WAIMEA — A program administered by the Bishop Museum, Holo Holo Science created an opportunity for parents and students to learn together in a unique setting as the Waimea Canyon School cafeteria was transformed into a literal science-discovery arena recently.
WAIMEA — A program administered by the Bishop Museum, Holo Holo Science created an opportunity for parents and students to learn together in a unique setting as the Waimea Canyon School cafeteria was transformed into a literal science-discovery arena recently.
The event was tabbed Family Science Night. Sue Schott, a fourth-grade teacher at Waimea Canyon School, said she recruited the help of Parent Community Networking Center facilitator Eula Taala so parents could enjoy the event alongside their children.
“I’m a science buff,” Schott said. “So, when the material arrived in the mail, we just went ahead and did it.” Schott and Beth Barcalow were co-chairs of the event.
Leon Geschwind of the Holo Holo Science project explained that Bishop Museum leaders set aside a week a year for visits to the outer islands, and the recent event at Waimea Canyon School was the second of three planned visits on Kaua‘i.
Nancy Ali, another of the Holo Holo Science coordinators who was working with student volunteers, did a program at St. Theresa’s School in Kekaha and King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School in Hanama‘ulu, where they will also set up a Starlab astronomy exhibit. Ali said Holo Holo Science is available in different levels, and the Family Science Night is the most popular because it encourages parent-child interaction. Other levels are either the program assembly, or the classroom assembly.
“We do whatever the school wants,” she said.
Geschwind said the Waimea Canyon School Family Science Night is a series of handson, mini science projects in the areas of biology, archeology, geology, space, Hawaiian rocks, and a medical mystery that proved to be popular with the older students who were in attendance.
Nicole Stulpe, a Waimea Canyon student who was volunteering at the nutrition table, explained, “You start at one end of the table, and you go down the line. There is a recording of a heartbeat, and you can use the stethoscope to compare the heartbeat. There’s all these tests that you need to conduct to find out what’s wrong with Rosa. You can even test your urine.”
Once that was completed, it was on to the nutrition table, where patrons selected different foods from a variety that were laid out, to see if their choices were “healthy” ones.
Younger students were more intrigued with the remote-sensing setup, where they used a color-coded dowel to measure an unseen depth, and placed the corresponding colored block based on the reading of the color-coded depth stick.
Shane Fukino, a sixth grader, was intent over a microscope, peering through the instrument, then working with a guide to try to identify a fish specimen.
Fukino said between looks, while Makoto Fukino chuckled, “Tonight, I’m his guardian, the watcherguy.”
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
