2008 Annual Report - West Virginia Army National Guard - U.S. Army

West Virginia National Guard Annual Report 2008
STARBASE
West Virginia STARBASE is an
educational program for increasing the
knowledge, skills, and
interest of Kanawha
and Berkeley County
youth in science,
mathematics, technology,
and engineering. The
hands-on approach
of exploration,
experimentation and
discovery, combined with
“real-world” applications
in aerospace, inspires
students to learn through unique and authentic
experiences not typically found in schools or
other programs.
STARBASE enjoys an outstanding
reputation for providing quality educational
programs benefiting thousands of
West Virginia children by utilizing
West Virginia National Guard
resources to provide an exciting
and rigorous curriculum. This year
STARBASE reached approximately
3,567 5th grade students — 1,456
from Berkeley County and 2,111
from Kanawha County. Nearly 100
percent of all 5th grade students in
Berkeley and Kanawha Counties
completed STARBASE’s innovative five-day
curriculum. Including outreach programs, WV
STARBASE reached more than 4,000 West
Virginia youth.
Each STARBASE offers a minimum of
1,200 hours
of classroom
contact and
conducts
more than 50
academies each
year. Since
its inception
in 2001, WV
STARBASE
has graduated over 14,000 students.
This summer, Charleston STARBASE
hosted a number of summer events for National
Guard dependents, including
its annual Camp STARBASE,
during which participants were
treated to an orientation flight on
a C130. Working alongside the
WVNG Family Programs Office
and Operation Military Kids,
Charleston STARBASE also
co-hosted “Drop-a-Kid Days,”
a series of weekly field trips to
attractions like the Columbus Zoo
and the Beach Water Park. Both
STARBASE sites also contributed to the WVNG
Kids Kamp and WVNG Family Day.
The most intriguing development for
WV STARBASE was the arrival of two new
3-dimensional printers. These state-of-the-art
machines are
used during the
engineering
component of
the STARBASE
curriculum as
students learn the
fundamentals of
computer-aided
design and rapid
prototyping.
STARBASE Martinsburg staff recently
created a new “Smart Room” at its 167th Airlift
Wing facility. The Smart Room utilizes, among
other things, new smart board technology to
enhance classroom instruction. New data
collection devices, including computerinterfaced
force and pressure sensors, have
made their way into classrooms at both
STARBASE locations. Students use this
equipment to conduct experiments related
to Newton’s Laws of Motion and the
properties of air.
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