Whirlwind of a School Year!

Be careful of what you wish for. It just might come true. Well I wished, and now my education dreams are coming true! It started way back in September when I found out that Mrs. Kushin was going to be teaching middle school science at St. Paul School in the Pribilof Islands. Yay! That meant we could continue our study and even work on Sea Perch together!

PolarTREC, NOAA Teacher-at-Sea, and COSEE Alaska all worked together to bring a group of wonderful teachers and scientists to Anchorage Alaska in early October. I was able to make new friends and add new collaborators to our project One Ocean On Earth.
click here to read about Mrs. P's X'Cellent Alaskan Adventure.

When I returned to Maui, I had two weeks to get a field trip hopping. I just had to get the students out to Waihe'e and sampling so that our new (and establish old friends) could understand our protocols, and work towards getting a first water sample online and shared with all of us. We had a great time at Waihe'e, collected our data and I emailed all the schools and teachers. It was now mid November, and the ocean was about to freeze over up north. Could I get another FT in before Christmas and test the Sea Perch for ocean worthiness?

Ya HUH! Field trip two was very successful in that we saw the Sea Perch go belly up and sideways due to the waves. It is a swimming pool kinda thang, my students needed to adapt it to the high sea! So back home and more thinking. I was still concerned about getting a platform to share information. There were no servers or ways to upload info in an efficient way, my tail was dragging. At least the Perch had a water sampler attached now, although the water sampler was just as large as the robot. HMMMMMMMMM

For the third field trip, we again took sea perch, but the waves were too intense to launch. We settled into gathering akulikuli to make propagations of it in order to replant the inland fishpond and allow more indigenous plants to take over Waihe'e! By this time I had contact with the fairy godmothers over at Women in technology and Maui Economic Development Board. Using ARC-GIS software, we had a geomentor who would work with my students to create a template to upload all our information. Until then, we'd use Google Earth as our platform.

Hurrah! We had a plan, and now everything began to fall into place. I learned of using ipads with a wireless microscope to immediately take photos and upload them to google earth. I learned about using the ipod as a way to access the database and upload information almost seamlessly, at least in the future. First we had to learn how to use all this technology.

So the last of the MEDB grant money was used to bring our students to Waihe'e, provide a sub teacher, provide new equipment, and allow us to take the next series of steps to sharing the data we had for three years! We took our last field trip on Thursday March 10 with a loud group of excellent Hui Po'okela kids (over 50 in all). The success of the trip was tremendous! And now we really have got to get down to work and organize all this data!

Can you see what a whirlwind of a year it has been?

What are Protocols and Why We Need Them

So why make all this fuss about a protocol? And what is a protocol? Protocols are a scientific step by step instruction sheet that you follow in order to gather and share data. In order to compare our data at Waihe'e with the data that will be taken at St. Paul Island, we have to have a set of directions that we both agree to follow.

In order to reach the greatest audience in the future, we decided to try our 'old school' techniques. Sometimes technology doesn't work in the field, and you need to fall back on another way to get the data. So I will post our temperature, pH, and turbidity protocol to a website that Science Club manages for further review. I will also upload the old sand protocol, understanding that we will be replacing it with the new sand protocol when it becomes available.

It is our hope to exchange data between our islands four times a year. We know that our ocean in Hawaii is very different from the ocean 2000 miles north of us, but that's all in the learning for us. We need to start somewhere, and common tests will allow us to compare our ocean and ocean water further north.

So please click on this link to transport you magically to our Science Club page.

May 4- From Mrs. Kushin's Diary-Fire Leaves Us Trapped!

Today Day 6: Tuesday
Started a bit off schedule due to the fact that the road was closed because of the fire that was not yet fully contained. This picture was taken by Kevin Olson and published in the Maui News. It shows just how close the fire came to the road causing lots of smoke and closing the road for 8 hours. During that time, we were supposed to head to the Sanctuary across island for a snorkel, we tried to do it at the beach by the hotel. Unfortunately there was enough wave action to make some very murky water. So we ended up playing in the waves – not sure we’ll ever get the sand out of the kids’ swimsuits. The road opened up in the afternoon, so we drove over to the Maui Tropical Plantation and took the last tour of the day to see pineapples, coffee, bananas, mangos, macadamia nuts, and more growing on the plantation. Another trip to the pool, and the kids are off to bed in hopes of an early morning paddle and snorkel at the sanctuary- if the road is open for us to get through tomorrow (Wednesday).
Here are some pictures and facts we got from the Maui Tropical Plantations. You can read about them online at www.mauitropicalplantation.com

Fast Facts (from Maui Tropical Plantation website):

Sugarcane takes two years to mature. One ton of water is needed to produce a single pound of sugar.

Heliconia range from 3' to 20' and come in nearly every color of the rainbow.

Versatile green ti leaf is a good luck symbol believed to keep evil spirits away and is often found planted by the entrances to homes in Hawaii.

The Malaysian starfruit tree is actually a native of China and India.

Hawaii produces the only commercial coffee crop in the United States.

Kamiya Papaya is a self-pollinating hermaphrodite with both male and female flowers.

Each trunk of our dwarf Brazilian apple bananas bears only one stalk in its lifetime.

Taro (kalo) is valued by Polynesian people as a rich source of carbohydrate and for its medicinal and supernatural powers.

Mango trees take five years to bear fruit but will produce for 100 years.

Guava juice has five times more vitamin C than orange juice.

It takes 300 pounds of pressure per square inch to crack the ¼"-thick shell of the Macadamia nut.

No machine has yet been invented that can husk a coconut, but take our tour and see your driver do it by hand in under 60 seconds!

Pineapples ripen from the bottom up. If your finger can pierce the "eye," don't buy it. Avoid pineapples with wet bottoms and strong smell. They're over-ripe.

Monday May 3-From Mrs. Kushin's Diary

Day 5: Monday

We spent with Mrs. Prevenas and her science club, which included some of our penpals! We worked together in teams –some Hawaii students and some Pribilof students in each team- and did water sampling including pH, temperature -not only did we use thermometers and electronic probes, we used our feet :), turbidity, sand surveys for plastics, and beach surveys for turtle nests. After a lunch packed for us all by their cafeteria, Ms. Denby talked to us about the history of the area and showed us artifacts that had been found on the property.

That same afternoon, we headed up to Iao Valley Nature Center and went on a great hike led by Miss. Rochelle and learned about the plants as we went.We even saw bananas growing! We all felt pretty lucky that the mosquitoes weren’t biting too badly. We hiked up to see the stream that is the main water source for Maui –looking upstream, you see a large healthy stream then suddenly a grate about 20 foot long, and after that nothing but a few large puddles and a bed that used to contain a stream. That was super interesting because when we were developing questions to ask about Maui; how people get water and power was one area we wanted to investigate. However we then discussed the pros and cons of the diversion, and it seems to us that this is another example of nature is losing out to man. We were happy to learn that some people including Mr. Skippy – who had been with us at the beach discussing sea turtles that morning - are working to preserve the fish etc. that are being impacted by the water’s diversion. It was time to head back to our side of the island.

With about 15 of the miles left to go we suddenly started to see smoke, it was a forest fire! (Although with all the volcano studying we’ve done lately, lava was the first thought from some of the kids) It was still light enough to see the helicopters flying from the fire site down to the ocean to get huge dangling buckets filled up with water which were then dropped on the fire area. We made it back to the hotel after “chowing down” at Pizza Hut in time to cool off from the day in the pool.

May 3-Students Building Bridges Across Cultures

Before I get all carried away with all the learning that occured. I think it is important for you to get a snapshot of all the learning that occurred that you cannot plan for. It just happens.

A Kalama student helps her Alaskan friend learn how to use a GPS.

The Alaskan students are delighted to find that the water is WARM (and so is the sand).



This might look like wading, but it's scientific sampling. A St. Paul student tows for plankton in the nearshore water of Waihe'e.

May 3- Let the Learning Begin

There was a lot of preparation I needed to do if the field trip was going to be successful. I needed to gather my scientists and support group from the island. I needed cultural educators, and scientists.
My cultural educators came from the Waihe'e Land Trust itself, Denby Freeland-Cole. Denby has taught small armies of students and adults of all ages about the land that is Waihe'e and was an important part of the Hawai'i of old. May 3 was open and she granted me and my visitors the time needed to learn about that sacred place.

Next I needed scientists to share the knowledge of the environment. Skippy Hau is the absolute best environmental scientist our island has to offer. He not only knows about the science of Maui's fragile ecosystems, he is an environmental hero for helping preserve the fragile fauna that tries to maintain a presence in Maui's few remaining streams. Although he was born on Oahu, he quickly became an important scientist working on Maui for the state of Hawaii. He educates young and old alike about the treasures we have and urges all to get involved to save our unique and changing island/ocean ecosystems.
I also needed support people to help my students with digital technology, like GPS, and Vernier Probes. And although we were aiming for old school protocols, we wanted to include the new technology as an eventual goal for us both. Maui Digital Bus was being refitted for a new home on Molokai, and the new bus was not yet ready for use, so two fabulous Staffers (Ellen and John) came to help my students learn the various protocols that would allow us to compare Maui data with that of St. Paul in the Pribilofs.

With all that in order, next came the red tape of taking a field trip with the DOE. There were forms to fill out, permission slips to collect, a big white van to lease, lunches to order, equipment to secure, protocols to teach and establish. A huge helping hand came to me with Davilla Riddle, my friend and 8th grade teacher, who selected a small group of students to help with new protocols and provide another pair of adult eyes for the trip. Davilla is Yang to my Ying and vice versa. I love it that she can see what needs be done, and just says, I'll do it. She can see how she is needed and then follows through. For Davilla I will always be grateful :)

So with my little Mazda parked unhappily in the airport parking lot, and me large behind the wheel of a 12 person white whale, I bid my rental agency goodbye and pointed the van upcountry to where the adventure for the day had yet to begin. 5:30 am. This just might be a long day. But with the adrenalin pumping through my veins, three years of planning to get to this place, I was ready. I pushed my right foot to the gas pedal, and smiled. Giddy-up!

May 2 -Maui Bound

May third was a very important day for us all. That was the day that Mrs. Kushin's students and my students would meet and seek to build bridges that would span the 2000 miles of Pacific Ocean that separated us. I had two major goals for this day. The first goal was to introduce and become friends with another group of students that lived on an isolated island in the middle of an ocean. The second goal was to share and teach protocols that we both could use as a way to share scientific information that we would gather from our island shores ideally 4 times each year.
There were hurdles that we had to overcome. However, for me the biggest hurdle was to get Tonia's students and my students on the same island. Tonia and her students had overcome the hugest hurdle of all, fundraising and physically planning the trip that would take them from there to here. I had the easy stuff. Creating an educational and cultural exchange. Shouldn't be too hard!
First choose a day that they would be on Maui. Since they were flying over from Oahu Sunday night, May 2, around 8pm. May third was my choice. I didn't want to waste one minute of time once they got to my island.
I needed to greet them at the airport on Sunday night, with leis! Lucky for me, my kumu, Hokulani Padilla Holt, teaches her students not just the hula, but the culture that supports the hula. I had bare bones knowledge of how to make Ti leis and my property provided the many leaves needed the braid and twist the garlands. 15 Ti leaf leis coming up! I also believed they needed to have flowers available for their hotel rooms, and cut down armfuls of flowers from my gardens, so that they would see the bounty of our island.
I waited for them with my cooler of Leis, not wanting the puakenikeni or gardenias to wilt, and soon they were HERE! THEY WERE ACTUALLY ON MAUI!
I cannot begin to tell you how when I first saw them, my eyes teared. These wonderful people had worked so hard to come and visit me and my students!
Some of them I met three years ago, when they were in second grade. I recognized their sweet faces that had gotten slightly older. It was wonderful to see them all and I hugged their teacher with such happiness that I have never known before. In this picture I see two of the students who would be visiting us. Can you see them too?
A dream I once had, for my students and Alaskan students to share their culture and their natural history of their islands was about to become reality.
So after a quick introduction to Mr. Kushin, Miss Edna, their Aleut Kumu, the 8 children, and Henry and Ashley, the Kushin's children, the step by step detailing of a successful visit soon got underway. Picking up rental vans, loading suitcases and bodies, and hugs goodbye. I realized I wanted our guests to drive across the island by 9 that next morning, so tried to cushion the mandate, by offering them a cooler of breakfast drinks, and foods so they could eat en route. All these details are so important to acknowledge and plan for, if a Field trip is to run successfully. Of course there are always those details one overlooks, but then it's all a part of learning, ya?