SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --
More than 50 rising fifth-grade
students broadened their horizons through a week-long Science and Technology
Academies Reinforcing Basic Aviation and Space Exploration program June 20 - 24,
at Greenwood Middle School, Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Students from both military and
civilian families learned basic aspects of aviation during classroom activities
and tours of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
“Over the course of the week, each
student gets about eight hours of tours and are exposed to a wide variety of
career fields to spark their interest,” said Capt. Thomas Morrill, 4th
Operations Support Squadron plans, readiness and mobility flight commander. “I
have to think that broad of an experience imparts a sense of what it takes to
put those jets up in the air; that it's really a complex puzzle, and everyone
needs to be an expert in their part of the action.”
STARBASE is an international curriculum
which focuses on hands-on science and math activities. The program aims to inspire
children at an early age to pursue subjects outside the classroom and apply
what they learned to real world scenarios.
Students also learned the
importance of teamwork.
Students were divided into four
groups, or flights, with a teacher assigned to each. Flights rotated daily
between four different subjects, laws of motion, compass reading, air dynamics
and rocketry. Each day students conducted experiments pertaining to their
flight’s subject.
During classroom lessons, students
built paper airplanes, model rockets, learned how to read compasses and the
laws of gravity, such as drag, force and thrust.
“The one thing that we want them to
see is that everything you do in life is not just (about) you,” said Connie
Atkinson, STARBASE director, about the importance of teamwork. “It has to be a
team. Your family is a team. The pilot’s not the most important one. The
mechanic, the crew chief, the people to check the engine, the people who pack
the parachutes … It’s all teamwork.”
To understand the teamwork it takes
to successfully have a jet in the air, students toured different units on base
that participate in preparing jets, readying pilots and weapons systems
officers for flight. Other agencies such as the base fire station, Survival,
Evasion, Resistance and Escape, and the 4th Component Maintenance Squadron’s
“Hush House.”
During the tours, students were
able to fly in simulators, get their face painted in a camouflaged pattern, watch
jets take off and land from the watch tower, and observe a military working dog
demonstration.
“Going on base was my favorite part
of STARBASE,” one STARBASE student said. “It was really fun!”
Atkinson said the Air Force environment
captures the children’s interest and the Airmen promote a sense of respect and
patriotism in the youth.
“They’re little now, but when they
grow up to be a pilot or a president of a company, it’s not just them,” Atkinson
said. “You’ve got to have something underneath you for foundation, and this is
their foundation. We are getting to touch their future, and they’re the ones who
are going to be our future.”