March 30-31, 2015 Kanu I Ka Pono Loko I‘a

This week took us away from O‘ahu and brought us to beautiful Kaua‘i for an entire week. Our first delivery was with the haumāna of Kanu I Ka Pono Charter School. This was the first delivery of our loko i‘a lessons, which focused on engineering. Much of our lessons are created to be hands-on, utilizing items from the surrounding areas, knowledge of the concepts and teamwork to complete the activity. For our loko i‘a lessons, this is especially true. The kids did much of the work, with very little influence from the kumu. We were trying to get them to think as a team and with their own knowledge of the engineering process. It proved to be difficult, but it really solidified the steps in which they need to know for their engineering curriculum.

The teams had to build fish traps using wholly natural materials found in their immediate area and a limited amount of binding material, which for this lesson we used raffia. Along with our fish trap building they also needed to build a standalone structure, which could support the weight of a group member using the same materials and paracord as a binding tool. While at Waipā the students also got to throw net in the stream, this lesson helped them to understand some math concepts. Some of our kids were professional fisherman and even helped teach their classmates how to throw net, the way they learned from their parents and grandparents!

This unit really showed how the students are able to come together to accomplish a task. We were not exactly catching a ton of fish for lunch, but the process to understand the engineering concepts really helped them to solidify the lessons they learned.

Our loko i‘a unit with Kanu I Ka Pono was our last delivery with this group of kids and the Ho‘opili Team wishes them the best in their future endeavors!