B A STAR program provides hands-on training

Some 135 MESA community college students took part in the Basic and Advanced Science and Technology Academies of Research (B A STAR) program at seven sites across California this summer. In 2003, the National Science Foundation awarded MESA a six-year, $2 million grant for the program, which is designed to increase transfer rates of community students majoring in math- and science-based majors to four-year institutions.

The focus of the program is experiential learning. Students not only learn theory, they also are also trained in practical, hands-on skills.

B A STAR is led by Butte College MESA Director Derrick Booth, who developed the program. “I designed the program so that students understand the work they’ve been doing in school and retain it,” he said.

Seventy-five students participated in the five-week basic program at CSU Chico. Sixty students attended the advanced program at six different locations—UC Riverside, UC Irvine, CSU Chico, the U.S. Forest Service in Quincy, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and the Marine Mammal Center (in conjunction with Skyline College MESA program.)

The B STAR students conducted a series of hands-on physics experiments guided by the program lab manual. The experience also included competitive projects such as building three-person cardboard boats for races in a pool and building water bottle rockets designed to safely land a raw egg in its shell.

The students were also trained to disassemble computers, reassemble them, and run diagnostic tests to guarantee they worked properly. Students were permitted to keep the computers they built.

The A STAR program placed students who successfully completed the B STAR program in 2005 with high tech companies or with universities to conduct research projects. The students conducted hands-on research under the guidance of an industry or faculty facilitator. This fall, half the A STAR students are presenting their research findings at the annual symposium of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences.

Allan Hancock College computer engineering students Manuel Velasco and Raul Benitez participated in the A STAR Program. Velasco, who plans to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona or Stanford in the spring, was involved in setting up computer networks for CSU Chico, including building a server.

“The experience was great,” Velasco said. “Everything I learned was new. I’m going to use my knowledge to set up a computer network for my neighborhood in Los Alamos.”

Benitez was involved in interdisciplinary research in computer engineering at UC Irvine. Under the tutelage of two engineering professors, he built an amplifier for use in a wind tunnel lab.