trained at the facility will live there, the newspaper added.

Biosphere 2 was leased to the University of Arizona shortly after a housing-development group bought the facility and the surrounding desert land for $50-million in 2007. —Caitlin Moran