Photo By John Hughel | Oregon Air National Guard Senior Master Sgt. Stan Durfee of the 142nd Fighter Wing...... read more read more
Subscribe
PORTLAND, Ore. -- An eager group of fifth graders from Woodstock Elementary School are quick to answer questions from Senior Master Sgt. Stanley Durfee, standing next to an Oregon Air National Guard F-15 Eagle aircraft.
The group is touring the Portland Air National Guard Base as part of the Oregon Air National Guard’s STARBASE Program, which provides an up-close look, as well as hands-on education into Oregon’s premier strike fighter, the F-15 Eagle, in addition to how Oregon Airmen uphold the unit’s Air Sovereignty Alert Mission.
“The kids just love the program because they get to see firsthand the airplanes and how they function and that provokes a new way of thinking,” Durfee said.
Through the program, Airmen open up a whole new world of science and mathematics for students.
The hangar tour and up-close look at the jets have long been the highlight of the STARBASE Program, but recently the program has shifted to more class room and a core textbook approach.
The curriculum is funded by the Department of Defense, with over 60 programs providing students with 25 hours of exciting learning time on military installations across the nation.
The Portland program is a partnership between the Portland Public Schools and the Oregon National Guard.
Since 1993 Marilyn Sholian has been working with STARBASE Portland, and helped the program grow and develop many of the classes in chemistry, fluids and avionics, and other areas the students see when they are on base for the two week class.
The Portland-Metro area has 21 schools which send 1,340 students through the program.
“The kids are here four days each week and the classrooms are full all the time,” Sholian said.
Planting the seeds for science and technology is the key to that makes the program so successful, she added. The program is designed to focus on at-risk students, and in urban areas where access to math and science classes are a challenge, Sholian said.
“For some of our kids, this is almost all the science that they sometimes have for the entire school year,” she said.
The tour for Woodstock Elementary School was the final STARBASE class for the Oregon Air Guard.
The Department of Defense directs many of the classes the children will have, gearing the education curriculum to the classroom rather than touring the base or meeting military personnel like Durfee.
The tour was also the last of Durfee’s military career. “I am retiring in a couple months so the weekly tours I have been doing since 1998 will be ending just as I retire,” he said.
In the future, the classes will no longer be so close to the Oregon Air National Guard’s premier strike fighter jet. Classes will be held at neighboring Jackson Armory, and administrators said the curriculum will continue to help area students develop strong math and science skills.
“This is the last year we are doing the tours because now all the classes will be selected and scheduled by the DoD,” Sholian said.
The STARBASE program has been helping Portland students since 1998 in the local community.
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.05.2022 11:57 |
| Story ID: | 426609 |
| Location: | PORTLAND, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Portland Air Base STARBASE program adjusts to future classroom changes, by John Hughel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
