Story and video by Kimberlee Bassford, Gen XIII, Windward CC
Photos by Jamie Sickel, Gen XIII, Kapi‘olani CC
Our meeting at Kaua‘i Community College was all about ‘ulu … or Ulutopia to be precise!
We walked over to an ahu (mound) where Hawaiian Studies faculty Malia Chun and Molly Ka‘imi Summers welcomed us with an ‘oli and shared the history of the place. Malia relayed that the ahu was built with stones gathered from all around the island. She also said that the ‘oli referenced three hōkū (stars), indicating that the area was once used for celestial navigation training. Ka‘imi then took us to see two young ‘ulu (breadfruit) trees, which were clones of the same ‘ulu brought to the island centuries ago by a famous navigator.
The 64-tree orchard is the first scientifically designed field experiment studying the potential of ‘ulu as a major field crop. According to the Ulutopia website (www.kauai.hawaii.edu/ulutopia), the objectives of the project are to create a teaching plot where students can learn agricultural-based field methodology, study the effects of cultural practices on the growth and yield of breadfruit, determine the effect of fertilizers and cover crops on breadfruit pests, diseases and soil microorganisms, and help the community by providing breadfruit plants as a source of food.
Brian shared with us that the orchard yields two harvests a year instead of the usual one. And then we got to work serving as his research assistants measuring the trunks of the trees and shouting out the numbers as Brian recorded the data in the project binder. Ducking down under the tree branches to get to the trunks was a challenge at times, but everyone seemed happy to be part of the Ulutopia research team. We even got to harvest and taste some of the ripe fruit, which had more of a jackfruit flavor than the cooked ‘ulu we had tried earlier.
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Story and photos by Jamie Sickel, Gen XIII, Kapi‘olani CC
Video by Kimberlee Bassford, Gen XIII, Windward CC
Previous generation LCC Wo's William Albritton (Gen X), Warren Kawano (Gen X), and Summer Miles (Gen XII) joined us as we started our day with an engaging chat with recently appointed Leeward CC Chancellor Carlos Peñaloza. The Chancellor shared his journey from Venezuela to New York, then Kansas to Hawai‘i. Hearing him speak so passionately about his work with underserved populations and how connected he remains to previous students was truly inspiring, and it's exciting that the UHCC system has gained such an energizing leader!
After talking story and catching each other up on our summer breaks, Teacher Education faculty Jeff Judd and Michael Cawdery showed up to collect us and lead us on a tour of their beautiful new digs. 'Imi 'Ike is home to the Associate of Arts in Teaching program. The LEED-certified building houses classrooms, offices, a community events space and collaborative workspace for students. We had the opportunity to see the thoughtfully planned classrooms that accommodate a variety of configurations and approaches to instruction and wrapped up with morning tea in the student gathering space that was designed to build community and provide a sense of place for LCC's preservice teacher candidates. Here, we discussed and debated math education, specifically pondering how we can bolster elementary teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and confidence in math instruction.
After teacher ed., we moved outdoors for a visit to the automotive technology program. Here, our fantastically informative former graduate and current student tour guide, Camille Basa, showed us the ropes. Camille was a perfect transition from teacher education to automotive technology, as after graduating, she plans to teach automotive tech at a local high school. She guided us through a world of cars, trucks and automotive parts of every kind, introducing us to the various modules and their respective instructors and students. Milton Ayakawa, Eric Pang and Jeff Eligio discussed everything from the Ford ASSET program to the evolution (and vast improvement) of engines. Mark Lacasandile set up an exciting demo of an airbag deployment. We all gathered around with the students, armed ourselves with protective eyewear and readied our cameras as Mark counted down...3...2...1.........After several failed attempts to deploy the airbag (and many anticipatory photos), we moved on with the tour, revisiting at the end to try again: 3...2...1.......same result. We all got a good laugh out of it, though we were a little sad for the students to miss out on the finale. After saying our mahalos and goodbyes, we made our way back toward the middle of campus, and just as we were nearly out of earshot, we heard the "POP!" followed by a round of applause :)
Our next stop was the library for an informative presentation on Open Educational Resources (OER) by OER champions Wayde Oshiro, Leanne Riseley and Junie Hayashi. They talked to us about the system-wide OER network, how they encourage and support OER on their campus, and offered realistic advice for initiating, incentivizing and growing OER efforts at our own campus. Leeward has recently achieved 40% textbook cost 0 courses, thanks in no small part to the efforts of these folks!
Our last stop on this well-rounded whirlwind tour of LCC was the stunning new theater building, where our host Don Ranney regaled us with stories of productions past and shared the rich history and present state of the theater facilities and program at Leeward CC. Don is a truly engaging storyteller, and it was a treat to be able to tour the theater with someone with so much historical knowledge to share. But what is a trip to the theater without a performance? We were extremely fortunate to witness both musical and theatrical performances from Jessica Choi's piano student, who played a piece she'd recently performed in competition, and Loretta Tan's theater students, who performed a self-written production entitled 'The P Word', in which they drew upon their own unique perspectives and lived experiences to tackle issues of privilege. The student performances were certainly a highlight! The talent and enthusiasm (and sheer courage!!!) in the students' performances was inspiring, and we were all grateful for their willingness to share their time and gifts with us.
We returned back to home base in the Education building, energized and inspired to re-address our Gen XIII project over lunch. While we now have a consensus, I will leave the details to a later post as we continue developing our plans, but I believe we were all grateful to have identified a purpose! More details to come...
We wrapped the official Wo meeting and said a hui hou to several of our Wohana who had to head off. The remainder of us continued on to our post-Wo tour of Kō Hana, where we learned about the fascinating history of the former pineapple plantation, turned sugar cane farm, turned distillery. Kō Hana uses native Hawaiian heirloom sugar cane varietals to produce its unique rum. We were able to see the various types of sugar cane growing outside the facility; the stalks are hand-harvested, pressed into juice in the field, and distilled on site. We sampled freshly pressed sugar cane juice, five types of rum, rum-infused chocolate from Mānoa chocolate factory, rum cake, and barrel-aged honey. Several of us walked away with the honey, and we all had a great time. Mahalo nui loa to Kō Hana for comping this experience and to Kelsie and Michelle for setting it up - I believe several of us will be booking the tour with guests in the future! |