Students in N?n?kuli are spending the summer learning about the environment in their own backyard. The M?lama‘?ina Field School is a hands-on summer program that focuses on getting more students engaged and excited about science and math. HPR’s Molly Solomon visited the camp and has this report.
13-year-old Nathan peers down a long plastic tube with a black and white pattern on the bottom. Clad in rubber boots, he stands knee-deep in a N?n?kuli stream. He scoops water into the tube to measure its transparency. Pauline Sato tells Nathan to keep filling the tube until the pattern disappears. “Ok, a little bit more - I can barely see it,” said Sato, the Executive Director of M?lama ‘?ina Learning Center and the coordinator of the summer camp. “What do you think, partner?”
Nathan leans over and shakes his head. All he sees is murky water. He pulls up the tube from the pond, counting the marks: 38 centimeters.
Nathan is one of 38 students participating in this year’s M?lama ‘?ina Field School. Those readings he jotted down are part of a summer project to take a closer look at the health of this area. Many of the kids aren’t exactly thrilled to wade into the murky water. Its nickname of ‘stink pond’ doesn’t help.
“People tend to avoid this pond area. It looks dirty, it has pollution, it’s stagnant—it’s called stink pond,” said Sato. “You can’t blame people for not wanting to be part of it.”
Sato says the pond, traditionally called Honiniwai, connects all the way back to N?n?kuli valley. Elders from the community say the stream was once an abundant source for fish, but it hasn’t been for years. Sato hopes by learning more about the pond, students will think about what’s been lost. “Basically collect data that we can use as baseline,” said Sato. “We can compare it over time on a weekly basis to get an understanding of, is this place healthy?”
To help answer that question, the school is partnering with real-life experts in the field who are helping students analyze the data. Today’s activity is broken into a series of stations. Some groups are recording the pH levels from the pond. Others are learning about plankton and studying them under microscopes. “It’s just a good skill for them to practice,” said teacher Terra Wight, who’s leading a group by the beach to take samples from the ocean to compare with the pond water. “We’re trying to be as accurate as possible.”
Nearby Shealyn Oili records her observations of the day. Like the other students in the program, Shealyn was born and raised in N?n?kuli. “I think that if you put people where they’re from, they’re more likely to clean up the community,” said Oili. “Because it’s their home.”
Executive Director Pauline Sato hopes that connection will spark more interest in restoring habitats in N?n?kuli. “If you don’t appreciate it, you’re not going to take care of it,” said Sato. “And in order to appreciate it you have to understand it. It all relates to building pride.” Sato says a sense of pride especially for neglected areas in the community, even a neighborhood stink pond.
