Kilo ʻĀina during COVID-19

Post date: Mar 24, 2020 12:08:45 AM

Aloha kākou,

as you can imagine we needed to make a few changes in the current situation.

We had to postpone our Hawaiʻi Island excursion, originally planned during Spring break. This excursion is part of the Career Exploration in STEM and Conservation Internship, one of the programs of Kilo ʻĀina offered during Spring 2020. The goal of this program is to expose Leeward CC students to different fields and career paths in STEM. The internship includes a 4 day travel to Hilo, Hawaiʻi island, to explore different career paths rooted in Hawaiian culture by experiencing the unique environments Hawaiʻi island has to offer, visiting and staying at UH Hilo to learn about STEM degrees there and meeting STEM professionals (UH Hilo, National Park Service, USGS, etc.). We hope to reschedule this trip to the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester.

We did our last in-person field explorations with our Kilo ʻĀina research students the week before Spring break. Our field season is a little shortened, but because these projects are building on former semesters and collaborations with community organizations, the students have enough info and data to produce the requested products and student blogs. Starting this week, you can read about their projects and experiences on this page.

This semester we have 2 Kilo ʻĀīna student research projects: Plankton of Puʻuloa (in collaboration with Donn Viviani, Leeward CC) and Plant Restoration of Kapapapuhi Point Park (collaboration with Mālama Puʻuloa/Hui O Hoʻhonua). You will hear from the Plankton group through the next few blogs. The plant restoration group has been working on propagating native plants suitable for the dry, nutrient poor and high salinity conditions of Kapapapuhi Point Park, raising and acclimating plants at the Leeward CC shade house under supervision of Frani Okamoto. Currently, Sandy Ward from Hui O Hoʻhonua is taking care of our plants at her house. She has been taking pictures (see below) and data for our students and did this beautiful story attached below. You will hear more about the project from our students Sara and Nicole.

- Anuschka