Story and video by Kimberlee Bassford, Gen XIII, Windward CC
Photos by Jamie Sickel, Gen XIII, Kapi‘olani CC
It was nice returning to Kapi‘olani Community College, which was the first repeat campus visit for our cohort. The last time we were here, Jackie and Jamie planned a day for us focused on sustainability. This time around, we got to experience a more eclectic mix of KapCC’s programs.
Then we were off to learn about dreams with human anatomy and physiology professor Sheryl Shook who teaches PHYL 160: The Science of Sleep. She started with a thought question: Why do we dream? After we shared our ideas, among them to process events in our waking lives, to learn new skills and to live out fantasies, she gave us a quick overview of four main topics that have come out of sleep research.
First, she shared that the word for sleep in Hawaiian culture is moe‘uhane, which translates to dream or sleep of the spirit, and said that Native Hawaiians believed that sleep was a way to meet with the ‘aumākua or ancestral guardian spirits. She then relayed that sleep is important in emotional healing as it allows us to replay events from our conscious lives without the charge of stress hormones. Like a survival strategy for the brain, dreams help us create clearer memories of important situations with calmer, wiser responses. By contrast, people who suffer from PTSD still feel stress in their dreams.
I found the next topic to be quite fascinating: sleep and facial expressions. Sheryl said that research has shown that people who do not dream enough misinterpret facial expressions, which could be especially problematic for those who experience chronic sleep deprivation because of their careers or socioeconomic status. I had never considered sleep wellness to be a social justice issue, but she made a convincing case for it.
Finally, dreams are related to problem solving as it seems creativity gets a boost from dreaming. Among the examples she shared were the structure of DNA, the riff from the Rolling Stones’s “Satisfaction” and the lyrics to Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be” all came from dreams. And the expression “to sleep on it” is found in many languages, but really based on the research, she said the phrase should be “to dream on it.” Sheryl then engaged us in a quick Jigsaw learner-centered activity where we broke into groups and became experts on one of the four topics and then taught it back to our groups.
In a role playing game, she turned us all into members of the Hawai‘i State Legislature. Jamie became Speaker of the House; Jackie became Senate President; and the rest of us became chairs or members of committees based on the roles on our name tags Susan had prepared for us. The exercise showed us how a bill becomes a law, as we each played our roles discussing, amending and voting on two mock bills. The footballs helped us track the paths of House Bill 12, which required students who are tardy to class to pay for pizza for the next class, and Senate Bill 34, which rewarded students doing well academically with free bus passes, as they were passed through the process, and we learned that the majority of progress happens via committees.
I could see why Susan won the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2011, as the role playing game really brought the legislative process alive for us!
While the previous two activities involved lots of talking, in Alex’s Find Your People sticker game, we had to stay absolutely mum! First, Alex put a sticker on each of our backs and then we had to silently and without the use of our hands try to form groups with the people with the same stickers as us.
After many kicks and head gestures, it became clear that everyone either had a X, O or check mark on their stickers except poor Kahale, who had a smiley face on her sticker. So the challenge became how do we get Kahale into one of our groups? Could she join the O group? “No,” said Alex. Could we put two Xs, one O and one check mark in a group (and have Kahale join one of the groups)? “No, that’s not the solution,” said Alex. Finally, we had Kahale leave the space completely and asked Alex if that was the solution. It was one of the solutions (although in the world of this game, Kahale would have earned a F for the class and we’d all earn As). The other solution was apparently for us all to quit the game. We then debriefed the game and how it can serve as a metaphor for life. Who are “our people” in life? How do we define ourselves? What differences and similarities do we focus on? I’m sure we’ll continue ruminating on this game and its lessons for weeks to come.
We then returned to the conference room for lunch (burritos and more from South Shore Grill on Monsarrat Avenue) and our business meeting where we hammered out a timeline for our special cohort project. Thanks to Jackie and Jamie for hosting another fabulous meeting at KapCC and for the brightly colored ceramic pots filled with rambutan. A huge mahalo to our tour guide, Sheldone Tawata, and amazing teachers for the day, Sheryl Shook, Susan Jaworowski, and Alex Salinas-Nakanishi. Thank you also to our drivers, Kelli Nakamura (Gen XII), Porscha dela Fuente (Gen X), our own Mitch Okamura, and Jamie's husband, Aaron, who served not only as as driver but food delivery person, and to Shellie Numazu, Virginia Yoshida, and Lance Akana for their support. And a special mahalo to the Department of Education's Office of Hawaiian Education for providing our portable recycled utensils.
It was a thought-provoking day overall and a great way to end 2019 together. 'See you all in 2020!
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