The fifth graders over the last several weeks have been taking science classes at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Center through StarBase a nation wide project that teaches fifth graders hands on experiments with robotics, rocketry, and computers. Our 25 students go each Tuesday for five weeks and experience science for a five hours. Each students has their own equipment and materials as they follow the instruction of the StarBase teachers.
STARBASE focuses on elementary students, primarily fifth graders. The goal is to motivate them to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as they continue their education. The academies serve students that are historically under-represented in STEM. Students who live in inner cities or rural locations, those who are socio-economically disadvantaged, low in academic performance or have a disability are in the target group. The program encourages students to set goals and achieve them.
The program engages students through the inquiry-based curriculum with its “hands-on, mind-on” experiential activities. They study Newton’s Laws and Bernoulli’s principle; explore computer aided design, robotics, and electrical circuit building. They are captivated by engineering as they use the computer to design a rover, a radar, and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Math is embedded throughout the curriculum and students use metric measurement, estimation, calculation geometry and data analysis to solve questions. Teamwork is stressed as they work together to explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate concepts.
The mission for 10 Sept 2013 was to build and launch a solid fuel rocket. The children got to take the rocket home, minus the solid fuel engine of course.
