Starbase Oklahoma students race for future‏

FORT SILL, Okla. -- Fourteen youth from Lawton-Fort Sill area schools got a chance to try their hand at designing a vehicle from limited materials and powered by only their breath at the "Math Moves U" event May 9 at Starbase Oklahoma on Fort Sill. The Starbase program mentors young people in science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM.

"Starbase develops an appetite in these young people for learning in math and the sciences, and shows them it is not drudgery but can be fun, exciting and can provide opportunities that will change their lives," said Barry Beauchamp, superintendent of Lawton Public Schools, one of the program sponsors. "And more importantly it provides them opportunities to change other people's lives through their future careers."

Starbase is a Department of Defense program through the Oklahoma National Guard that mentors fifth through eighth grade students, encouraging them to pursue careers in math and the sciences. The program is conducted at the four military facilities in Oklahoma, and gives students who are often economically, socially, culturally or educationally disadvantaged exposure to STEM career opportunities, and encourages them to pursue studies in these fields.

In Lawton, Starbase partners with the Fort Sill Child, Youth and School Services, Lawton Public Schools and the LPS Foundation, several state agencies, private donors and corporate sponsor Raytheon.

James Cunningham, manager of the Lawton Raytheon office, played host of the event as part of his company's support of the STEM initiative. He presented a $4,000 check to representatives of the LPS Foundation and Starbase Oklahoma at Fort Sill, with each group receiving $2,000.

Cunningham encouraged the fifth grade students to use the process of design they studied during the weeklong class at Starbase and work in two-person teams to create a vehicle powered only by them blowing on it. Plus they could only use a piece of paper, three straws, four Life Saver candies, two paper clips, scissors and tape.

"Remember, the design process usually starts with a problem that you want to solve and then explore the elements of that problem," Cunningham stated as young faces watched with anticipation. "Then you brainstorm with that information and make it a collaborative effort."

The students quickly began working on different design ideas, while their teachers, Cunningham and other Raytheon engineers gave them gentle guidance. Andrew Celedon and Randy "R.J." Cameron, Jr., fifth grade students from St. Mary's Catholic school discussed how to build their vehicle.

Cunningham reminded them about what they learned about center of balance and center of gravity for vehicles when they built rockets on the first day of the class, and to keep that in mind so their vehicle would go straight.

When the teams completed their vehicles they were tested in a race against the other teams. The Celedon-Cameron team's vehicle shot off the line first, but soon developed control problems that cause it to go in circles, much as Cunningham said it might. They ended up finishing second to the vehicle designed by Joseph Hilliard and Annika Barrett, 5th graders at Trinity Christian School, which won by a wide margin because it was stable and low to the ground.

Cunningham told the teams that they should learn from the process even if their vehicles didn't win.

"Some did great, and some not so great. But don't feel bad if your design failed; feel good, because you are going to learn, and apply what you learned and appreciate what you discovered through the process," Cunningham said. "I believe as an engineer you get more out of failure than success the first time around. And that can apply to almost anything that you do."