June 2019 Newsletter
Mahalo!
Mahalo nunui to the hundreds of supporters who attended our Demo Days to listen and learn from our innovation cohorts. We are grateful for your aloha and are incredibly proud of our students and their journeys. Please help us spread the word about a new summer initiative – our XLR8YOUTH incubator + accelerator pilot program – to eligible youth in your community!
Inside
Education Incubator
May 7: Roosevelt High School
RHS Innovation Cohort members showcased various passion projects, ranging from creating accessibility to Blue Zones-inspired meals, to a sensory-immersion children’s book to teach about Hawaiʻi and Hawaiian culture, to a redesign of care stations for houseless young women aimed at restoring dignity. Check out photos from the event; if you attended, please share yours too!
May 10: Kinai ʻEha
Kinai ʻEha aims to “Disrupt the Pathway to Prison”, by working with ʻōpio that have dropped out of high school and who have been unsuccessful in the traditional public school system, helping to support them towards success via customized values-based, trauma informed, Hawaiian culture-based education coupled with vocational knowledge and skill development in the construction trades. Kinai ʻEha program leads and youth participants shared about their program, and the lessons they have learned. EI worked with youth in a variety of ways throughout the year, including helping them to document their construction learning sites using 360-degree photography and Thinglink. We invite you to check out and add photos from the event.
May 13: Hālau Kū Māna & University Laboratory School
Our innovation cohort from Hālau Kū Māna consisted of students from Grades 4-6, with such amazing ideas to help solve community needs and so much energy to go with their brilliance! Their projects ranged from an online platform for sharing exercise equipment, to creating a song- and media-driven campaign aimed at their high school siblings to stop substance abuse. We learned so much from these haumāna, and look forward to continuing to support them for years to come as they evolve these and other ideas. Check out photos from the event, and add yours to the album!
May 15: Voyager Public Charter School and MSL Open Lab
Our 7th and 8th grade innovation cohort from Voyager PCS and students from Open Lab shared their ideas and prototypes with the entire Voyager PCS school community, as well as parents and stakeholders. It was great to see how these young innovators gained confidence as the day progressed, sharing their project ideas with their growing audience – and their excitement levels grew as a result as well! Check out the day through these photos!
Huge shoutout to John from University Laboratory School who came regularly after school to work on his passion project during our Open Lab pilot. With his passion for baked goods and a concern about plastic pollution, John created a project around reusable bags for baked goods! Mahalo to Jim McArthur, President of Cookie Corner for supporting and guiding John during this process.
James Campbell High School Professional Development
Education Incubator hosted a 3-day institute for teachers and students of JCHS around innovation, entrepreneurship, and problem-based learning and designing. Mahalo to Hālau ʻĪnana, Sultan Ventures, and KUPU Hawaiʻi for supporting this event. Every participant took their first steps of formulating a passion project that would help with needs in their community, began activities like landscape research and impact articulation, and pitched their early-stage ideas to the cohort for feedback. We also explored concepts and skills of design thinking, moonshot mindset, and authentic learning. For information on professional development workshops and programs EI can offer at your institution or organization, please contact us at [email protected].
Featured Partners and
Upcoming Events
Mālama Old Stadium Park Design Sprint June 10-14, 2:30 – 5:00pm at Hālau ʻĪnana
Participants of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds are invited to help activate Old Stadium Park at the intersection of South King and Isenberg Street! Join us for a series of workshops about the history of Mōʻiliʻili, ongoing efforts to revitalize Old Stadium Park, and strategies in traffic engineering, city planning, placemaking, urban forestry, and street art. We will also co-design artwork for the intersection bulb-outs, and create and test ideas to make our neighborhood more livable. Register and join us!
STEMS^2 Symposium – Free Event
Take part in the first annual STEMS^2 Symposium! This one-day learning journey is open to all educators and anyone interested in promoting STEMS2 (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Social Sciences and Sense of Place) education. Highlights of local and national work that focuses on interdisciplinary, place and culture based education will be shared via multiple forms including posters, talk story sessions, workshops, performances, paper presentations, and community partner/exhibitor tables. Register and join us!
Lei Making with Malia Heimuli June 27, 5:30 – 7:30pm at Hālau ʻĪnana
Join us for an evening of lei making, downshifting and good conversation while learning the basics to making haku style lei po’o with flower and plant enthusiast Malia Heimuli. Inspired by lessons from Blue Zones around the world, Blue Zone Project Hawaiʻi and Education Incubator are supporting this opportunity for individuals to make new connections through learning a shared interest. Limited seats available, so register now!
EI Book
Nook
“What if wealth could be used to heal?” Edgar Villaneuva takes us on a journey through the darker corners of philanthropy, finance and wealth, helping to shine the light on dysfunctional colonial dynamics that shape the core of the sector. While Villaneuva offers what some have called radical framing of the problems with philanthropy as a tool of oppression, he also offers insights and practical solutions derived from Native wisdom to restore the balance and heal the divides in American society specifically through this sector where concentrated wealth is allocated to serve society and how it can do better.
Learn more about the movement at www.decolonizingwealth.com
PD is only
a click away!
Podcast
If you are interested in project-based learning, social and emotional learning, comprehensive assessment, teacher development, integrated studies, and technology integration, Edutopia is where you can find resources! Edutopia shows people how to adopt or adapt best practices and shares stories of innovation and continuous learning in the real world.
Tech Resources
Visit the website Thingiverse for access to primarily free, open-source hardware designs for your 3D printer or laser cutter. You can download, edit/transform, and revise other people’s designs, and then print or cut on your own machines. You can also share your original work or mash-ups of other people’s designs, and give the Thingiverse community access to your creations!
Other Helpful Sources
Kokua Life is an app that provides users with Hawaii resources and tools related to suicide prevention. It is designed for use by healthcare or other professionals, and the general public. The app is split into sections so you can look for information on finding help for yourself or others, and includes a resource directory for mental health and social service providers on each island. Kokua Life was created by Mental Health America of Hawaii with funding from the State of Hawaii Department of Health. In our work with youth from elementary to early college this year, we found that mental health and suicide prevention concerns are very much a reality across all of these ages. Please pass along this valuable resource to others.
A New and Exciting Program:
XLR8YOUTH – A Youth
Acceleration Challenge
We are excited to announce the launch of this incubator and accelerator intensive program for Hawaiʻi youth. This unique collaboration brings the entrepreneurship and investment savvy of SV/XLR8HI and the youth and community-empowering, passion project-work of EI together with our networks to support youth in designing solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow. This first-ever program runs July 15-26, at the downtown offices of XLR8HI, Hawaiʻi’s Entrepreneurship Center.
Here are the steps in our process:
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Stage 1: Applications open to youth ages 10-20 years old.
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Stage 2: Video or face-to-face interviews with XLR8YOUTH coaches
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Stage 3: Pilot cohort selected (20 participants max)
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Stage 4: Pilot Phase 1 – Explore | Invent, July 15-19
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Stage 5: Pilot Phase 2 – Build | Launch, July 22-26