Courtesy Photo Students work on a science project at the STARBASE Alpena facility.

Steve Tezak is demonstrating to a classroom full of fifth graders how the gaseous carbon dioxide can take a fluid form and extinguish a flame.

“It has now taken the shape of its container,” he said to the group, explaining the properties of a fluid.

Tezak is the director of STARBASE in Alpena, a program operated by the Department of Defense. In a video from earlier this year, he’s moving a beaker of fluid-gas over a row of candles — and one by one, they go out.

In another recorded session, Tezak shows how a chemical reaction can speed up when a catalyst is added. He mixes hydrogen peroxide, dish soap and yeast to make “elephant toothpaste” or a foam that shoots up like a mini volcano to the delight of the class.

Tezak said STARBASE Alpena sees just about every fifth grader in a 50-mile radius and works with local schools to provide free science and math education.

“It’s an awesome thing how our hands-on program really relates to our students when it comes to those harder subjects,” he said.

But this month, all 90 locations across the country — including the Alpena center — abruptly closed.

Tezak said the program entered its fiscal year in October without a budget after the U.S. House and Senate could not agree on a funding plan. Now, the four-person staff is furloughed indefinitely, and Tezak said he’s not sure if they’ll reopen.

“This is uncharted territory for us,” Tezak said. “This is the first time in the history of this program that this has happened.”

STARBASE started in Michigan in 1989, at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base. The Alpena location opened 12 years ago, and it sees about 800 students a year through its regular programming.

“The teachers are bummed, the kids are bummed. It’s something they look forward to,” said Stephanie Piper, the K-5 curriculum director for Alpena Public Schools.

Piper said all 5th grade classes within the district would spend five full days at the center.

While she said students will still be able to meet state education standards and teachers will fill in the time, losing STARBASE still hurts. The program gave access to resources that many classrooms don’t have.

“It’s racing cars, it’s programming robots, it’s connecting electrical circuits. I mean, nothing was paper, pencil, sitting and… it wasn’t worksheet-based at all, it was all exploration,” Piper said.

For Alpena resident, Will Bushey, participating in STARBASE programming as a kid, set him on a STEM-path. Bushey is now a sophomore at the University of Michigan, studying civil engineering.

“I especially remember a project where we built a medieval trebuchet. I also remember they taught 3D modeling and that’s something that I do now, so having that experience as a kid really made it… so much easier.”

Bushey said he was shocked to learn the program had shuttered and “can’t think of a single person” who would support cutting the program. But he said it’s easy to take resources that have been around for granted.

“There’s always folks who will be, ‘oh, STEM is so important,’ and they’ll try to give you hands-on experiences in public schools, but it’s simply not enough,” he said.

The STARBASE Alpena location is taking donations from the public. Tezak said the fundraising goal is a fraction of the annual operating budget, but it would allow programming to continue at a bare-bones level.

If the U.S. Senate does not approve the $60 million appropriation as proposed by the House, Tezak said the Alpena location may close permanently.

In a written statement to WCMU, Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters said he supports the program and is urging his colleagues to provide “adequate funding” for STARBASE.

Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin did not respond to WCMU’s request for comment.