Baldwin High School Robotics Club members achieved their best season in six years, through hard work and community support, according to adviser Gary Suter. “We have a lot to improve on, but we learned that we can hold our own at the national level,” Suter said. As Hawaii’s representative to the FIRST Robotics Competition held in St. Louis, Mo., Baldwin was seeded 12th out of 100 teams in its pool, a spot that took them to the verge of competing at the highest national level.
Competitors in FIRST Robotics were given six weeks to design, build and program robots that weigh up to 120 pounds. The robots perform various tasks to earn points. In this year’s game, robots scored points for shooting Frisbees in or on various goals. They climbed rungs on a pyramid-shaped structure. Suter served as the adviser for Baldwin’s 22-member club. Eight students traveled to compete in the national contest. Senior Software Engineer Bob Brem of Boeing Company assisted with mentoring the students. Looking ahead to the 2014 contest, Suter said his students could use the expertise of a mechanical engineer as well.
Suter said he’s grateful to have Brem and Boeing, for their support, as well as Maui Economic Development Board, which helped make up a cash shortfall for team travel expenses. Family, friends and other individuals chipped in as well. “The community really stepped up for us. We could not have competed nationally without support,” Suter said. “MEDB made a huge difference.” MEDB provided more than $5,000 in support from the Ke Alahele Education Fund. Suter said the purpose of competing in robotics is to promote and advance high-technology skills. “The students get to apply science, math and engineering in robotics. It’s a real pressure cooker, but it’s also a very, very real world experience for them,” he said.
Shannon Rowe, a 1996 state auto mechanic champion and national runner-up, pours his time and energy into creating a new line of skilled students. “The ones who succeed are the ones who work hard and put a lot of time into it,” Rowe said. He and his Maui High School seniors Mitchell Borge and Lawrence Paet are heading this summer to the 2013 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition in Dearborn, Michigan. The competition fosters young people’s interest in the automotive industry through a nationwide contest that provides scholarships, tools and awards along with an experience that could help shape their future careers.
After 12 years as an auto mechanic at Valley Isle Motors, Rowe followed his retired teacher and mentor Dennis Ishii to teach auto mechanics at Maui High School. Through a county grant administered by Maui Economic Development Board, Rowe — who holds top level industry certifications — teaches and then coaches with the support of Ishii, who serves as a mentor partner. “It’s a unique situation. If we didn’t have the grant, the Maui High program would not have continued at this level today or it would have been severely diminished,” Rowe said. Under Rowe and Ishii’s mentorship, they’ve produced four state champions in the last five-and-a-half-years. The student auto skills contest is “a small portion” of what Rowe does. “Really it is more about producing skilled students. Hopefully they go on and make a career out of it and if they don’t, at least they know something about fixing cars,” Rowe said.
A Hana School project is helping students get in touch with ancient Native Hawaiian navigational practices while cutting their teeth on cutting-edge technology. The “Never Lost” project’s first phase is a blog-based curriculum in which students use the Internet to track the voyaging canoe Hikianalia, the sister ship of Hokule`a, as it makes the second leg of its maiden voyage from Tahiti to Hawai`i. The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s website will host the blog and data exchange. Supported by the MEDB Ke Alahele Education Fund, students will develop science, technology, engineering and math skills as they take astronomical observations and use Hawaiian techniques for marine navigation.
Teacher Paulo Burns said he used the $5,000 Ke Alahele grant to purchase 10 Nexus tablets. “The students are using the tablets and really enjoy the ease of searching on the Internet and using some of the apps such as Google Sky,” he said. With the technology in place, students next year will monitor the Hikianalia’s voyage. “We will be monitoring their blogs as they travel and communicating with them via the tablets,” Burns said. “We will ask questions and analyze the data that they will be pumping out.” That data is expected to include waypoints, water temperature, wind direction and water salinity. With more than 80 percent of Hana school’s enrollment having either Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian descent, the project will teach students the navigational practices of their ancestors.
Paulo Burns, teacher at Hana School
Burns said he is “very grateful for MEDB supporting our students in Hana and the technology is currently being used to better their education as 21st century learners.” The 2013 MEDB Ke Alahele Education Fund Dinner & Auction will be held Saturday, Aug. 24 at the Grand Wailea Resort. For more information, call 875-2300, or visit www.medb.org.
Students in the Focus Maui Nui Youth Alliance got a taste of government at work as they testified at budget hearings before the Maui County Council. “It was an amazing experience,” said Baldwin High School freshman Chelsea Kau. “It went pretty fast, just a few minutes but I felt good, like I was doing my part to make a difference in my community.” Senior Geanell Bernardo said she learned a lot about what it takes to advocate for funds. “The County Council members were really nice. At first, I found it nerve wracking, but then I got comfortable testifying in front of them,” Bernardo said.
Both girls asked for continued program funding. Youth Alliance members attend monthly events during the school year to explore and gain a greater understanding of key components in the Maui community. They also complete service projects, all coordinated by Maui Economic Development Board. “It’s both educational and enjoyable,” Bernardo told County Council members about the Youth Alliance. “In a way, this program has changed me. Without this experience, I wouldn’t feel like I could be a leader and make a difference in our community.”
Chelsea Kau
Youth Alliance Coordinator Willow Krause said the program is dedicated to promoting leadership and community awareness. “I am proud to see the students confidently express the positive effects that the Youth Alliance has had on their lives such as building self-esteem, meeting students from all over Maui Nui and learning to look at our island community in a whole new way,” Krause said. Kau added that aside from the Youth Alliance, she would like to see the County allocate more funding for programs that overcome drug addiction, educate high school dropouts, and support families in job and educational training opportunities. “It was really interesting to hear what’s going on in the county and to see what our community needs,” she said.
The Hawai’i STEM Conference will be held on April 19-20, 2013 at the Wailea Marriott. Over 300 STEM/Service Learning students, teachers, parents, community and business leaders will gather to celebrate their work over the past year, share stories and meet other STEM/Service Learning students from different islands. For many, it is their first experience at a regional technology conference complete with breakout sessions, software competitions, a formal awards banquet, and exhibit presentations. It will be an excellent opportunity for students to get the latest software training, and compete against other teams in challenging, but fun software competitions.
Over the two days, software training sessions will be held in the following areas for students — 3D CAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Web Design, Game Design, Digital Publishing, Cyber Security, Videography, GIS/GPS, Leadership, Gaming, and Voyaging. We are pleased to announce that some of these training sessions will be led by industry professionals from Google, National Geographic, SketchUp, Esri, and the Searider Foundation!
The primary goal of this STEM conference is to inspire and challenge our Hawaii STEM students to become creative, intuitive, adaptable learners who can solve unpredictable, real-world problems.
The 2013 Hawaii STEM Conference is sponsored by the Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology program in partnership with the County of Maui and the State Office of Career and Technical Education.
An aquaponics project at Maui Preparatory Academy is challenging students to learn on several levels and grow in some unexpected ways. Funded with a $2,000 grant from Maui Economic Development Board Ke Alahele Education Fund, the project is not just about growing plants in nutrient-rich water. “This builds confidence in my students to ask questions and investigate,” environmental science teacher Dr. Kathleen Ireland said. The project came about after Ireland challenged her 15 11th- and 12th-grade students to come up with a hands-on, environmentally conscious activity.
The students and Ireland agreed to pursue the aquaponics project suggested by 12th-grader Kauaiola Wendt. Their proposal features the construction and maintenance of an aquaponics system using both traditional and solar power to run the pump and care for carrots and fish. The project involves using both manual and digital tools to design the project while also researching how Hawaiians had a heavy reliance on sustainable agriculture organized within ahupua’a, which were ancient Hawaiian land divisions running from the mountains to the sea. Ireland said that, for a while, she had to take the lead with finding money to fund the project and then creating a timeline for students to follow and complete. Since then, the students have taken over.
Dr. Kathleen Ireland
Maui Prep’s high school students, with the help of younger middle school-aged students, are building an aquaponics project on their campus. The project’s main objectives will be met when a useful pamphlet is prepared, plants are growing, fish are thriving and every student can describe the system and how it was created. Ireland said her students are fully engaged. “That’s why I teach,” she said. “You start the fire and keep it fed.” She cannot predict whether the experience will result in inspiring new scientists or aquaponics farmers. “I just want to build responsible citizens, and I think that’s what’s happening here,” she said.
Four years of robotics lessons have turned Maui High School senior Cheska Liwag into a wanna-be engineer armed with lifelong skills. “It was a good experience,” Liwag said after returning from the FIRST Robotics regional contest in Long Beach, California. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology.” Maui High had the best record of the three Hawaii teams competing during spring break 2013. The team known as #2443 Blue Thunder won 11 matches and reached the semifinals in a contest featuring 65 high school teams, including two others from Hawaii.
The robotics team spent six weeks prior to the competition building a 2-1/2-foot robot mostly from metal and completing it just hours before the regional contest opened. “I was kind of surprised. I didn’t think we were going to do as well,” she said. Liwag joined the Maui High robotics club as a freshman and worked to become a leader on this year’s design team and then a captain guiding the drivers of the robot designed to throw frisbees and climb a 90-inch-high pyramid at a 68-degree angle. ““Being on the robotics team, I learned a lot of life skills like teamwork and communication, skills that we’ll use even outside of school,” Liwag said.
Cheska Liwag
Liwag said she sees herself after graduation enrolling at the University of Hawaii Maui College and then transferring to UH Manoa to earn a bachelor’s in engineering. She said the 30-member robotics club this year has been a family away from home. “It gave me this safety of another family and people I could talk to anytime about anything,” she said. The Maui High robotics team sought public support to pay for its project and travel expenses for the 10 members traveling to the regional competion. Maui Economic Development Board awarded its robotics team a $5,000 grant from the Ke Alahele Education Fund.
Maui and its dormant volcano, Haleakala, is providing a unique vantage point for scientists and astronomers to study and monitor all kinds of situations in space. That work is explained in a newly-released, short film called “Maui in Space.” Produced by Maui Economic Development Board, the video, according to physical scientist Dr. Stacie Williams of the Air Force Research Laboratory, shows a collaboration by MEDB, the Air Force and the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy. “Our society revolves around using space…The video shows Maui’s global contribution to space situational awareness,” Williams said. “It’s an educational video that shows the importance of the work being done here.”
MEDB, with support from the County of Maui, produced the film as an introduction to astronomy on-island and the Department of Defense’s efforts in work and research around space situational awareness. “I think MEDB did a nice job,” said Williams, who appears in the video along with other Air Force Lab officials and researchers with UH’s Institute of Astronomy. The video provides information on high-tech instruments such as the 3.6-meter, Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) telescope and how it’s used at the Maui Space Surveillance Site atop Haleakala.
Williams said the film will help her to carry out the Air Force’s commitment to Maui and the community as she uses it to educate teachers and inspire students in grades K-12 to explore the field of math and science. “What I want to do is show it to students so that they can see you don’t have to leave Maui to work in high-tech careers. There are jobs here,” she said. “I think it’s very important to show children that science can be engaging and very interesting and this video does that.” Williams said the film could also help orient island newcomers and new employees in the technology field on Maui. “I think it’s a nice introduction for them to know what’s going on here,” she said.
After 20-plus years in the business, geotechnical engineer Theresa Nunan has fulfilled a lifelong goal to become independent and establish her own company. Now she’s sharing her passion for engineering with young people, hoping they’ll get past the stereotype that “engineers are nerds.”
A mother of two sons, one of whom is studying aerospace engineering in college, Nunan said: “Engineers are often creative people.” To do their jobs, they must be innovative and thrive in a variety of skills including project leadership, effective communication with people and sound financial management of time and resources. “Engineering can be a very exciting and innovative field,” she said. “There are a lot of aspects to it.”
National Engineers Week is set this year for Feb. 17-23. As part of the celebration, Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology Project will present “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” on Feb. 21. The event is open to 7th- and 8th-graders with applications due Feb. 13 to bristol@medb.org. Host organizations include Maui Electric Co. and the County of Maui Wastewater Reclamation Division in Kihei. For more information, contact Mapu at mapu@medb.org. Nunan has previously served as a career-shadowing mentor and a coordinator of Engineers Week events featuring math contests for middle school students. “To expose kids at an early age to what they can do with their math and science skills, I think is great,” Nunan said. “I would have loved to have what they have today when I was going to school.”
She said the field of engineering is vast, with options ranging from aerospace to environmental and geotechnical engineering, a branch of civil engineering that specializes in soil and rock foundation. Nunan, a native of Maine, settled on Maui after 22 years of work in her home state. She said she chose geotechnical engineering because it takes her both indoors and outdoors. “I love it because of the balance of field work and office work and lab. I get it all,” she said.
Baldwin High School Robotics Club members achieved their best season in six years, through hard work and community support, according to adviser Gary Suter. “We have a lot to improve on, but we learned that we can hold our own at the national level,” Suter said. As Hawaii’s representative to the FIRST Robotics Competition held in St. Louis, Mo., Baldwin was seeded 12th out of 100 teams in its pool, a spot that took them to the verge of competing at the highest national level.
A Hana School project is helping students get in touch with ancient Native Hawaiian navigational practices while cutting their teeth on cutting-edge technology. The “Never Lost” project’s first phase is a blog-based curriculum in which students use the Internet to track the voyaging canoe Hikianalia, the sister ship of Hokule`a, as it makes the second leg of its maiden voyage from Tahiti to Hawai`i. The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s website will host the blog and data exchange. Supported by the 
Four years of robotics lessons have turned Maui High School senior Cheska Liwag into a wanna-be engineer armed with lifelong skills. “It was a good experience,” Liwag said after returning from the FIRST Robotics regional contest in Long Beach, California. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology.” Maui High had the best record of the three Hawaii teams competing during spring break 2013. The team known as #2443 Blue Thunder won 11 matches and reached the semifinals in a contest featuring 65 high school teams, including two others from Hawaii.
