About
DoD STARBASE offers challenging “hands-on, minds-on” activities in science, technology, engineering, art/design, and mathematics, including projects in areas such as robotics, rocketry, engineering, physics, FIRST LEGO League, solar cars, chemistry, technology, aerospace, and Scalextrics. Students use computers to design space stations, all-terrain vehicles, and submersibles, and they may discuss how chemical fires are extinguished, how injured people are transported, and explore the cockpit of an F-18 or the interior of a submarine. Students interact with military personnel, who demonstrate how science, mathematics, engineering, and technology are used in their fields of expertise.
• Ages: 10–18 years old
• Schedule: 25 hours of exemplary hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed the National Standards
The program’s mission is to expose youth to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models on Active, Guard, and Reserve military bases and installations, nurture a network of collaborators, and build mutual loyalty within communities by providing 25 hours of hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed the National Standards. Mentors serve as successful STEAM professional coaches and role models, and military volunteers lead tours and give lectures on the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in different settings and careers. The program’s success relies on collaboration between the sponsoring military unit and STARBASE Academy, the school district, and local communities. The DoD STARBASE Program first originated in Detroit, Michigan as Project STARS in 1991, received congressional funding in FY 1993 to pilot the program in seven states, expanded in 2010 to include STARBASE 2.0, and in 2021 this part of the program was expanded again and rebranded as STARBASE Advanced, a structured after-school mentoring program for middle school and secondary students that is highly structured and intended to support school goals by increasing student interest and knowledge in STEAM, increasing engagement with school, and increasing STEAM career awareness. The program is described as a premier educational program sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, with a primary focus on fifth graders, and each academy chooses a customized, inquiry-based curriculum from a large offering of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, with mathematics embedded throughout using metric measurement, estimation, calculation, geometry, and data analysis, and teamwork stressed as students work together to explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate concepts. Brig. Gen. David Arendts, 127th Wing Commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, is identified in the leadership team.
A teacher whose class attended DoD STARBASE stated that “STARBASE teaches science and mathematics in ways that we wish we had the time, resources, and expertise to do in the regular classroom. It’s experiential, exploratory learning with a direct tie to the Standards.” Another teacher at STARBASE Minnesota said, “I had pretty high expectations for the program, and my son was very excited in the months and weeks beforehand, but I could not have anticipated the high quality of our experience.” A student, Jessica from STARBASE Minnesota St. Paul, said, “After STARBASE I want to ask more questions like ‘how is it doing that?’, ‘where did that come from?’ and figuring things out.”
Last updated June 16, 2026.
• Ages: 10–18 years old
• Schedule: 25 hours of exemplary hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed the National Standards
The program’s mission is to expose youth to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models on Active, Guard, and Reserve military bases and installations, nurture a network of collaborators, and build mutual loyalty within communities by providing 25 hours of hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed the National Standards. Mentors serve as successful STEAM professional coaches and role models, and military volunteers lead tours and give lectures on the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in different settings and careers. The program’s success relies on collaboration between the sponsoring military unit and STARBASE Academy, the school district, and local communities. The DoD STARBASE Program first originated in Detroit, Michigan as Project STARS in 1991, received congressional funding in FY 1993 to pilot the program in seven states, expanded in 2010 to include STARBASE 2.0, and in 2021 this part of the program was expanded again and rebranded as STARBASE Advanced, a structured after-school mentoring program for middle school and secondary students that is highly structured and intended to support school goals by increasing student interest and knowledge in STEAM, increasing engagement with school, and increasing STEAM career awareness. The program is described as a premier educational program sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, with a primary focus on fifth graders, and each academy chooses a customized, inquiry-based curriculum from a large offering of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, with mathematics embedded throughout using metric measurement, estimation, calculation, geometry, and data analysis, and teamwork stressed as students work together to explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate concepts. Brig. Gen. David Arendts, 127th Wing Commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, is identified in the leadership team.
A teacher whose class attended DoD STARBASE stated that “STARBASE teaches science and mathematics in ways that we wish we had the time, resources, and expertise to do in the regular classroom. It’s experiential, exploratory learning with a direct tie to the Standards.” Another teacher at STARBASE Minnesota said, “I had pretty high expectations for the program, and my son was very excited in the months and weeks beforehand, but I could not have anticipated the high quality of our experience.” A student, Jessica from STARBASE Minnesota St. Paul, said, “After STARBASE I want to ask more questions like ‘how is it doing that?’, ‘where did that come from?’ and figuring things out.”
Last updated June 16, 2026.
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