In October 2020, STEMworks™ partnered with the Maui Nui Botanical Garden to bring our students a STEMworks Solutions engineering design challenge called “Pots that Rot”. This design challenge asked students to engineer an affordable, biodegradable pot with locally available materials that could replace the plastic pots that Maui Nui Botanical Garden (MNBG) currently uses in their nursery.
The team, “Sus-Attainable” won first place in the STEMworks Solutions Challenge with their ingenious design for a compostable pot that would be made from recycled paper and rice paste. As a prize for winning that competition, STEMworks, in partnership with Kupu and the Kōkua Hawaii Foundation, advanced team Sus-Attainable to the Hawaii Youth Sustainability Challenge where they could bring their compostable pots to life.
Sus-Attainable team members, Samuel Kim, Zitao Li, and Andy Au, received funding, mentorship, and training to support their innovative and grassroots environmental solution to plastic pots. Over a period of six months, this team employed the engineering design process to create several iterations of their pots. “For our first prototype, we plastered wet shreds of recycled paper over plastic pots,” Li explained. “Then, we evolved to filling pot molds, made with a 3D printer, using a blended paste of paper, cooked rice, and water. We are proud of the resulting increase in strength and hope to increase the water resistance in our pots.”
Kim added, “My favorite part of the challenge was working as a team towards a common goal, learning how sustainability affects every part of our lives. This new appreciation motivated us to use recycled paper as the primary ingredient in our pots to help divert waste from the waste stream. We hope that one day our pots will be sold as a sustainable alternative to the plastic pots in nurseries around Hawaii.”
“I am incredibly proud of our Pots that Rot STEMworks Solutions winners,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks Program Manager. “Since October, they have invested a great deal of work and perseverance to bring their winning design to life using the Engineering Design Process that we teach through our STEMworks programs. I was most excited to see that they were able to use their engineering design skills for good, to produce a necessary and sustainable product for the MNBG.”
I am saving one of our sustainable pots for my grandma, who loves to garden!
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Maui County Composite Squadron 057 is celebrating its 46th year of serving Maui County. The nonprofit organization is tasked by the U.S. Congress to help run programs that keep the country at the forefront of advanced air and space technology. With their adult and youth development program, CAP’s mission, to ‘Empower members with opportunities and resources to promote aerospace-related STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education and careers’, provides all Maui residents with numerous ways to serve the community.
As the civilian auxiliary of the Air Force, cadets develop ethical leadership skills, embrace an active fitness lifestyle, and gain problem-solving techniques through character development lessons. “Today’s cadets are tomorrow’s leaders,” said Col. Chantal Lonergan, CAP Hawaii Wing Commander. “They are committed to a personal code of honor, and are ready to lead in a diverse society. A capstone of the cadet experience is in our Orientation Flight Program where cadets receive education and training in preparation for flight in gliders and powered Cessna aircraft. For cadets who are motivated, there is an opportunity to apply for various scholarships for flight academics and special CAP activities. CAP’s STEM education programs bring over 40 free fun and engaging products and programs to our members in squadrons and classrooms throughout Maui. The program’s motto describes what cadet flying is all about: ‘Safe, fun, educational’.”
Cadet Lexie Galam added, “We are learning basic laws of physics and how they apply to aircraft and flying. Pilots explain how to perform basic flight maneuvers and the manner in which control surfaces are manipulated during roll, pitch, and yaw. For example, we learned about climbing turns with an emphasis on collision avoidance; how shallow climbs and descents affect vertical velocity and airspeed indicators; turns using magnetic compass and possible compass turning errors—variation, deviation, magnetic dip, and oscillation error; medium and steep bank turns; and how proper rudder coordination and control stick requirements keep the nose up. Volunteer services with CAP allow us to do good for other people. Even as kids, we can make a difference.”
Serving adults and youth in pre-K-12 grades, we offer aerospace courses and teacher training to increase comprehension of and enthusiasm for STEM topics.
Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) STEMworks™ Solutions program brings month-long industry-based challenges to 7th-12th grade STEMworks students. The participants use STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) tools and the entrepreneurial mindset to develop innovative solutions for real problems. During the February 2021 challenge, Hawaii students learned about NASA’s Artemis Program to return us to the Moon, and cubesats from experts at the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL). The second challenge was to create an Artemis mission patch design. “We are so proud of all of the submissions we received,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks Program Manager. “The selection for the best mission patch design award went to Jadynne Zane, MJ Dinong, Jenna Payba, and Erinrose Salacup of Maui High School. The team featured a simple design that incorporated the moon as the bow and the line in the A of Artemis as the arrow. We will print this design on a patch for all participants who completed the challenge.”
The HSFL payload design winner was “Exploring the Potential of Solar Winds as a Power Source” by Jalen Matsuda Williams, Derek Takeno, and Justin Paul Alejo, also from Maui High. In addition to a $500 prize, this team will have a chance to work with a real Artemis CubeSat kit to bring their idea to life under the guidance of HSFL scientists during the MEDB STEMworks Summer Internship.
“Our team used the cubesat to determine the viability of a new power source on a lunar base, using solar winds,” said Williams. “This will help NASA’s Artemis mission to determine and investigate the viability of a Dyson-Harrop Satellite (DHS) as a power source. The DHS has a wire at the end of the satellite which points at the sun and creates a cylindrical magnetic field. The charged wire can divert electrons from the initially charged plasma, which then get funneled into a metal sphere receiver, and creates an electric current. With this is mind, our satellite will give the mission valuable information, possibly enabling astronauts to have an abundance of energy that can be used to power a lunar base outpost, space vehicles, and more.”
We appreciate the opportunity from MEDB to share our research with the STEMworks students. Inspiring the next generation and building Hawaii’s aerospace workforce is so important for diversifying Hawaii’s economy.
Amber Imai-Hong, HSFL Avionics Engineer and Outreach Specialist
Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) 12th Annual Hawaii STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Conference will be virtual this year. Employing the online Hopin conference platform, on April 28th-30th from 9am-12pm, the venue will allow students to experience real-world STEM training applications and see career availability throughout the islands. “STEM education has the power to improve all of our lives,” said MEDB President and CEO Leslie Wilkins. “Our hope is that by equipping our youth with the right skills, tools, and opportunities, we can inspire the next generation of innovators, ensuring a bright future for our community and our world.”
MEDB’s STEMworks™ students and teachers, along with community and business leaders across the state, are invited to celebrate the student’s service-learning projects, hear stories of inspiration, engage with some of the biggest names in the STEM field, and experience the excitement of a regional technology conference. The students will showcase their acquired skills, analyzing information and applying the latest high-tech industry tools in an innovative and successful approach to environmental and cultural issues.
“STEMworks initiatives focus on empowering students with 21st century skills to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow while solving their communities’ problems of today,” said Wilkins. The students collaborate in teams to tackle an issue within their community through service learning.”
Jessica Salva, STEMworks Program Assistant, added, “This year, students and teachers can choose among 12 interactive professional development sessions. During the three days, they will have the opportunity to engage with over a dozen STEM Playground Vendors to learn about exciting new industry-related products and resources. There are seven STEM competitions, with a chance to win the famous STEMMY award and prizes. The contests include: Creative Media Moguls, STEMworks Solution Student Spotlight, STEMworks Designer, Game On!, STEM Tank, Shaka! in partnership with Bizgenics Foundation, AGOL StoryMap Competition in partnership with Esri, and a virtual Hackathon in partnership with NOAA. We hope that these experiences will encourage Hawaii’s middle and high school students to pursue a STEM education and discover the skills needed to strengthen the local economy.” For more information on conference attendance, go to http://hawaiistemconference.org
The Hawaii STEM Conference is honored to work with community partners and sponsors to create meaningful learning experiences to impact the lives of Hawaiian students today and into the future.
Due to COVID-19, Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) STEMworks™ Summer Internship team strived to personalize work-based learning experiences for students in the new virtual dimensions. They collaborated with internship host companies and community partners to give the students a unique opportunity to explore technical and professional development.
STEMworks Intern Napua Canales, 12th grade, said, “My internship was with BizzyB, a branch of Bizgenics Foundation, a nonprofit organization that fosters creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Specifically, BizzyB is a student innovation platform, where students 13 and older can create market-ready innovation through project-based learning. Our goal as BizzyB interns was to make a project template that other students around the world could use as a guide towards creating their own projects.”
Steve Sue, Bizgenics CEO and STEMworks mentor, explained, “Along with eight other 2020 BizzyB Summer Cohort members, Canales created a first-of-its-kind online project-based curriculum for BizzyB.com. Each student author created a project kit and teaching system for one of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Canales is the primary author of SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. These curriculum kits will be featured in the BizzyB application and thus available to the world. Research, writing, graphics and videos are all part of curriculum authoring. This internship is proving that students are more capable and relevant than ever toward reshaping education. As a student voice project, we are clearly seeing that curriculum by students for students is a powerful new paradigm worth exploring. I believe it is part of the future of education. Information technology has changed access to information and perhaps more importantly, gives students more leverage to have larger impact earlier in life.”
BizzyB discovered that the students are really excellent at online research, and they have proven to be highly resourceful in finding content like video clips and authoritative sources that can be integrated in their teaching materials. Canales reflected, “Not only has the internship itself been a great learning experience on how educators create project lessons, we were also given a great learning opportunity on how to improve our work ethic through professional development.”
The summer interns became curators of content and creative coaches with goals of challenging and inspiring others to act while learning. Napua Canales, STEMworks™ Summer Intern
College freshman Ethan Covello completed his Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) STEMworks™ Summer Internship at the Hawai’i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL). The mission of HSFL is to promote space engineering and scientific research. They develop, launch, and operate small spacecraft from the Hawaiian Islands to accelerate the validation of new space technologies. HSFL also promotes synergistic collaborations between educational, governmental, and corporate institutions interested in space exploration.
Amber Imai, HSFL avionics engineer and STEMworks mentor, said, “Covello worked on creating a deployable ultra-high frequency amateur radio antenna for our Artemis CubeSat kit, which will serve as a platform for community college and undergraduate students to access space at a lower cost. Much of Covello’s work has been to create a design on SolidWorks and to 3D print the prototype. The previous design has proved to be unreliable due to its simplicity and Covello helped create something that is robust and reliable using a different method to deploy the antenna. We thank MEDB for the opportunity to work with such talented interns this summer!”
Covello explained, “I worked with several engineers and fellow interns to design the mechanical and structural aspects of the model satellite. I started this process by creating a Solidworks model of the deployer, then 3D printed my prototype to check for issues with my design and tested the deployer’s compatibility with the structure. After that, I detailed my findings and developed a new design that would fix the previous design’s flaws. My deployment system works through a gate system in which the antenna was attached. The gate keeps the antenna coiled into the base of the deployer using a nylon string. This string is attached to a resistor and when the resistor is activated the string melts, releasing the gate which releases the antenna.”
Reflecting on his internship Covello said, “Through working with seasoned engineers who guided me through using complex machinery and software, I was able to gain a new understanding of what being an engineer means. I will carry these new skills with me throughout my undergraduate education and continue to develop these skills to help prepare for a future career in mechanical engineering.”
My STEMworks Internship allowed me to develop my passion for engineering. Thank you MEDB! Ethan Covello, STEMworks™ Summer Intern
Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) has announced the kick-off of their first-ever online STEM Drive, a benefit for the 2020 Ke Alahele Education Fund. The fundraiser began on July 17 and runs through August 15. Contributions are 100 percent tax deductible. Donations go towards advancing MEDB’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) programs from kindergarten to careers. The Ke Alahele Fund enables educational pathways that benefit the lives of our residents in Maui County and statewide. MEDB’s programs, which are founded on a respect for Hawai’i’s culture and precious environment, create vehicles for community and industry participation and partnerships in achieving educational goals.
“For the past 13 years, our community has gathered for our annual Ke Alahele Education Fund benefit dinner to support STEM education in Hawaii,” said Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President and CEO. This year, due to COVID-19, we will not be scheduling our in-person gala. However, the public can still make a difference in the lives of our keiki by donating to our STEM Drive.”
Since the Fund was launched in 2006, MEDB’s STEM programs continue to empower students and teachers across the state. To date, 344 grants have provided STEM equipment, robotics programs, media labs, environmental/sustainability projects, internships, training for teachers, and more. A variety of sponsorship opportunities are also available which include publicity on the event’s website and social media. This website, www.MEDBpathways.com., also includes information about the Ke Alahele Education Fund── inspiring stories of those who have benefited from MEDB’s STEM programs, and highlights of STEM Week in Maui County.
Wilkins noted, “Jobs today and in the future depend on the preparation of our students in critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and creativity — all skills nurtured by STEM education. The Ke Alahele Education Fund was created to provide STEM tools for our youth and educators in an effort to open doors to exciting career opportunities. We extend a big mahalo to all those who support our Ke Alahele Education Fund. It’s truly an investment in our youth, one that will help to shape our communities and our world.”
Donations can be made online or by mailing a check to Maui Economic Development Board, at 1305 N. Holopono St #1, Kihei, HI 96753. To donate, please visit the MEDB STEM Drive website, www.MEDBpathways.com.
Maui Economic Development Board’s STEMworks™ Internship Program inspires the next STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) generation. Under the internship program, students in grades nine through college have a unique opportunity to explore technical and professional development, and gain confidence in their ability to be a STEM professional. STEMworks™ emphasizes connecting the dots among curriculum, software tools available in the classroom, and real world applications. Interns will gain valuable on-the-job skills while being able to network with industry professionals; a win-win outcome.
“This year, due to COVID-19, the STEMworks™ team worked hard to personalize work-based learning experiences in the new virtual dimensions,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks™ Program Manager. “We collaborated with internship host companies and our community partners to help reshape the plan for this year’s program. The summer internship, held virtually for four weeks instead of the standard six weeks, will provide interns with the opportunity to use industry-standard technologies to complete projects. Additionally, the interns participate in weekly webinars to help them develop college preparatory and career skills.”
“STEMworks™ Intern Peyton Gillespie said, “The STEMworks™ Summer Internship team has brought together a wide variety of organizations and students from almost every island. I am looking forward to my third year participating in the program. Despite the unprecedented circumstances and the internships being moved online, I am confident that we are going to have just as productive a year as any other. We launched this year’s event with a virtual kickoff, introducing us to the online format, details of our individual internships, and an overall opportunity to learn about various STEM careers.”
Gillespie added, “For the past two years, I interned on Molokai at Keawanui Fishpond working in natural resource management and preservation of a cultural site. I built on my leadership, teamwork, agriculture, aquaculture, and resource management skillsets, not to mention the network I built both working at the Fishpond and with the STEMworks™ team. This year, I will be the liaison between the STEMworks™ interns and the staff. I am looking forward to following the other interns on their paths as well.”
The STEMworks™ team efficiently moved the program online and I am excited to take part in this new kind of intern experience.
Maui Economic Development Board’s STEMworks™ Hawaii program presented the first-ever 2020 Virtual STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Conference. The agenda focused on developing 21st-century skills for future careers. Teachers and over 200 students exercised leadership, communication, and collaboration by engaging in hands-on STEM activities that involved problem-solving, scientific concepts and geospatial technologies.
“The 2020 Hawaii STEM Conference successfully moved to a virtual platform this year,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks™ Program Manager. “We kicked off the three-day event with five industry presenters, and a Microsoft keynote message of inspiration for our students. In addition to the main event, 27 students participated in the STEMworks™ first virtual design challenge hackathon hosted on BizzyB. In this fast-paced challenge, students learned about Malama Maunalua’s mission to help improve water quality in their ahupua’a by growing oysters to filter local waterways. Each of the five teams impressed the four judges with their innovative designs for sustainably constructed oyster cages. We are thankful for all our participants, sponsors and speakers.”
Additionally, students competed in the 2020 STEMMY Award challenges designed to put their skills and creativity to the test. Jacob Gamble from Kalama Intermediate School won the Game Design Competition. Jazmyne Viloria from Maui High School won the Photography Competition. Winners from Maui Waena Intermediate School included Jacelyn Yun for the What’s Your Jam? Competition; Zoe Zane, Kamri Cruz and Sienna Jolie Racoma for the Leave Your Mark-et Design Competition; and Sienna Jolie Racoma and Kamri Cruz for the T-Shirt Design Competition.
“Our T-Shirt design is of a side profile, with an outline of the words ‘STEM is the Face of the Future’,” Cruz and Racoma explained. “It also includes circles with images of the different aspects of STEM. All of the individual symbols come together to make the whole person, which is portrayed as the side profile of the face.”
Jennifer Suzuki, Maui Waena STEMworks™ AFTERschool Coordinator added, “I am proud of my students for staying focused and continuing to work despite school closures. We appreciate STEMworks™ for giving our students the opportunity to stay engaged and productive in these challenging times.”
Our t-shirt design represents how future generations will be influenced by STEM.
Sienna Jolie Racoma and Kamri Cruz, 2020 STEMMY Award T-Shirt Design Winners, Maui Waena Intermediate School
