Past projects 12
Project Ahupua'a Research
Funded Sep 17, 2021We are so grateful to have been able to research the living and non-living things that make our ahupua'a unique. We used our new books to learn about endemic and indigenous medicinal plants, plants for textiles and dyes, and plants for food and food preparation.
These literary resources were not only a necessary part of learning interesting content, but they provided students the opportunity to practice using reference material such as the index, glossary, and table of contents. It may seem far-fetched that students did not come into this class already having these seemingly practical skills. Technology has been a major cornerstone for their generation, but nevertheless, they became invested in this important step- it was seemed to be a kind of a scavenger hunt or them.
Students represented these abstract and informative text through note-taking, drawing images, organizing and labeling succinct information, captioning their learning, and creating personal narratives such as poetry. Everything they worked on became reference material in itself, as well as a snapshot of what they did when they were in muddle school.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
Wisdom from the Past, Wisdom for the Future
Funded Sep 16, 2021It started with the moon as it is taught in Hawaiian culture. "Ke Anahulu Ho'onui," the 10-day period when the moon waxes or grows, "Ke Anahulu Poepoe," the 10-day period when the moon rounds or becomes full, and "Ke Anahulu Ho'emi," the 10-day period when the moon wanes and begins to diminish. 30 moons. Each one has its own name- know its names. A name brings something to life. A name helps you to care more. A name is worth remembering. Then the learning comes. Every moon's name was connected to something- a frame for something more.
We prepped, planted, and harvested. Always our moons in mind. The stories surrounding our moons helped us to color in the lines we are starting to draw. We knew why we planted mai'a (banana) and kalo (taro) during the "full moon," when the moon called "Akua" was above us. We wanted rounding fruit. Not crescent-shaped ones. Yes, these ideas may seem unconventional. And silly or superstitious to some. We embrace this information. It came from our ancestors. It has become our turn.
Sharing these moments- a community sustaining! Thank you! We are so grateful for your rallying support! For years to come, we will continue to learn from the resources you have provided. Mahalo nui!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
History Has It All!
Funded Jul 28, 2021History certainly does have it all! We discovered many patterns through our exploration of the world's ancient civilizations. Our students were able to see overlapping themes in geography, religion, achievements, politics, economics, and social structures for all of the ancient and classical civilizations we studied. They even made connections to the societies of our present-day world.
Through manipulating maps and reconstructing the ground breaking innovations of the past, students experienced history in an interactive and lively way. Making connections was so much easier because we took abstract information and applied it in small interactive projects. This was a practical way to support our understanding of the places and the time periods described in the texts we read.
We are so grateful to all of our generous donors who felt this project was worth wild. We received invaluable knowledge and irreplaceable experiences, and are ready to see where history will take us next!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by Marc & Lynne Benioff.Classroom Essentials
Funded Jan 16, 2022Aloha and thank you for your generous donations to our classroom. It has been so helpful having enough essential classroom supplies, such as our new pencil sharpener, and the "big box" of of colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, and scissors.
We use these materials to "show what we know," for example, we color and label maps for the different ancient civilizations we study in our world history class. We create large posters that show our knowledge of composting for our environmental science and agriculture classes. And we create beautiful works of art for our plant studies during our Hawaiian culture classes.
There is so much more we can accomplish and try, now that we have enough material for everyone to use at once. We are truly grateful to be able use our time as productively as we can, thanks to you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 3 other donors.Boards and Stones for Healthy Living
Funded Aug 9, 2019My students and I were so excited to begin making our boards and stones! Through your donation, we were provided the modern tools we needed for re-creating the culinary implements, that is, a board, or "papa," and a stone, or "pohaku," for preparing kalo, or taro. Long ago, these simple culinary implements were traditional and essential to everyday life for the Hawaiian people. Today, many native and non-native people practice the art and culture of growing and eating kalo. To this day, "Taro (kalo) is a vital part of the spiritual, nutritional, and agricultural world of the Hawaiian people. At the time when the population of Hawai'I consisted entirely of Polynesians, taro, in the form of poi (cooked and pounded taro), was the major staple food. Today, taro shares this role with rice, potatoes, pasta, and bread, but it remains an important crop to the many cultures of Hawaii" (Evans 13).
Moreover, it was in our classroom that we married traditional Hawaiian stone carving practices with the modern technology provided to us by you, our generous donors. We are thankful for the many hammers we were able to purchase, which we needed to chip our stones into the traditional "poi pounder" shape. We learned a lot about teamwork throughout this project because as you can imagine, the rocks were hard and we needed to share the workload if we were to finish. Some of the stones we worked were 20-30 pounds to begin with, and as they began to take shape and transform, they'd weigh as little as 3-8 pounds. Through this process, we broke one hammer, the wooden handle snapping like a twig under our great force! We sure are learning how to "feel" what we are doing, which is an important part of this special practice. We are grateful for this opportunity!
Unfortunately, due to the unforeseen covid-19 scare in March, we have yet to embark on our boards, our "papa." We will start working on these as well as resuming work on some of our stones, our "pohaku," during the upcoming 20-21 school year. In addition, through this class, we also take on the role of "kalo farmers," or "mahi'ai kalo," and we will use our product in conjunction with the boards and stones we build. In the end, we hope to complete 5-10 sets of our handmade boards and stones, which we will use during class, school and community events.
Mahalo for this opportunity!
Aloha Nui,
Ilikeaokalani M. Handley”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 7 other donors.Cultivating Beneficial Microorganisms
Funded Jul 25, 2019It's a smelly job, but someone has to do it! Cultivating bacteria for use in and around the garden is a smelly and great way to learn about the significance of microorganisms in our environment. This includes the bacteria's essential function in the food chain that supports all life forms. That is, without microorganisms, life as we know it would not exist!
Over the course of the semester, my students studied the structures and functions of single-celled organisms, called bacteria. They were surprised that most bacteria are good for people and the environment, and that they are everywhere! Processing this information equated to cultivating our own bacteria to use. Since taking on the responsibility of composting otherwise wasted school lunches, beneficial bacteria is something we can either pay for (yes, pay for!) or that we can learn about and produce for a fraction of the cost. Our need for bacteria is imperative to the work we do for our environment.
The cultivation process was multi-tiered and took weeks to achieve, we even had to start over because some of our material became engulfed in black mold, which we learned is not good for us. In the photos we shared, you can see that cultivating bacteria requires a lot of materials, such as glass jars, a rice cooker, measuring cups, a scale, and breathable lids (the necessary portals for collecting these microbes), and raw ingredients such as rice, milk and sugar. The next option and step for us will be to take the cultivated bacteria and use it to make bokashi, the material used in an anaerobic ("without air") farming method. Making this material will create an avenue for us to compost meat and bones, which we like to avoid composting aerobically ("with air") due to rodents. Mahalo for your kindness and support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 5 other donors.Hydroponic Farming for Everyday People
Funded Aug 12, 2019Aloha Donors! Mahalo for inspiring my students to learn the art and science of hydroponics! We were surprised to learn that the nutritional ingredients for a successful crop were actually elements from the periodic table of elements. Through the trial-and-error of trying to germinate lettuce seedlings, we learned that these different elemental nutrients should be introduced at different periods of a plant's life cycle.
In addition, we researched the differences between simple and complex systems of growing. We decided to go with the simpler passive system, more specifically, the Kratky Method (this is where all those jars come in). This method does not require a pump system, however, we will try out our new pumps later, creating an active system for growing. We look forward to comparing these different methods, and improving our lettuce yields!
The growing mediums we used, rock wool for germinating, and clay pebbles when transferring the seedlings into our painted jars kept our roots intact, and were effective in keeping our plants hydrated! Many of our seedlings did not make it, but we were fortunate to get some sprouted lettuce seedlings from our school district's career and technical education department. We are currently observing and caring for these plants. Growing our own food helped us to realize the wonders and woes of farming, and thanks to you, we will continue to improve our understanding of this sacred practice. Mahalo nui loa!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 5 other donors.Tell Me and I Forget. Involve Me and I Understand.
Funded Oct 28, 2018We are forever grateful to our many donors who supported our learning about the important role of microorganisms. As students of agriculture, we are learning that a healthy garden starts with healthy soil, and healthy soils are full of life!
Signs of life in this case, cannot be seen without a microscope! Therefore, we conducted an investigation to see the effect of microorganisms on specific organic matter. We learned that when there is a presence of microscopic life, specifically fungus and bacteria at work, kinetic energy is generated. We discovered that the increases in temperature that we were measuring was an indication that the decomposition process was at work. It took about 8 months for this process to yield us our first batch of finished compost, which we are currently recycling back in to our garden. What an awesome project to be part of!
In another project, we used microorganisms to make a large batch of bokashi. Bokashi is a Korean farming technique that utilizes a combination of molasses, water, rice bran, and microorganism such as healthy bacteria to ferment or "pickle" food waste rather than it rotting away. We use the bokashi to pickle meat scraps from our school lunches. We like to keep meat out of our aerobic piles because they tend to attract unwanted pests, such as rodents. Wow, the role and power of the unseen truly works miracles!
Our last use for the microscope was to investigate an infestation of "scale bug" on some of our plants. Getting a closer look at these tiny pests sparked our curiosity to find out more about them and how to get rid of them! We learned so many different lessons about the life around us because of these microscopes! We are so thankful for you and your continued support of inquiry-based learning, which we can safely say is learning that is "full of surprises!"
With Love and Aloha,
Ilikea Handley”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 5 other donors.A Tradition of Art
Funded Jan 24, 2019Our student body and teachers are grateful for the donations you made on behalf of supporting arts and culture in public schools. Through your donation, you also support cross-curriculum studies such as "STEAM," that is, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. With this in mind, students experienced authentic and meaningful content that is sensitive to the multitude of learning intelligence and a wide range of backgrounds and abilities. Thank you for helping to make this type of learning environment a reality for our students!
Some of the items that were absolutely necessary for making this journey successful for all, were the 3 sets of wood carving/linoleum "v-tools," and the 10 packs of assorted wood carving kits we thankfully received. Having 6 periods and about 80 students to teach, the existing tools we had were not enough and many of them were wearing down. With the additional carving tools, students didn't have to wait for the tools they needed, and were able to get to work immediately. I'd like to add that this helped prevent unwanted and disruptive behaviors. Thank you! With the new tools, students were eager to get to work on their artistic visions. We were so happy to see the difference this made in the attitude of these middle school students! Moreover, as student momentum picked up, their finished bamboo stamps, earrings, and various other hand-made tools showcased their artistic capabilities.
Furthermore, students recently participated in a community event that allowed them to use the tools they made to teach others the Kapa curriculum they are studying. They worked with people of all ages, explaining and demonstrating the use of each tool and step in the Kapa-making process. In addition, they compiled a book to show their own experiences with this art form. It was a significant moment in their learning careers as they proudly took on the teaching role.
With Love and Gratitude,
Ilikea Handley”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley
Sustainable Agriculture
Funded Jan 1, 2019Your interest and support has impacted not only my students, but our entire school community. My students and I have taken the responsibility to learn how to compost uneaten/wasted school lunches, and it has become somewhat of an obsession. We began this process during our first quarter of school, and just last month harvested our first few piles of decomposed food waste. This decomposed waste has become a beautiful finished compost, or "black gold" as we call it. From the small and large pieces of organic matter, to the fine "finished compost," none of it goes to waste because we add it back into our garden. This ongoing project has strengthened our understanding and appreciation of the many processes that occur in nature.
One of the tools we have really put to use is the impact driver and drill, which we used to build large sifters so we can separate the large, small, and very fine pieces of decomposed organic matter. The students love sifting the compost as they get to work as a team. One person fills the sifter while two others holding each end of the sifter rhythmically shake out the fine compost. This is one of the most exciting stages of the composting process. In my project description to donors, I stated,
"I am looking forward to seeing their faces when they see what became of the sloppy messes and funky smells they worked to transform."
Indeed, my students are still in awe of the work they did and the impact they are having on their local community and global Earth. We couldn't have gotten to this point if it wasn't for your generosity and belief in the life-changing content we are learning in our outdoor classroom. We have learned to take our observations and inquiries and use them to guide us in our personal journey of learning.
In addition, we are working to be on-hand to make other school and community events "zero-waste." These events give us more opportunities to educate others about the role they can play at home and in communities. All it takes is a little extra effort, separating your food waste from your trash, and you are already doing your part! We are so privileged to take care of this beautiful Earth, which we call home! Thank you so much from all of us here at our school!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Handley