The 5th Annual Hawaii Robofest season is underway with isisHawaii hosting the program's first workshop held on Saturday, January 14th, 2012, at Highlands Intermediate School. This year's game, "Robot 2 the Rescue", challenges students to design, manipulate and program NXT LEGO® robots in a mock rescue course. Program Director Jake Tamaye and Joe Adcock (volunteer coach for Palisades Elementary School) facilitated the introductory skills development session. Also assisting were Hawaii Robofest Organizing Committee members Jeni Ono (Palisades ES), Liz Shigeta (Waikele ES), Cynthea Michimoto (Mililani MS) and Gayle Loui (Waipahu IS). Over 30 coaches, staff, parents and student leaders attended, representing 7 different public schools in the Leeward and Central districts.

Annual tournament will be held at Leeward Community College on Saturday, March 21, 2012.

Over 300 volunteers donated their time to help with the Championship planning, not to mention the hundreds of others who worked on the program and district tournaments on 6 different islands throughout the year. Over 2000 students were served this year.

isisHawaii is proud to be included in the list of sponsors who help make this annual event possible: Hawaiian Electric Company, the Robotics Organizing Committee (ROC), Friends of Hawaii Robotics, the City & County of Honolulu, Tesoro Corporation, UH Honolulu Community College Construction Academy, UH College of Engineering, Women in Technology/Maui Economic Development Board, Inc., Strategic Communications Solutions, Booz Allen Hamilton and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

For more information about the HFLL program and Championship Tournament, please visit www.hawaiifll.org.

Each year, the Hawaii program announces a unique local theme for its exhibition category entries. “BOT-Synergies” is an exploration of Hawaii’s biotic and abiotic systems and how technology (specifically, robotics) can catalyze these synergies.

If you would like to learn more about this program, please send your inquiries to info@isishawaii.org and visit the national website at http://www.robofest.net or the Hawaii website at http://robofesthawaii.webs.com for more information.

This program is made possible with support of dedicated volunteers and the following Community Partners: Lawrence Technological University, University of Hawaii Leeward Community College, Highlands Intermediate School and isisHawaii.

Watch this video on global sustainability, featuring interview with Reyn Horner (Hapa Farms) and Highlands Intermediate School aquaponics project.

(l to r) Alika Ahu, Principal Martinson, Prof. Watters, Karl Sloss, Angelo Laskowsky, Reyn Horner

Professor Corilee Watters and research student, Karl Sloss, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) visited Highlands Intermediate School to learn about their highly successful aquaponics program launched with the help of isisHawaii in October 2010. Principal Amy Martinson and teachers, Alika Ahu, Angelo Laskowsky and Joan Okai, were on hand to provide feedback and testimonials from a full year of applying hands-on aquaponics projects throughout their 7th and 8th grade science classes. Also present were Hapa Farms (Reyn Horner and Sean Moura), sustainable agriculture professionals who mentored the teachers and provided training, installation and implementation support.

Professor Watters and Mr. Sloss were there to request feedback from the teachers to help shape the inaugural release of their science curriculum developed specifically for schools with “school gardens,” including those with aquaponic systems. Watters and Sloss interviewed Principal Martinson and the participating teachers about best practices, preferred formats and lesson topics.

The Highlands team also gave the visiting curriculum developers a tour of the aquaponics garden, just being revived after the summer hiatus. Due to the cooperation of a strong school team and rotational commitment, the system survived the summer with little disruption or loss.

Teacher enthusiasm about last year’s pilot was extremely positive. According to Laskowsky, student motivation to learn about science increased dramatically. Academically, student capacity in science (i.e., grades) also increased due to the relevance and application realized through aquaponics. Okai will be offering aquaponics as a full CTE (Career and Technical Education) elective. Ahu will be combining 3D CAD with aquaponics activities to further 21st century learning and multidisciplinary experiences.

This year, isisHawaii will continue working with Highlands Intermediate School and Hapa Farms to set up a commercial unit and a food safety certification program so that the students may extend their learning into the community through service projects.

Learning science and technology by playing video games? That’s the premise behind R.E.Power (Renewable Energy Power), a virtual environment where users can learn about alternative energy in Hawaii. isisHawaii partnered with multimedia experts from Hyperspective Studios to see if virtual gaming can be an effective tool for technical training and education using high-quality graphics and immersive game play.

Initial focus testing with juniors from Farrington High School’s technology class (led by Ms. Diane Tom-Ogata) was extremely promising. Post-surveyed responses showed a high retention rate for science and technical information. Users also indicated a strong desire to learn more about renewable energy due to the digital gaming format. 95% would like to see it used in their science classes to supplement traditional textbook/lecture-type instruction.

Future technical development will include a customizable gaming option for teachers to integrate information specific to their classroom objectives and grade level benchmarks.

Start-up funding was provided by a grant from the Office of Naval Research through the Hawaii Technology Development Venture, a project under the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, an independent Hawaii-based not-for-profit organization.

isisHawaii is part of a volunteer cooperative to drive the Design Thinking initiative statewide. Members include Oceanit, Hawaii Technology Development Venture, isisHawaii, INOVI Group and Hawaii’s Dual Use Industry as well as many volunteers who feel passionately about making Hawaii a better place to live.

A series of multiple introductory Design Thinking Hawaii workshops (DTH 101) have been held since April 2011 impacting over 400 teachers, administrators, policy makers and innovation industry professionals. DTH 101 is a prerequisite for a 3-day workshop featuring the Stanford Design School (D.School) K-12 Lab.

Design Thinking Hawaii is working closely with Stanford’s Design Thinking K-12 Lab to share the protocol culminating annually with a workshop in Hawaii facilitated by the Stanford D.School Team.

For additional information, please contact info@isishawaii.org or bernice.bowers@inovigroup.com.

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Pearl City – Based on research and technology developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 4th and 5th graders from Palisades Elementary School proposed an innovative solution to help young diabetics manage their diabetes without the discomfort of daily blood sugar testing.

First place winners at the 2011 Hawaii Robofest Exhibition Competition (Junior Division), the Palisades team presented their idea – The TASK (Type 1 & 2 Approach to Save our Kids) Pack Watch – a diagnostic watch worn by the patient over a tattoo made of nanoparticles embedded in hydrogel.

Hawaii-based nanotechnology engineer, Dr. Ganesh Arumugam, and community outreach coordinator, Cindy Matsuki, from Oceanit were invited by isisHawaii to visit the team to discuss real-world applications currently being done in Hawaii and higher education/career options in nanotechnology. Exposure to local active professionals in related fields will, hopefully, inspire the students to continue pursuing STEM-related interests.

Also attending were coach/teacher Jennifer Ono, Vice Principal  Lisa Ynigues and volunteers/parents Joe and Bel Adcock.

The tournament was held in tandem with Leeward Community College’s Ka Mole o Na Pua Festival, a daylong family event dedicated to sustainability through storytelling, music and activities.

For the third year in a row, Hawaii Robofest teams also had the opportunity to exhibit their bots and displays on Sunday, April 17th, at the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center.

For more information about the Hawaii Robofest program, please visit the local website at http://robofesthawaii.webs.com/ and the national website at http://robofest.net/.

The 2011 Hawaii Robofest Tournament is made possible by the following sponsors: isisHawaii, Highlands Intermediate School, Leeward Community College and Super Star Learning Company with community support from the Ka Mole o Na Pua Festival and the Hawai‘i Children’s Discovery Center.

Pearl City, HI – Best-selling author and corporate trainer, D. Trinidad Hunt (President/CEO of ELAN Enterprise, LLC and ELAN Asia Pacific), helped students from Pearl City High School (PCHS) develop their leadership skills. Over 150 students attended Ms. Hunt’s experiential training sessions. PCHS teacher and adviser, Mr. Kyle Miyashiro, recruited student leaders from the following school groups:

• Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), a college prep program,
• Proficiency in English (PEP) Program,
• Scholar Athletes and
• Band Leaders.

Students and attending teachers participated in exercises (both mental and physical) as well as putting in some hard work at self-discovery and developing individual action plans for success.

Special thanks to Adviser Mr. Kyle Miyashiro, Principal Carlyn Fujimoto and ELAN VP, Ms. Lynne Truair, for their support in coordinating this exciting isisHawaii STEM Leadership activity.