It’s hard to believe there’s only one more week of Summer Programs! We have so much to look forward to next week, the Movie Party, Spirit Week, and Open House! But before we look ahead to next week, let’s take a look back at what our students have been doing this week!<\/p>\n
Once we finished last week’s claymation project, we were able to choose which projects to work on next\u2014a stop motion video using a whiteboard, an object, or people\/figurines. We were challenged to improve our animations by increasing their number of pictures we are taking. Can you see the difference between our first video and our most recent ones? Some of us are having so much fun that we’ve already completed all our projects are choosing a few of our videos to revise and improve.. <\/span><\/p>\n This week we learned about our native stream animals, including five fish, two crustaceans, and two mollusks. We learned that due to the many environmental changes and the introduction non-native stream animals, the number of native stream animals are decreasing. Our Explorers had a wonderful opportunity to learn from Uncle Cory Yap from UH Manoa’s Center for <\/span>Conservation Research & Training about the stream animals found in Hawai’i and the long-term effects of invasive species removal. He took us on a live virtual field trip to the stream where he caught different types of animals. We were able to collect data and identify which types of animals were caught. We also started learning about different types of ocean animals and will continue learning more about them during our final week of the program. <\/span><\/p>\n MONDAY As time permitted the students also created: a miniature golf course – 5 holes on the side of the house, a yacht for their pier, and a basketball or tennis court in the front driveway.<\/p>\n TUESDAY On the other side of the gate & turnstiles is the subway platform where the people wait to get onto the subway. We designed the platform with tile walls, benches, and pillars to hold up the ceiling. On the other side of the platform are the subway tracks and a dark subway tunnel on both ends of the track.<\/p>\n WEDNESDAY THURSDAY and FRIDAY This week we explored nature as food and the art of cooking using at least one ingredient from nature, of course! First, we learned about eating healthy microgreens from our guest speaker, Ms. Elido! Then we explored the different parts of a recipe before we made our own. Most of our recipes may not be healthy, but they will be fun… and tasty!\u00a0 After writing and designing our recipe cards, we went on an ingredient scavenger hunt in our own kitchens.\u00a0 We were able to find most of the things we needed already in our house!. Over the long weekend, we will have family members help us to play around in the kitchen and cook! Of course, we want to share our dishes\u2014by hosting our very own cooking show!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This week we got to be real scientists by applying everything we learned so far to design our own research projects and writing our research reports. We started by planning and writing about the objective or goal of our project. Then we were able to use our creativity to design and build a project, as well as draft the steps we needed to follow to continue the project. Finally we will practice collecting and analyzing our data to see if our project accomplished its goal.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawaii Nature Study Program: Explorers<\/h4>\n
Minecraft: A Virtual Learning Adventure<\/h4>\n
\nNothing says summer like a day at the beach. So we created our own beach house!\u00a0 It had to be a BIG house with a front driveway and a backyard. And of course, it had to be at the beach. We were also challenged to include fancy beach house features like a wrap around lanai, a big swimming pool and jacuzzi, a boat pier from the backyard to the ocean, and more!<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWe started creating our new “city” world. The first feature in our city was an underground subway station with a street entrance. The street entrance had to feature a subway station sign and a fenced in stairway going down to the subway station platform. For safety, the entrance had to have street lamps.\u00a0At the bottom of the entrance stairs we built a ticket booth to buy subway tickets, a gate blocking the entrance, and turnstiles for ticket holders on both sides of the gate to let people in.<\/p>\n
\nOnce our subway was complete, we could move on to city planning. We created sidewalks and streets around the subway entrance. Convenience is everything, so our next challenge was to build a 7-11. Like every other 7-11, ours had to include a few parking spaces, store aisles with food and drinks, and a cashier. The bonus challenge was to add gas pumps in front or on the side of the building.<\/p>\n
\nWhat comes to mind when you think of a big city?\u00a0 That’s right, skyscrapers. We had to build a skyscraper that was at least 15 stories high with windows and an entrance that lead to a grand lobby inside.<\/p>\nNature’s Palette: Exploring Art in Nature<\/h4>\n
STEM Workshop: Lego Machines<\/h4>\n