Photo By Crystal Farris | Students in fifth through eighth grade participate in an Idaho STARBASE Summer Guard...... read more read more
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More than two-dozen fifth through eighth grade students spent a week at Gowen Field Aug. 7th to 11th as part of the annual Idaho STARBASE free Summer Guard Camp for children of Idaho National Guardsmen and Army Reservists in Idaho.
While the program hosts approximately eight summer academies every year for students at local schools, only one is dedicated to serving just military families.
“STARBASE has been an incredibly valuable resource to the Idaho National Guard and our families,” said 1st Lt. Joshua Seward, Idaho family programs director. “Showing our servicemembers that we not only care about them, but their families as well, is one of the top priorities of our organization.”
During this year’s Mars Engineering Camp, children conducted experiments around what it would take to make Mars livable. While coming together as a colony, students learned how to make air filters, transport water, survey land using drones, crash land a space shuttle, cook food in solar oven and more.
Choralie Schmidt, a first-time camper and fifth grader at Compass Public Charter School, said she most enjoyed the paper water slide project. The group assignment involved building a prototypic slide for interplanetary entertainment. It also served as a friendly competition to see which team created the best one. The winning prototype, based on budget and design, was chosen to have their slide built on “Mars.”
“I liked everything about camp, but I think my favorite part was building the paper water slide because it was fun and new and I’d never done that before,” said Choralie.
Choralie’s father Staff Sgt. Mky’l Schmidt serves part time for the U.S. Army Reserves and full-time as a STARBASE teacher. As a parent, Schmidt said he enjoyed seeing his daughter attend camp and work as a team to apply STEM-related concepts.
“As a teacher, it’s super rewarding to see students get so excited about things they’re doing,” said Schmidt. “Their level of interest has a huge impact on their willingness to learn new concepts and apply them. STARBASE provides content that is relevant, engaging and even aligns with state education content standards.”
STARBASE Idaho is a Department of Defense program that offers fifth grade students from Title 1 schools 25 hours of “hand-on, minds-on” STEM instruction on Gowen Field. Currently it serves students from 45 schools and eight districts, in addition to hosting five afterschool programs within three schools.
In its fifth year of operation, the program has helped enrich the STEM education of over 10,000 students since opening in August 2018. This upcoming school year, the program will be expanding its afterschool program into an additional school district.
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2023 13:56 |
| Story ID: | 451411 |
| Location: | BOISE, ID, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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