Congressman Conaway, from Texas 11th Congressional District, made a visit to STARBASE Goodfellow, at Goodfellow AFB. STARBASE is a DoD STEM program that engages students in “hands-on, mind-on” STEM activities. Goodfellow AFB received funding for a STARBASE program this past summer and was able to get the program stood up by September 1 and had their first class on September 25, 2017. With the help of the host base, Goodfellow AFB, the local school district (San Angelo Independent School District), and community involvement the STARBASE Goodfellow program has graduated a total of 487, 5th graders as of December 14, 2017 and has served 7 SAISD schools thus far.
During Congressman Conaway’s visit he was able to experience the students engaging in several activities. In the first class the students were learning about Bernoulli’s Principle and how objects move toward faster moving fluid (air in this case). This is the principle behind lift in flight. One of the Alta Loma student’s demonstrated how he could blow faster moving fluid across the top of a straw and this would cause the fluid in the cup to move up the straw. He was then able to test Congressman Conaway’s ability to make the fluid move up the straw. Congressman Conaway successfully completed the task.
After learning about Bernoulli’s Principle, Congressman Conaway moved to the other class which was finishing up their lesson on Newton’s 1st Law, an object will remain at rest unless an outside force acts upon it and an object in motion will remain in motion unless an outside force acts upon it. With this lesson, they also learned about inertia. The students participated in an egg spin experiment. The young man from Alta Loma was able to demonstrate what would happen if you had a raw egg and a boiled egg and you spun them and then made them stop. The raw egg would continue to spin after you tried to stop it due to the insides still moving.
This was the students from Alta Loma’s third day attending STARBASE Goodfellow where they participated in lessons discussing all of Newton’s Laws as well as completing a lesson in Computer Aided Design, building a rover. The students that attend STARBASE Goodfellow are exposed to 25 hours of STEM activities and STEM Career building lessons. They attend STARBASE for a total of five days usually over a five-week period. Students leave STARBASE Goodfellow wishing they could attend more days. They love the hands on experiments and learning to build and program robots. The STARBASE Goodfellow program gives students a chance to explore STEM activities is a different setting and to get excited about what they may do with their lives in the future. One young fifth grade girl commented that she felt like an adult when she was working with the Computer Aided Design program. We want to empower the students to go out and get excited about science, technology, engineering, and math.
After visiting STARBASE Goodfellow, Congressman Conaway stated, “I was thrilled to be able to visit STARBASE at Goodfellow AFB to see firsthand the excellent work they’re doing to promote STEM education in San Angelo. STEM education is critical for the future, and programs like STARBASE empower students with invaluable experiences and learning opportunities. I was thoroughly impressed with both the students and teachers, and had a blast participating in the lessons of the day. I’m already looking forward to my next visit!”
Posted January 2018