Blog Post Reflection: How is your personal STEMSS research going?
It has been a challenge making time to make progress with my STEMSS research the past couple of weeks.
Every year, as a Place-Based Inquiry Project (PBI), we take our students on a huaka'i that we feel will expand our students' learning experience. Aunty U'i, my co-teacher and I usually bring our PBI Papa Hana No'eau to Camp Mokule'ia on the North Shore of O'ahu for our end of the year huaka'i during the week of March 7-12. This year we decided we wanted to take our haumāna to Moku o Keawe (Hawai'i Island). The planning for this huaka'i started from the beginning of the year and included a lot of fundraising since each project did not get any funding from the school. Our huaka'i would only be funded by the fundraising done within the project. As a result, Aunty U'i and I planned hana o'eau workshops, sold the products that we made in our project, etc. in order to pay for the lodging, transportation, food, and makana that we needed for our huaka'i to Hawai'i Island.
Now that we got most of the funding for the huaka'i, we are in the process of finalizing our agenda for each day we are on Hawai'i Island. We are planning to arrive in Hilo Monday morning and drive to Kilauea for protocol. We will stay in Kilauea Military Camp for the night. Tuesday morning we plan to visit 'Imiloa in Hilo then drive to Kohala where we will spend the night. We plan to take out students to different wahi pana, including Mauna a Wakea, and to gather lauhala that they will prepare and bring back to O'ahu.
The process of fundraising, planning, communicating with makua, making our lesson with learning objectives for the huaka'i, etc. has been a challenge for me, but the process is all STEMSS and I feel I am following the mission and vision of a STEMSS education. I definitely could not have done all this without Aunty U'i since she is the project lead and has allowed me to learn how to plan a huaka'i such as this one.
In addition to preparing to leave for our huaka'i on Monday, March 7th, I have been co-planning an Ethnomathematics and STEM Institute PD workshop for the kumu that are a part of cohort 8 this year that will be all day on Saturday, February 27th. It will be at Ke Kula Kaiapuni 'O Ānuenue in Palolo Valley. Kaipo is my co-kumu that will be doing a PD workshop on Patters with Ulana Lauhala and I will be doing a PD workshop on Transformation in 'Ohe Kapala Design and Printing.
With all of this going on on top of teaching, it has been a struggle to make time to sit down and just read articles for my literature review and progress in my Plan B report. I feel that I have been able to focus my research question so that allows me to know what kind of articles and literature that I should be seeking. My goal is to make time just to sit down for a few hours and read literature on place-, community-, and culture- based education and student engagement.
As our semester is coming to a close, I feel the pressure and am determined to "GET ON IT."
Hope everyone is progressing. Sending aloha to everyone :-)
It has been a challenge making time to make progress with my STEMSS research the past couple of weeks.
Every year, as a Place-Based Inquiry Project (PBI), we take our students on a huaka'i that we feel will expand our students' learning experience. Aunty U'i, my co-teacher and I usually bring our PBI Papa Hana No'eau to Camp Mokule'ia on the North Shore of O'ahu for our end of the year huaka'i during the week of March 7-12. This year we decided we wanted to take our haumāna to Moku o Keawe (Hawai'i Island). The planning for this huaka'i started from the beginning of the year and included a lot of fundraising since each project did not get any funding from the school. Our huaka'i would only be funded by the fundraising done within the project. As a result, Aunty U'i and I planned hana o'eau workshops, sold the products that we made in our project, etc. in order to pay for the lodging, transportation, food, and makana that we needed for our huaka'i to Hawai'i Island.
Now that we got most of the funding for the huaka'i, we are in the process of finalizing our agenda for each day we are on Hawai'i Island. We are planning to arrive in Hilo Monday morning and drive to Kilauea for protocol. We will stay in Kilauea Military Camp for the night. Tuesday morning we plan to visit 'Imiloa in Hilo then drive to Kohala where we will spend the night. We plan to take out students to different wahi pana, including Mauna a Wakea, and to gather lauhala that they will prepare and bring back to O'ahu.
The process of fundraising, planning, communicating with makua, making our lesson with learning objectives for the huaka'i, etc. has been a challenge for me, but the process is all STEMSS and I feel I am following the mission and vision of a STEMSS education. I definitely could not have done all this without Aunty U'i since she is the project lead and has allowed me to learn how to plan a huaka'i such as this one.
In addition to preparing to leave for our huaka'i on Monday, March 7th, I have been co-planning an Ethnomathematics and STEM Institute PD workshop for the kumu that are a part of cohort 8 this year that will be all day on Saturday, February 27th. It will be at Ke Kula Kaiapuni 'O Ānuenue in Palolo Valley. Kaipo is my co-kumu that will be doing a PD workshop on Patters with Ulana Lauhala and I will be doing a PD workshop on Transformation in 'Ohe Kapala Design and Printing.
With all of this going on on top of teaching, it has been a struggle to make time to sit down and just read articles for my literature review and progress in my Plan B report. I feel that I have been able to focus my research question so that allows me to know what kind of articles and literature that I should be seeking. My goal is to make time just to sit down for a few hours and read literature on place-, community-, and culture- based education and student engagement.
As our semester is coming to a close, I feel the pressure and am determined to "GET ON IT."
Hope everyone is progressing. Sending aloha to everyone :-)
