Ha Ha Ha!

The Lamakū Project

Richard Ha writes:

I want to tell you what's new. The Big Island Community Coalition (BICC), in partnership with ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, is kicking off the Lamakū Adopt-a-Visit project.

Download Adopt a Visit Program_2013_brochure

Lamakū means "torch of light." This project will sponsor Puna and Ka‘ū students to go on a field trip to ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo. 

Here's how it works: You make a 100 percent tax-deductible donation to ‘Imiloa, specifying that it's in support of the BICC "Adopt-a-Visit" project. (You can specify that it's for a certain Puna or Ka‘ū school if you'd like, but that's optional.)

Each $5 donation sponsors one student. Public, private, charter and homeschooled students are eligible. 

Donations will be applied to the ‘Imiloa admission fee.  As long as funds are available, ‘Imiloa will cover the cost of bus transportation to the Center. ‘Imiloa will coordinate the school visits, and will ensure that the donor receives feedback about the trip to ‘Imiloa they helped sponsor.

Eighty-nine percent of students in the Pahoa school complex participate in the free/reduced lunch program. This is the highest percentage in the state.

This is an opportunity to make a real difference on the ground. Thanks for your help.

How to donate

How To Dramatically Increase Big Island School Budgets

Richard Ha writes:

Because the Big Island pays 25 percent more for its electricity than O‘ahu does, it follows that Big Island schools have 25 percent less of their budgets available to pay teachers than O‘ahu's schools. Did you ever think about it this way?  

Some Big Island school complexes (an area's elementary, middle and high school) are paying around $1 million/year just for electricity. As compared with O‘ahu, that's around $250,000/year that isn't going toward teachers and other education services. At $70K per teacher, that could be three full time-teachers, for instance.    

On top of the Big Island having paid 25 percent more for its electricity than O‘ahu for as long as anyone can remember, our Puna district has one of the lowest median family incomes in the state. 

And what's the best predictor of family income? Level of education. Therefore, one of many benefits of cheaper electricity is that a lot more of our schools' money would go toward educating our children. Lowering the cost of electricity would allow Puna schools more resources to focus on teachers and learning, and it follows that this could lead to increased median family incomes. 

Geothermal done in a responsible manner can lower the cost of electricity. But we all must work together. It's great that HELCO is moving forward with low-cost alternatives, such as calling for requests for proposals for expanding geothermal production.  

There are a thousand reasons why NO CAN. We only need to find the one reason why CAN!

What Is That Circle Around Us?

Richard Ha writes:

A bunch of things are happening right now. They look very different, but see if you notice what they all have in common.

We are just seeing the tomatoes start to produce more in spite of the dark, wet weather. It’s the third week of February; and last year, too, our tomatoes’ rate of production started climbing in the third week of February. That gives me a good feeling, because I’d been looking around and anticipating this.

All around I see growth. Avocado trees everywhere are choke with flowers right now. The ‘ulu are starting to develop on the tree; the ones I’m watching are about baseball size right now. Everything’s growing and producing around us.

We spent Saturday in Kona at a get-together for Armstrong Produce and its farmers. We stayed there for several hours, talking story with everybody.

I was sitting next to Timothy Choo, a chef from Sodexho, which does food service for UH Hilo. Sodexho is a huge supporter of local products, they go out of their way to buy locally, and we had a big conversation about it. Sodexho is supplied by Suisan, also a big supporter of local products.

I was also talking to Troy Keolanui, manager of OK Farms. Ed Olson owns that farm, 200 acres of many kinds of fruit and other trees, and we help distribute their produce under our Hilo Coast brand.

They are located behind Rainbow Falls, and they have a tent, with chairs in it, where they can sit and look at the falls. They purposely set it up behind some bushes so it doesn't disrupt the more common view of Rainbow Falls, the one that tourists look at every day. 

Then we drove back to this side of the island and went straight to Puna. Chef Alan Wong was there, and he was throwing a small dinner for the farmers he buys from here.

Alan Wong and I started talking about the Adopt-A-Class project. I said, “Why don’t we do a broader Adopt-A-Class project this time, in Puna. We’ll take the whole district and go to each of the schools there, including the charter schools. Everywhere there are elementary school kids.”

He’s into it. When we did this in the past, Alan Wong gave a class at Keaukaha Elementary School where he showed the kids how to use tomatoes, and passed tomatoes around and had some of those kids eating, and loving, tomatoes.

Then yesterday, the folks from Zippy’s came by the farm. They’re going to open up a restaurant at Prince Kuhio Plaza soon and we’ll be supplying some of their products. Zippy’s has a strong “support local” program. When you go into any Zippy’s restaurant, you always see signs about which farms they get some of their products from. Zippy's also uses local beef. It’s a corporate decision to support local growers.

Do you see the common link among all these things? Everybody’s coming at it from a different point-of-view, but the common denominator is that we are so lucky to live here in Hawai‘i!

It’s all about local food and making ourselves food-secure. Our tomatoes are thriving and plentiful; where else in the country can you grow tomatoes throughout the winter? Other food is growing all around us. 

Armstrong Produce distributes the products of many local farmers and producers. So does Suisan. Sodexo buy that local food.

And Alan Wong, too, is very interested in supporting local farmers and teaching local school kids. He’s very aware of the movement to be self-sustaining and is always reaching out to teach kids about where they come from, how their parents used to live and how we can live now. He’s all about helping people be grounded, and he comes at it with the training of a very high-level chef.

People are really helping each other out. Everybody has to make money, but they're looking after the next person in the chain. If you're the farmer, you're hoping that your wholesaler is caring about you and not just the retailers. Everybody is look after everybody else.

It's the only way I can figure out that we can help our own workers. Because, of everyone, who's going to protect the workers? I've got to do everything I can to protect them.

There’s a big circle of sustainability around us, and it’s one that’s getting bigger and bigger. It’s really incredible, though it’s easy to get caught up in our busy lives and forget to notice.

Pahoa Elementary: Tomatoes All Around

Richard told me they took tomatoes down to Pahoa today, and gave some to every kid in the elementary school there.

There was an unexpected spike in production, he said, and he wanted to give them to the kids and their families.

"We've done that over the years," he said. "We just kind of made our way down the coast to the elementary schools. Kalani‘ana‘ole, Ha‘aheo, Hilo Union, Kapi‘olani, Waiakea Elementary, Kea‘au Elementary, ending up in Hawaiian Beaches at Keonepoko. So the next one was Pahoa Elementary." 

The farm first started handing out tomatoes and bananas at Keaukaha Elementary, back when the Thirty Meter Telescope adopt-a-class project was new and there were a lot of extras one season.

Over the years, he said, he's been floored by the response. "There are so many people, I have no idea who they are, who come up and tell me they were so happy to receive the tomatoes."

"We decided elementary kids because it's a prize they can take home to their parents," he said. "I feel pretty good being able to do it."

- Leslie Lang, HaHaHa editor

Hawaii Community College and its Food Art

Incredible fruit carvings and sculpture by Chef Alan Okuda's culinary students at Hawai‘i Community College.

 

The Kids at Kua O Ka La Charter School

High school students from the charter school Kua O Ka La came to Hamakua Springs the other day on a field trip.

Richard talked about how great it was to connect with that school, which is located on the ocean at Pu‘ala‘a in Puna, right next to the Ahalanui warm pond. “They are off the grid and all their computers are run by solar,” he said. “They have composting toilets that are very sanitary. They live on, and with, the land. I really like their hands-on learning style. They live sustainability.”

From Kua O Ka La's website: 

Pu`ala`a is an intact ancient Hawaiian village complete with historical sites, fishponds, and native habitat that affords an ideal outdoor learning environment for our project-based curriculum.

Kimo Pa, the farm’s manager, told me that he and his wife Tracy Pa were surprised, and pleased, at how interested the students were.

“We told them about what Richard has been working on,” said Kimo, “wondering how we are going to adapt to the new way of doing business, and to the high cost of oil. I talked about how we looked into Peak Oil, studied it for a few years, to really understand it. And how Richard got to the point of looking at geothermal and how he can help the rest of the community.

“We told them we’ve been looking at our resources here. We had water, so we could make hydroelectric….

“I told them that Richard said, ‘What about our workers, the island, the state? What resources do we have that could help the rest of the people?’ That’s how he found geothermal. Now he’s working with Ku‘oko‘a. 

“They were really into that part, and had questions," he said. "This has to do with their community. They’re next to the warm pond. Why is that water hot? Because of the volcano.”

He told the students that our huge dependence on oil now has to do with the leaders we have picked over the years, and their decisions.

“I told them how important they are as an individual, and that it’s their responsibility to pick the leaders; that their vote counts, because they are the future leaders. That their decision making is for the generations under them.”

He showed the students the farm’s hydroponics system, the tomatoes, and the fish they are raising.

“And I explained that we are working with other farmers, and that we like to employ people from nearby," he said. "Working with other farmers, we can produce more food. We want to fit into the community and grow food for the area. It’s all about the sustainability – taking care of your neighbor, doing the right thing for your community so in the next generation, and the next generation, things don’t get worse.”

It's a perfect fit with the school’s vision:

Kua O Ka Lā has adopted the concept of `Ke Ala Pono – The Right Path – to describe our goal of nurturing and developing our youth. We believe that every individual has a unique potential and that it is our responsibility to help our students learn to work together within the local community to create a future that is pono – right.

- posted by Leslie Lang

 

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Also Helps Farmers

Richard Ha writes:

The Packer recently wrote about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act:

Child nutrition bill is a ‘historic win’

Published on 12/02/2010 06:41PM

Legislation that seeks to transform school meals in large part by adding more fruits and vegetables has passed Congress.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs. The Senate passed the bill in August and the House approved it Dec. 2 by a margin 264 to 157.

The bill was sent to President Obama for his signature, the first major legislation to clear the lame duck session of Congress.

The act increases federal reimbursement for school lunches by six cents per meal, the first increase in more than 30 years. The addition is tied to increased servings of food consistent with dietary guidelines, including fruits and vegetables. Read more

In addition to being good for our nation's school kids, this Act will help Hawai‘i’s farmers sell produce to Hawai‘i’s school system.

This is something concrete that will help farmers make money. And, as we know: If the farmers make money, farmers will farm.

Hawai‘i Students Host Japan Students at Micro Robot Conference & Tournament

Richard Ha writes:

‘Imiloa Astronomy Center hosted the first International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament last month. 

Waiakea High School and ‘Iolani School hosted students and teachers who came from Ritsumeikan High School, a super science high school in Kyoto, Japan. Over two weeks, the Hawai‘i group took its peers hiking through Kilauea Iki Crater, star-gazing from Mauna Kea, to Coconut Island for an acoustic shrimp study, on an Atlantis submarine drive off Waikiki, and to presentations by astronomers, geologists and marine scientists.

In November, Waiakea High and ‘Iolani will each send a 5-student/1-teacher delegation to the 8th annual Ritsumeikan International Super Science Fair in Kyoto.

Also planned is a micro robot outreach programs on all islands, which introduces the LETry robot and other micro-mechanisms to participating teachers.

KTA’s program Living In Paradise: Science is fun has a YouTube video featuring Dave Olive and the Japanese students and teachers. It's the third segment on that video.

Pictures from the two weeks that the Waiakea and ‘Iolani students took the Japanese students around. Wow:

      

Robotics/Micro Mechanisms on the Big Island

The first Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament will be held at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo from July 16 through 19, 2010. 

Art Kimura, Education Specialist for the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium at UH Manoa, says the conference is primarily to begin a discussion on how Big Island can benefit through micro mechanisms.

“Whether for R&D," he says, "for actual production, for prototyping, partnerships and relevant applications including medical, agriculture, security, etc. We are hoping this will be a catalyst for further interest in what would be a clean industry (since they are micro devices, the facilities are not large).”

Richard is very interested in this, and says that from a business perspective he can see micro manufacturing taking off on the Big Island where geothermal electricity would be cheap.

“Because it is small by volume," he says, "freight cost would not a large factor. The higher the input cost of electricity, the more competitive we become."

“This is a field where we could become world leaders,” he says.

Also, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is hosting the 9th Annual ROV Competition on June 24-26, 2010. This video describes the international student underwater robotics competition.

Hilo is the perfect location for the competition because this year's theme is underwater volcanoes. The event will be held at the Olympic-sized outdoor swimming pool at UH Hilo’s Student Life Center.

About 60 teams from all over the world are participating, including five from Hawaii:
•    Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu
•    Kealakehe Intermediate School, Kailua-Kona
•    Moanalua High School, Honolulu            
•    Highlands Intermediate School, Pearl City           
•    Hilo High School, Hilo   

ROVs are remotely operated vehicles, also known as underwater robots or robot submersibles. They've been in the news a lot lately because they're a critical tool in the attempts to manage the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Skilled ROV engineers and operators are needed in many marine technology industries that have importance in Hawaii, not just the oil and gas industry.

And they also have applications in science and exploration. For example: an ROV was used to explore the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, and an ROV was used to discover the location of the sunken Titanic.

The competition helps students develop the technology, piloting and teamwork skills needed to design, build and operate an ROV in a "real-world" setting and exposes them to marine technology careers. And if they decide working on ROVs isn't right for them, they've still developed science, technology, engineering, math and teamwork skills that will be invaluable in any field.

The International Student ROV Competition is organized by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) center in Monterey, California.

Here is an email from Art Kimura about the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program:

From: Art Kimura

Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 2:46 PM

Subject: inspiring...the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program... misson complete

Aloha; Rene and I want to thank you all for being part of our 20 year journey....conceived and executed by a group of brave, perhaps naive on our part, 18 teachers in 1991, we are in awe of the teachers we have been privileged to work with.  We should remember our first "boss," George Mead, DBED Office of Space Industry, who trusted us to initiate this program, and to Patti Cook who introduced us to the opportunity.

Truth be told, the program was to have ended some 15 years ago when the Office of Space Industry was shut down; through being adopted by the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium (mahalo to all at Spaced Grant...Dr. Luke Flynn, Dr. Jeff Taylor, Dr. Peter Mouginis-Mark, Marcia Sistoso, Eric Pilger, Linda Martel, Lorna Ramiscal and others), we have managed to continue the program...significantly changed from the week long and weekend residential programs, these family engagement programs continue to be among the most requested programs to be sure.  We thank the University of Hawaii at Hilo (Chancellor Rose Tseng, and the UHH Conference Center) which provided the facilities and services in the initial years before the program moved to the Kilauea Military Camp, then expanded to Maui (thanks to Betty Brask), Kauai (thanks to Cheryl Shintani) and Oahu.  NASA specialists including Tom Gates, Greg Vogt, Cheick Diarra, Ota Lutz, Wayne Lee, David Seidel and others, HIGP scientists (Luke, Jeff, Scott Rowland and others), Gemini Telescope specialists (Peter Michaud, Janice Harvey), the UH College of Engineering, and many other community specialists and resources have contributed to the program.  We thank Creative Arts Hawaii for their long time support in designing the T shirts, bags and other materials that we have provided to the over 8,500 participants.

We have been honored to have worked with over 175 teachers as part of our mission control team, the summer institutes that we offered for credit and volunteers....they are truly educators with the right stuff.

How long do we continue is a frequently asked question....the initial goal of 10 years has long passed...then more recently, a personal goal was to have one of our grandchildren attend (oldest will not qualify for another 2 years)...but Morgan Nakamura who attended as a 4th grade student from Mililani in our first year, 1991, and who has been teaching business education at Pearl City High School (and is to be a state CTE resource teacher this fall), asked if we could continue the program for another 10 years...why? Morgan is to be married this October (Morgan brought her fiancee to the program and he passed the FF board of review) and she hopes her child will be able to attend.  So old folks like Rene/I will have to pull out our walking canes or better, pass the torch to a new generation, to continue it into the future. With NASA's vision of exploration changing under President Obama (no return to the moon), we will have to come up with new contextual themes to be sure.

We are grateful to you all for the engaging and creative lessons; we are always in awe of seeing how the lessons unfold under your imagination.....the paper roller coasters put the parents and children to work until late at night and there were amazing results on Sunday to be sure (thanks to Wendell, Arlene and Clyde)....the children surely enjoyed the special solar cooked snacks made in their own solar ovens (thanks to Glenn, Sylvia and Jan) ....the extensive mineral collection from Roger's personal treasure provide a college level experience for all (thanks ro Roger and Matt)....the worm decomposers modules were so engaging that even the squeamish were holding worms (of course Wendi's Connor told me that his mother would scream at the worms)...we hope the new annelid family members will be part of Earth's renewal and recycling (thanks to Colleen for drilling all the holes in the bins, to Cyndi for bringing your own annelid collection, and to Donna and Andrea), the planes were flying in the hall ways after the lessons on flight by Dale and Lani, you could drink contaminated liquids after the filtering of the liquids by Carole, Morgan and Joann, the polymer module added to their knowledge of how useful these materials are (thanks to Arlene, Wendell, Clyde) and students learned about leaves through the leaf identification lessons and fresh and dried leaves (thanks to Sylvia, Jan and Glenn).

We were so excited to see the debut of the newest Princess Teriyaki (how many have we had over the years)....Claire Sakata, daughter of Dennis, who spent two years in Japan in the JET program, and will be student teaching at Kapalama Elementary this fall, introduced her study of Japanese magic in such a dramatic way...Claire, please reserve October 16 to be on stage with Roger and Dale at the Astronaut Lacy Veach Day science magic program. The Space Science Magic brought back many memories of demonstrations from years past and the videos brought by Randal, Dennis and Dennis were amazing as well.  Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

Randal Lau has generously spent extraordinary time to post the 2010 graduation videos and other videos from our Future Flight archive on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boar59/FutureFlightHawaiiVideos?authkey=Gv1sRgCK fyoaj4naDWYQ#

We hope it will provide everyone with great memories from this and from past years.

We are appreciative for the certificates of recognition from the State Senate presented by Senator Norman Sakamoto to Dr. Flynn, and from Governor Lingle, presented by Dr. Taylor, honors that reflect the long term commitment of all of the teachers and volunteers to develop creative and engaging lessons for the participants.

Future Flight Hawaii blasts off on our 21st annual program in June 2011 with an International Mission to Mars program.

We hope you will join us at:

July 17, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.; public event for the 1st Hawaii Micro Robot Conference and Tournament: origami presentation by Hidenori Ishihara, robotics Professor, Kagawa University, Shikoku, Japan, and bipedal robot demonstrations by Risa Sato, student at Shizuoka High School, winner of 2009 Bipedal robot competition at Nagoya University, and Hideaki Matsutani, technical education instructor, Meinan Technical High School, Nagoya.

1st Children and Youth Day BrushBot tournament, October 3, 2010, State Capitol auditorium (if your child's school wants to enter a team, please have the teacher contact us for workshop information and registration); mahalo to Senator Chun-Oakland for the invitation. *additional brushbot tournament to be hosted on the Big Island

9th annual Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery, October 16, 2010, Punahou School (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/Day-of-discovery/) *keynote speaker: Kalepa Babayan, master navigator; content specialist, Imiloa Astronomy Center...and the expanded Future Flight Weird Science team (Dale, Roger...and Claire)

11th annual Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day, January 22, 2011, University of Hawaii at Hilo (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/OnizukaDay/)

VEX robotics tournaments: http://www.hawaiiroc.org/ October 2, 2010: Maui County Fair (Baldwin High School gym) November 11, 2010: Iolani School gym November 20, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center December 3-4, 2010: Hawaii Convention Center *3 other Oahu VEX tournaments to be scheduled

If you would like volunteer at these robotics or the Onizuka or Veach Day programs, please let us know.

Thank you again for being a part of our 20th annual program...we hope the rest of the summer provides time for relaxation and for family and friends to gather.  It truly was a joy to work with you .... Art and Rene

Art and Rene Kimura Future Flight Hawaii Hawaii Space Grant Consortium http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/ phone (808) 934-7261

- posted by Leslie Lang

Punahou Project Citizen: We Are In Good Hands

Richard Ha writes:

Remember that Punahou School 8th-grade student who'd heard local farmers are having a tough time and  decided to do something about it?

I received an invitation to attend her class’ final Project Citizen presentations.

I felt that I should go and represent Hawai‘i’s farmers. After all, if they made such a commitment, the least I could do was go on behalf of local farmers.

 Aloha,

I would like to invite you to attend my class' final Project Citizen presentations so you can be able to see what we've been working on for the past year. Our presentations will be on Friday, April 23, 2010 in Miyawaki Building #8-102 in Case Middles School at Punahou School from 12:30 to 1:00. Attached is a document with more details and information about the presentations. I hope you will be able to attend!

Thanks,
L-

I did attend, and told the students how proud I was of them, and that I feel Hawai‘i is in good hands with them as representatives of their generation. I told them that other farmers would be very appreciative of their efforts, too, and that I would tell as many of them as I could.

I explained that they can make a great difference just by asking produce managers at their local supermarket to carry local products. I told them that the management keep track of inquiries and that is responsive to its customers' wants. Retail stores do not want to lose customers to their competition down the road.

 Afterward, I heard again from the student L.:

I'm so happy you came to see our presentations, it was nice to meet you. Here's my description:
 
Every year Punahou School has a Sustainability Fair outside, on Middle Field, which is open to everyone, the public, parents, and students. People from different environmental organizations come and have their own booths to teach people about different environmental problems and solutions. Also, there is a local farmers market where local farmers can sell their fresh produce, and artists can sell things like recycled caprisun bags out of recycled products. Students also sell recycled art that they've made like bracelets and earrings. Students, like my class, have their own booths, like how my class did. At our booth, we had a contract where people could sign to pledge to buy local at least once a week, and then they would get a green wristband that said "Buy Local!" to remind them to always try to buy local as much as possible to support Hawaii's local farmers. We got over 450 signatures, which really helped. We got so many signatures, because so many people showed up and wanted to make a difference in the world and for our local farmers.
 
One of the highlights of our presentations was that we knew that we were making a big difference for local farmers and for us, and that we were reaching out to them. We knew that just with our presentations, we were giving local farmers hope in these tough economic times and letting them know that they are very important to Hawaii's culture, and if we loss them, then we would loose a part of Hawaii. With the presentations, we were doing good, not just for the local farmers but for us, making us a more self-sufficient state. With the presentations, we were reminding ourselves of the importance of buying local and how it can make a big difference in our economy, the state, and for local farmers.
 
I hope this helps, and thank you again for coming to our presentation and representing Hawaii's local farmers, it meant a lot to us knowing you were there.

I flew to O‘ahu just to attend the presentation, and I was so glad I did. It was great to see the students' determination to support local farmers because it is a matter of survival for all those who call Hawai‘i home. They are very aware that we are vulnerable living out here in the middle of the ocean, and it is nice to know that they know.

A lot of the time, farmers don’t know if anyone cares. From attending Project Citizens at Punahou School, I can tell you that these young people absolutely do care.

I thank them all on behalf of all Hawai‘i’s farmers. And thank you, L., for asking me to participate.