WHY THE CHANGE?
Wyoming STARBASE Academy is funded by the United States Department of Defense. This year the DoD has provided an upgraded curriculum prepared by a committee of STARBASE Directors and staff from across the nation. This curriculum is designed to focus on STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). It specifies 18 hours of instruction with time expectations for each of its core areas.
Wyoming STARBASE Academy has been conducting classes for fifteen years on a four day schedule. The total time students were at STARBASE (including lunch and breaks) was approximately 20 hours. It is necessary to expand the amount of time students spend at STARBASE in order to deliver the prescribed 18 hours of STEM curriculum.
The important areas of Goal Setting and Teamwork have been at the heart of the curriculum since STARBASE began nationally over twenty years ago. We at Wyoming STARBASE Academy wish to continue to teach these areas and honor the DoD STEM curriculum as well -- We must do this to continue to operate as a STARBASE.
The five-day program will allow us to accomplish this.
We have requested expanded facilities on the Air Guard Base, and suitable space is just not currently available. In order to offer a five-day program in our existing facilities, we will no longer be able to deliver a full program to all classes in Laramie County. The DoD STARBASE program was designed originally for high risk (to drop out) students. In Wyoming we have had the luxury of being able to see all fifth grade students in Laramie County for the past eight years by bringing two classes to the base on one of the four days of the program. With expanded facilities we would be able to have two classes for as many days as we need to; however, since we must borrow space from our Air Guard partners, we cannot 'double-up" on more than one day. As our program will be delivered this year we are relying on borrowed space for twenty-six days. To add a second "double-up" day would require an additional twenty days that we would need to borrow space from one of the Air Guard units -- a total of forty-six days for the school year. We believe that is entirely too much to ask of any of the Air Guard units. Twenty-six days represents a sizeable donation of classroom space, and we appreciate the commitment by our Civil Engineering Unit, but we dare not ask for more.
HOW WILL THIS EFFECT CLASSES?
We will be able to have thirty-five of the forty-five fifth grade classes in both Laramie County School Districts participate in a five day program. All seventeen fifth grade classes at the Title I schools in the county will be included in the five-day program (honoring the commitment to high risk students as we are required to do). The remaining eighteen slots in the five-day program were filled by lottery. The remaining ten classes will be able to experience an abbreviated, but highly focused two-day program. These classes will learn the Four Forces of Flight and the Three Laws of Motion. They will still build and launch rockets, and have lessons on Chemistry and Math. Every effort will be made to make this a memorable and exciting experience for the students.
If this plan must continue in subsequent school years, classes that attend the two-day STARBASE will be guaranteed a slot in the full program the following year.
AND FINALLY... The Wyoming STARBASE staff literally worked for days to try to devise an equitable schedule. This five-day/two-day schedule represents the result of that effort. It was very difficult to reach the conclusion that we could not see all classes for five days. We decided that rather than exclude a hand full of classes completely, we would rather provide a limited experience for some and cut back the number of five-day classes in order to see everyone. We hope you agree that this is the best we can do in order to avoid excluding any fifth grade class.
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