“Oh my gee! I think I’m going to puke right now,” shouted Evan Cardenas, 9, gazing at a black Special Operations helicopter on the airfield of Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) in Los Alamitos. “Somebody get me a bucket!”
“Oh my gee! I think I’m going to puke right now,” shouted Evan Cardenas, 9, gazing at a black Special Operations helicopter on the airfield of Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) in Los Alamitos. “Somebody get me a bucket!”
Neither Evan nor any of his classmates from Diamond Elementary School in Santa Ana actually needed a bucket during their three-day aviation course at the California National Guard’s STARBASE program from July 18-20, but shouts of excitement like his were commonplace. STARBASE is a nonresidential American military educational program for students (grades K-12) that provides them with real-world applications of math and science.
“It was an amazing experience to come here, because we learned a bunch of stuff we might not learn in our usual school, and we made a lot of memories,” said fifth grader Jazmin Rodriguez, whose rocket traveled that long distance. “[The teachers] keep it interesting. We don’t use that much technology … [or] make as many class projects at our usual school.”
STARBASE Director Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CA) Stacey Hendrickson said STARBASE students learn a scientific property, and then they learn its application, which helps with memory. Translation: Kids learn something in the classroom, then do something really fun, so they never forget it.
“We really feel like it’s science and technology all day [at STARBASE], and it’s things [students] really take forward with them,” said Mary Spira, a Diamond Elementary teacher who has been bringing students to STARBASE for three years. “I see them a couple of years later, and they still remember [these lessons] and take it with them and apply it.”
The two main lessons for the week covered lift and aerodynamics. On day one, the students learned about air’s mass and pressure, the movement of its molecules and something called Bernoulli’s principle. Then they got to test out what they had learned — by flying planes and helicopters on a flight simulator.
“Now you’re in a good position,” STARBASE instructor Zaire Black told a student, standing behind him as he flew a virtual Cessna toward a landing strip. “Flaps down, throttle all the way to zero, we’re going to get in there. OK, relax, don’t worry. Keep coming down. You got this, dude. Now just as you get there, you’ve got to pull up a little bit. Pull up, pull up just a tad. You feel it, feel it. Brake now. Brake. Click, click, click, click. You got it, dude!”
This was not your kid’s typical day at school.
Day two focused on aerodynamics, which the students tested two ways: By building and flying a variety of paper planes (including a weird-looking one that connects two rings to a straw and somehow flies), and by designing and testing their own water rockets made of plastic soda bottles and other everyday items.
The two students whose planes flew the farthest got a special treat on Day 3, when they sat in the cockpit of a California Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and had their pictures taken. Don’t feel bad for the other students, though: They all got to board the Black Hawk as well as the Special Operations CH-47 Chinook, which was visiting JFTB Los Alamitos from the Washington state-based 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
“You can fly these things and make money,” Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CA) Tom Murphy told the class inside a hangar on Los Alamitos Army Airfield. “You can work on these things and make money. But you’ve got to stay out of trouble, and you must have a high school diploma.
“This aircraft started on a computer,” he continued, “then they gave it to other people to make mock ups out of wood. There’s all kinds of things you can do in aviation.”
STARBASE offered the three-day aviation unit this summer because the staff felt it was the topic that would interest the most students. Last summer, STARBASE Los Alamitos ran a similar program on robotics.
The students from Diamond Elementary who attended the summer program are part of an enrichment program.
The summer program is separate from STARBASE’s mission during the regular school year, when about 2,600 students from 25 schools cycle through. Each class spends a total of five days at STARBASE during the year, covering lessons in physics, chemistry, math, technology, engineering process and design, and careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
It’s a lot to cover in five days, but STARBASE approaches it the same way: with carefully planned lessons that incorporate firsthand application and create memorable experiences.
“The instructors are very good, thorough and engaging,” Spira said. “The students learn collaboration and how to work in groups to solve problems, and they get a very hands-on opportunity to see stuff they don’t normally see in a classroom.
“It’s a great opportunity for the kids and a great program.”
