$2.4M grant for ‘āina-based STEM education at UH Maui College

Maui College

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Kelli Abe Trifonovitch, (808) 228-8108
Chief Communications Officer, UH Office of Communications
Bonnie Friedman, (808) 280-9931
Media Contact, UH Maui College

Posted: Jul 1, 2021

Paeloko Learning Center on Maui

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $2.4 million grant to the University of Hawai‘i Maui College for a project called, “‘ĀINA IS: Advancing Informal Native ‘Āina-based Inspirations in STEM.” The new project expands the work of Project STEMulate in partnership with community-based organizations. Project STEMulate is a STEM (science, engineering, mathematics and technology) problem-based learning curriculum implemented at Upward Bound sites for underrepresented and low-income high school students.

Beginning in September and continuing over the next four years, six ‘āina-based community organizations—three on Maui and three on O‘ahu—will design the STEM problem-based learning process to incorporate a Native Hawaiian cultural lens. These ‘āina-based community organizations will then host Native Hawaiian youth (12 years and older) and their families in the STEM problem-based learning process to work on solution pathways to local environmental problems.

“Through Project STEMulate, in collaboration with Upward Bound programs at UH Maui College, UH Hilo and Windward Community College, we have found a significant increase in STEM career interest, science self efficacy, and science motivation for students participating in the STEM problem-based learning model,” said Jaymee Nanasi Davis, Project STEMulate’s research coordinator and ‘ĀINA IS program manager. “Our ‘āina-based community organizations give students a real-world problem to focus on. This is key to the project—that it comes from an organization doing awesome work and presents a problem it is currently working on. After the students learn more about the problem, they try to come up with solutions. ‘ĀINA IS allows us to provide support, resources and training in STEM problem-based learning for our partners to continue their work in the community.”

Chancellor Lui Hokoana said, “We are at a critical crossroad. We must look for solutions to guarantee the future health and sustainability of our islands. This campus is committed to being a part of that work, and we believe this project helps to move our efforts forward.”

‘Āina-based community organizations

The six organizations ‘ĀINA IS will be working with are:

1) Hōkūnui Maui (258 acres located on the face of Haleakalā, the East Maui volcano, focused on incorporating Native Hawaiian practices in regenerative agriculture and Native forestry)

2) Paeloko Learning Center (Six acres on the inland community of
Waiheʻe, Maui focuses on Hawaiian cultural environmental restoration, arts and language opportunities for community members)

3) Hui O Wa‘a Kaulua (housed on the shores of Lahaina, practices Hawaiian canoe building, wayfinding and voyaging)

4) Mālama Learning Center (supports three cultural sites in the urban city of Kapolei, O‘ahu)

5) Kualoa Education Center (4,000 acres located on the coastal
community of Kualoa, O‘ahu, a nature preserve that provides outdoor and cultural experiences)

6) Papahana Kuaola (63 acres in the He‘eia watershed on O‘ahu, programming founded in Hawaiian knowledge, environmental restoration and sustainability)

Next steps

“The next step is to gather with our ‘āina-based partners and together determine the path forward. How does the STEMulate process look through a cultural lens and how do we make it work on their sites?” Davis said. “From there we’ll have one or two of them test out STEM problem-based learning at their sites with youth and families. It could be a one-day workshop, an intersession camp where youth come in for a week and engage in problem-based learning, or a full summer camp. It will look different from site to site.”

Hōkūlani Holt is the director of Ka Hikina O Ka Lā and is involved with the Paeloko Learning Center, one of the participating ‘āina-based community organizations.

“This grant really brings together how we traditionally look at our world, particularly using problem based learning,” Holt said. “If there is a problem, everything is brought to bear to solve that problem, the knowledge that is ‘aina, that is human, that is the environment. And sometimes the answer is that there is no answer. We don’t know enough to fix it. But the process provides us with a way to move forward by continuing to learn. The role of the ‘āina-based community organizationsi s to provide the youth with the opportunity to explore critical thinking through problem based learning. And that’s what we need in our world.”