King students experience Starbase

With call signs like Potato, Via, Mr. Sponge and Deli, fifth-graders at Martha King Elementary got a taste of military life with a strong emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Art/Design, and Mathematics curriculum, better known as STEAM.

For three weeks this month, the students took part in Starbase, an educational program sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. For the King students, the nationwide program took place at the National Guard station in Henderson. Since it’s federally funded, the students get to go for free for the third year in a row.

According to the Starbase website, “The program engages students through the inquiry-based curriculum with its “hands-on, minds-on” experiential activities. Each academy chooses a customized curriculum from a large offering of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, such as: Newton’s Laws and Bernoulli’s principle, robotics, and engineering as they use the computer to design space stations, all-terrain vehicles, and submersibles. Mathematics 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.”

Its mission is to “Expose our nation’s youth to the technological environments and positive civilian and military role models found on Active, Guard, and Reserve military bases and installations, nurture a winning network of collaborators, and build mutual loyalty within our communities, by providing 25 hours of exemplary hands-on STEAM instruction and activities that meet or exceed the national standards.”

Jeanne Moody, in her third year as a fifth-grade teacher at King, specializing in science, said the part of the program the students enjoy the most is the hands-on approach.

“They have access to equipment that we couldn’t get in CCSD because of the funding,” she said. “What’s nice is that a lot of the people there (Starbase) were teachers first, so they know how to teach kids and show them how the things they were taught could apply to what they were learning in the classroom.”

She said having these additional opportunities in science has meant a great deal to her students and it’s shown. The school’s SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) science scores grew by more than 15% this year, the highest growth in five years.

“I think they get excited about learning about science,” said Moody, who served for seven years as a helicopter pilot in the Navy and went by the call sign Outlook. “Sometimes in the classroom there’s a lot of background knowledge they need to do the experiments and I feel having a more hands-on approach allows students to get excited and they then want to learn that background knowledge afterward.”

King Elementary Principal Jason Schrock said he’s a big fan of Starbase and the effect it’s had on his students.

“Starbase has helped us bring science to life through hands-on learning,” he said. “Their resources and expertise give our students access to technology and experiments that strengthen both curiosity and scientific understanding, which are made possible through this valuable partnership.”

Jeff Asemota, an instructor at Starbase Henderson said, “The DoD STARBASE program is important because it helps to enhance STEAM education that students receive in the Clark County School District. At STARBASE Henderson we enjoy watching students make connections between STEAM and the world around them. One of my favorite things is helping students code robotics and seeing their hard work come to life.”

Another instructor, Anthony Robertson, who goes by the call sign Mercury, said what makes Starbase unique is that it offers a different kind of learning experience.

“Hands-on science has a way of fascinating even the most jaded kids,” he said. “Shows like Bill Nye and Mr. Wizard remain timeless. Now imagine that kind of experience from the front row, inside the lab. Even adults who haven’t been in a classroom in years still remember some weird science fact or spectacular experiment from a show like that or some great teacher. For me? I get to be Mr. Wizard. I am an everyday Bill Nye. Sometimes, I even get to feel like a great teacher. At Starbase, I live my childhood dream and get paid to bring wonder to the next generation. Work hardly feels like work when you love it.”