About
DoD STARBASE offers challenging “hands-on, minds-on” activities in Science, Technology, Engineering & Art/Design, and Mathematics, with projects that can include Scalextrics, robotics, rocketry, engineering, physics, FIRST LEGO League, solar cars, chemistry, technology, and aerospace. Students use computers to design space stations, all-terrain vehicles, and submersibles, and they may discuss how chemical fires are extinguished and how injured people are transported. As part of the experience, students interact with military personnel to explore careers and observe how STEAM concepts are used in the “real world,” and they may explore the cockpit of an F-18 or the interior of a submarine.
• Ages: 10–18 years old
• Schedule: 25 hours of exemplary hands-on instruction and activities
The DoD STARBASE mission is to expose youth to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models on Active, Guard, and Reserve military bases and installations, to nurture a network of collaborators, and to build mutual loyalty within communities by providing 25 hours of hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed National Standards. The program is sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and its primary focus is the program for fifth graders, using an inquiry-based curriculum with experiential activities where mathematics is embedded through metric measurement, estimation, calculation, geometry, and data analysis. Each academy chooses a customized curriculum from a large set of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, and teamwork is stressed as students work together to explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate concepts while military volunteers lead tours and give lectures on the use of STEAM in different settings and careers.
The DoD STARBASE Program first originated in Detroit, Michigan as Project STARS in 1991, and in FY 1993 the U.S. Congress appropriated funds and piloted the program in seven states. In 2010, STARBASE offerings expanded to include STARBASE 2.0, a school-based afterschool program targeting 6th to 8th graders, and in 2021 this part of the program was expanded again to include offerings for secondary students across the country and rebranded as STARBASE Advanced. DoD STARBASE Advanced is a structured afterschool mentoring program for middle school students that is intended to support school goals by increasing student interest and knowledge in STEAM, increasing engagement with school, and increasing STEAM career awareness, and the goal is for each STARBASE Academy to sponsor a STARBASE Advanced program. The program operates under the guidance of Brig. Gen. David Arendts, 127th Wing Commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and mentors serve as successful STEAM professional coaches and role models.
The program’s success relies on collaboration between the sponsoring military unit and STARBASE Academy, the school district, and local communities. One teacher described STARBASE as teaching science and mathematics in ways they wished they had the time, resources, and expertise to do in the regular classroom, calling it experiential, exploratory learning with a direct tie to the Standards. A teacher at STARBASE Minnesota reported very high expectations and described the experience as high quality, and a student from STARBASE Minnesota in St. Paul, Jessica, said that after STARBASE she wanted to ask more questions like “how is it doing that?” and “where did that come from?” and focus on figuring things out.
Last updated May 14, 2026.
• Ages: 10–18 years old
• Schedule: 25 hours of exemplary hands-on instruction and activities
The DoD STARBASE mission is to expose youth to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models on Active, Guard, and Reserve military bases and installations, to nurture a network of collaborators, and to build mutual loyalty within communities by providing 25 hours of hands-on instruction and activities that meet or exceed National Standards. The program is sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and its primary focus is the program for fifth graders, using an inquiry-based curriculum with experiential activities where mathematics is embedded through metric measurement, estimation, calculation, geometry, and data analysis. Each academy chooses a customized curriculum from a large set of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, and teamwork is stressed as students work together to explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate concepts while military volunteers lead tours and give lectures on the use of STEAM in different settings and careers.
The DoD STARBASE Program first originated in Detroit, Michigan as Project STARS in 1991, and in FY 1993 the U.S. Congress appropriated funds and piloted the program in seven states. In 2010, STARBASE offerings expanded to include STARBASE 2.0, a school-based afterschool program targeting 6th to 8th graders, and in 2021 this part of the program was expanded again to include offerings for secondary students across the country and rebranded as STARBASE Advanced. DoD STARBASE Advanced is a structured afterschool mentoring program for middle school students that is intended to support school goals by increasing student interest and knowledge in STEAM, increasing engagement with school, and increasing STEAM career awareness, and the goal is for each STARBASE Academy to sponsor a STARBASE Advanced program. The program operates under the guidance of Brig. Gen. David Arendts, 127th Wing Commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and mentors serve as successful STEAM professional coaches and role models.
The program’s success relies on collaboration between the sponsoring military unit and STARBASE Academy, the school district, and local communities. One teacher described STARBASE as teaching science and mathematics in ways they wished they had the time, resources, and expertise to do in the regular classroom, calling it experiential, exploratory learning with a direct tie to the Standards. A teacher at STARBASE Minnesota reported very high expectations and described the experience as high quality, and a student from STARBASE Minnesota in St. Paul, Jessica, said that after STARBASE she wanted to ask more questions like “how is it doing that?” and “where did that come from?” and focus on figuring things out.
Last updated May 14, 2026.
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