WASHINGTON -- Twenty-five Bolling Area Home Educators students from the ages of 9-16 graduated the DOD Starbase Atlantis program, Oct. 28.
Starbase is a Department of Defense youth program aimed at educating young people in subjects related to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
Students in the program participate in 20-25 hours of hands-on activities at military installations across the country while interacting with military members to explore careers in math and science.
Starbase traces its beginnings back to 1991 when co-founder Barbara Koscak, an elementary school teacher of 15 years at the time, wanted to find a way to make engineering and math career fields exciting and interesting to students.
In her own words, “The bottom line has always been the children. STEM is a part of our hopeful future. Learning science from a book is just boring. That’s how the students feel about it. In order to take a hands-on, minds-on approach to math and science, we looked at military installations and all of the STEM careers within the military.”
In a poll conducted among youth ages 8-17, the study found that 85 percent were not interested in engineering career fields, 44 percent felt they lacked the knowledge of math and science to become involved in engineering career fields and 30 percent wanted a more exciting career than engineering.
Starbase seeks to dispel this misconception that engineering career fields are scary or mundane by directly exposing students to situations where math and science play a major role. Activities are geared toward helping students discover how math and science principles apply to real world situations and everyday life.
The military relies on a highly skilled workforce within its ranks and through contractors to perform some of its highly technological jobs. In recent years, there has been a decline in the number of qualified adults who can fill these positions.
Starbase’s vision and purpose is “to raise the interest and improve the knowledge and skills of at-risk youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which will provide for a highly educated and skilled American workforce that can meet the advanced technological requirements of the Department of Defense.”
The day began with students and instructors meeting in a classroom at the Naval Marine Corps Reserve Center on the north side of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling where they answered post-assessment questions on the material they had been learning and a class survey.
One noteworthy aspect of the program was that the students as well as the instructors, rather than going by their given names, instead addressed each other by call signs, such as Cobra, Ginger and Sky.
Later, students participated in a graduation ceremony for completing the class, where they received certificates from Navy Capt. Anthony T. Calandra, JBAB commander.
The highlight of the day, however, was when students got an opportunity to take their model rockets to an open field on the north side of the base and launch them.
Starbase instructor “Kinetic,” said, “Our job is to encourage our students to pursue careers in engineering, math and science and show them that not only is it fun, it’s something they already do every day.”
| Date Taken: |
10.28.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
11.16.2011 15:56 |
| Story ID: |
80116 |
| Location: |
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, US |
| Web Views: |
48 |
| Downloads: |
1 |
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This work, BAHE teams up with Starbase Atlantis, by SSgt Susan Davis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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