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Advisory Board Meeting 1 & Draft of a Pono STEAM Kit Cartoon Instruction

On January 8th, 2024, we had our first of three Advisory Board meetings for this project. I am very grateful to the members of the Advisory Board who all participated. We opened our discussion with “What was your favorite making experience as a child? (one sentence & then pass the question to someone else)” We had a rich range of story sharing including: smashing rocks to discover colors within, creating and floating boats made from leaves and driftwood, ironing leaves, playing with clay, playing with LEGOs, mixing kukui nuts with "random gunk”, sewing, cooking, tasting edible mud and making mud pies, flying homemade kites, and collecting limu to press on window screens to make homemade nori seaweed sheets. 

It was wonderful to hear Advisory Board members comment on each other’s favorite making activity and connect over these stories. Needless to say, no story was one sentence, and that was the point in asking for a one sentence sharing. It is impossible! Play and making are seated in storytelling. This project aims to uplift place-based making and mo’olele story sharing centered in a vision of Hawai’i of abundance rooted in community and local cultural knowledge.

During the meeting, Board Members offered feedback, suggested resources, and offered suggestions on how to design the kits to be useful and accessible for classrooms, community, & families.  We discussed guiding principles and vocabulary.

slide from Advisory Board Meeting

Slide from Advisory Board Meeting

MISSION AND VISION

We also discussed the Mission and Vision of the project.

slide from meeting

slide from meeting

FIVE KIT ACTIVITIES (MAYBE SIX)

We reviewed the five planned activities and discussed three of them in detail.

the current five kit activities

Here is a snap shot of the discussion on the activities:

SOLAR BOTS: 

  • Might there be an extension activity of creating a diorama of where it lives? Might they explore terrain tests? Adaptable to water, rocks (small a’a), sand, etc. Conduct tests in cookie trays- Matt Ortiz

  • Two processes: building bot and then testing with variations in the design -Dr. Kiana Frank

  • Variation testing prompt: “ What happens if you use a bigger leaf? How might you make it rotate in a circle? Etc” - Roxy Ortiz

  • Mo’olelo of bot: Where does this bot come from, what is the mission of the bot, where does it live (on moon? On shore? In the forest?)- Dr. Kiana Frank

  • What animal does it remind you of? - Roxy Ortiz

  • Pokemon Go cards that children fill out?  Card captures what it does and eats. Fields for power and resistance. - Matt & Roxy Ortiz

  • Where does it fits in the ahupua'a system, who is their akua -Dr. Kiana Frank

MACRO_MICRO FLUIDICS:

Needs a new name for it to be interesting and approachable, brainstorming: “Truth Finder”-Lisa Whitsitt

  • This activity uplifts the child, as a scientist hero. How might this be reflected in name of activity and lesson?- David Okada

  • Thinking of bento box geiger counter in Japan -Lisa Whitsitt

  • Macro-Microfluidic activity is a type of “Color Signaling” connect to mo’olelo and mo’o (looks like a mo’o) - Dr. Kiana Frank

DIY CHALK:

We had a discussion offline in the google meeting notes doc about the possibility of replacing the chicken egg shells with invasive snail shells (also calcium rich) and realized it was not a possiblity when Dr. Frank shared her wisdom regarding the dangers of toxins and the fact that 90% of Hawaiian invasive snails carry the nemotode parasite angistrongilus cantinensus that is responsible for rat lungworm. So we are sticking with egg shells for this recipe!

The other activities not discussed in detail were:

KITE ACTIVITY?

We also discussed a possible 6th activity focused on paper making and/or traditional Hawaiian kapa cloth and kites, ho‘olele lupe. This was a suggestion by Dr. Kiana Frank, and once she mentioned it many others supported this direction. With a little research, I learned of the inspiring work of Leuauakea, and specifically Leuauakea's ho'olele lupe creations. I am looking forward to discussions exploring incorporating lupe into this collection.

As we discussed our experiences with paper making, David Okada reflected that a paper activity could also relate to a seaweed activity. He shared a childhood story of seaweed harvesting on Maui. When Japan had an embargo on seaweed exports, Japanese immigrants collected seaweed, smashed the seaweed with the backside of spoons on rocks at the shore, and then created sheets of DIY seaweed at home on window screens drying in the sun. He made seaweed paper gliders, bits of shells and all. Matt also loved making paper airplanes and parachutes as a child, and reflected on how cool it would be to make and then eat afterwards!

PLAY PATTERN CONNECTIONS

It was suggested that I think about comparing the existing activities to familiar play patterns. Lisa Whitsitt suggested that Slime and Oobleck: relate to chalk and seaweed bioplastic activity. 

CARTOON LESSON PLAN 

We reviewed my rough designs and these great suggestions were made:

  • Restrict color to cover of activities and make the cartoon instructions in Black & White. It is a pain to have unnecessary color when printing in schools - Roxy Ortiz

  • Think about consistent type of imagery for different types of info: the same cartoon style for materials, like use only photos for sample images, etc. - Lisa Whitsitt

  • Aim to keep lessons one page, if possible (front and back) 

  • Think IKEA instructions with minimal text, lots of white space and mostly visual-Lisa Whitsitt

In response to these suggestions, I iterated on the draft of one of the activity cartoon instructions. I am very grateful to Wooden Wave and Solomon Enos for permitting me to include their work on the Inspiration page.

For many years I have enjoyed ʻŌiwi TV and I remember when this animated mo'olelo about Maui snaring the Sun was first posted. It will be linked in the formal lesson plan also included with the activity.

activity of creating a playing card

The above set of cartoon instructions still needs revisions with Advisory Board feedback. Next I will be creating a sample activity video and fleshing out one sample lesson based on the lesson plan template for classroom use. These will be revised and informed by feedback from the Advisory Board in March.

Lastly, the project logo is inspired by a sun petroglyph at the Puu Loa Petroglyphs at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

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About This Project

How might we design science kits rooted in cultural and ancestral knowledge unique to Hawai’i? There is no shortage of kits shipped here, but a lack of homegrown kits centering ancestral innovation and local natural materials. If we can develop Hawaiian place based science kits, we will uplift Hawaiian frameworks for solving our unique environmental challenges.

We will develop biomaterial and frugal science kits useful to grow trust spaces for local science innovation conversations.

Blast off!

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