FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Dec. 15, 2023) – Soldiers from 210th Brigade Support Battalion teach local elementary school students STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related activities that U.S. Army Soldiers experience on a regular basis.
Students from Thousand Islands Central School District took a field trip to the STARBASE on Fort Drum to learn from 210th Brigade Support Battalion Soldiers and to get hands-on experience with military work related to STEM.
STARBASE is an organization on Fort Drum that implements the STEM program to fifth-grade students in the local area. This program facilitates hands-on learning where students can apply the knowledge they learn in school to everyday life.
Joanne Witt, director of STARBASE Fort Drum, emphasized the importance of this collaboration of Fort Drum and local elementary schools.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for kids to see learning in a new way,” Witt said. “We are able to put learning in [the students’] hands in ways a traditional classroom is not always able.”
Students had an opportunity to implement mathematics and science by using Meals, Ready to Eat. Soldiers taught the students how math is used regularly in the field.
They do this by counting the number of Soldiers and using that number to know how many MREs will be used for Soldiers to sustain themselves. They also learned about how magnesium and iron are used in the heater packs to warm food in MREs and the chemical reaction that takes place for that food to be heated.
Staff Sgt. Ricardo Esparara, classroom instructor for the day from 210th Brigade Support Battalion, 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade, expressed how he enjoyed his time with the students.
“I’m happy because they enjoyed our presence here,” Esparara said. “Letting them see what we do makes me happy, and I hope they had fun.”
The students left with bright smiles on their faces as they walked away with something new that they had learned.
Esparara talked about how proud he was after spending time instructing the students.
“They see that everything that we are teaching them here, all this information is already in their head,” he said. “We are just helping them apply it.”
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