Montana STARBASE Hosts S.T.E.A.M. Camp

STARBASE Montana hosted the 2024 STARBASE Malta Summer Camp from July 16-17 at the Malta Readiness Center/Armory from July 16 through July 17.

Thirty-one local students were present at the S.T.E.A.M. camp, which stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

During the second day of camp, the PCN caught up with a few instructors to talk about the camp and what it brought to local students.

"So, we've been doing robotics and coding with our drones. Later today, we're going to work with our Sphero robots, which are little spheres that they get to drive around," said Kara Tangedal, Director of STARBASE Montana and STARBASE Great Falls. "They are going to be doing Sphero jousting, so they engineer their jouster, and then they joust against each other. We did breakout boxes where they learned about stem careers, they're making solar bugs. We've just been doing a ton."

One of the projects that campers built were solar bugs, which utilize solar panels to help them operate.

"We did a quick lesson on circuitry, open and closed circuits and how that works," Kaylee Nathy, site director of STARBASE Fort Harrison said. "We had them take their solar panel, and they used the motor to complete a little circuit that way. They filled their little bug (with solar energy) and eventually, it'll make it glide around and kind of jitter around."

The group learned several things through S.T.E.A.M throughout the week including Exploding Paint Rockets, an outdoor activity where the group created works of art through rockets, working with 3-D Doodle Pens, drone control, and Happy Atoms.

Malta Elementary teacher Kendra Veit was one of the counselors for the camp and she explained what Happy Atoms is.

"I think it's a hands-on way to look at elements and turn them into compounds," Mrs. Veit said. "They've got magnets that attach, and then they use the iPad to identify if they've correctly connected the atoms together to make the compounds. Then they learned some information about each element."

Mrs. Veit, who is a second grade teacher at MES, was happy to be able to use the resources at the camp to help the students learn.

"It's hands on learning and the kids are investigating by doing," Mrs. Veit said. "It's been great."

Tangedal, who was a Malta High School science teacher from 2015-18 was asked about this year's group of campers.

"Oh, they've been a joy," Tangedal said. "They're excited, they're engaged. Several of them just seemed really excited to come back today and have asked if we were coming back in the future, which we hope we will."

STARBASE is fully funded by the Department of Defense and the classrooms in Helena and Great Falls sees over 2,000 children each year.