Thursday, February 28, 2008 - More Event Planning
Today, members of the Hokualaka'i voyaging canoe and 'Imiloa Astronomy Center staff attended a planning meeting to discuss the coordination and logistics of the 'Imi Na'auao canoe crew member training that will be held at 'Imiloa on March 22-25. It is anticipated that over one hundred crew members from 'ohana wa'a of O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui and Hawai' island will participated in this program. The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) will be printing up a special event poster with the four star families, with star chart and mo'olelo associated with them. One poster will be provided to each participant, along with other training materials. The IfA will also video document the training sessions for archival and promotional purposes. It comes with little surprise then, that I find myself behind schedule with our preparations for our seventh annual AstroDay Festival that will take place in little more than two months! In the past we have always managed to maintain the integrity and quality of our signature event, but due to increased community involvement (which includes participation in many community events and my sitting on several boards and committees) and reduced staffing, it sometimes appears that we are in a perpetual state of catchup. I sometimes feel like that poor fellow in the Chinese circus spinning balanced plates atop tall poles. By the time he gets the last one spinning, the first one loses its momentum and begins to wobble precariously, requiring his immediate attention. Or the juggler who increases the number of balls juggled until he appears a blur in a frenetic effort to keep all aloft. A prudent person would reduce the number of plates spun or balls juggled, but my perspective is that we have established a great deal of trust within our community to provide education and outreach services to our members. Doing any less would not be an option for me or my office, and so we've been out there whether its a career day at Kohala High School in North Hawaii, or a culture day in Ka'u, robotics competitions in Hilo or public presentations in Kona - we'll be there whenever we can.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - Event Planning
The planning committee for the Na Pua No'eau "Hawaiian Family Affair" event took place today at the Kamehameha Resource Center in Keaukaha. A little more than a dozen community members attended the meeting to discuss the coordination and logistics of this seventeenth annual event that will take place next week Saturday from 8:00 - 3:00 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Campus Center and Plaza. I must say that I thoroughly enjoy participating in these meetings because of their format and productivity. Everyone knows their part and prepares accordingly to be able to accurately share information and solicit mana'o. Then there is the format, which begins each meeting with a pule, followed by lunch - hey, food is the social glue by which people connect with each other. In a world driven by technology, where a greater portion of communication occurs indirectly by email or phone, its good to have a face-to-face meeting (not to mention a food-to-face sharing of a meal). We're going to be assisting in booking radio on-air interviews to promote the event on the week prior to the event (whoops, thats next week already!), and printing event banners, signage and posters on our large-format six-color printer. Looking at the calendar, it hits me like a brick that I should be getting our preparations for AstroDay underway.
Monday, February 25, 2008 - ED314, Week Two
We returned to UH Hilo this afternoon to present robotics in education to students in the Teacher Education Program (TEP). The IfA office of Science Education and Public Outreach is partnering with the UHH Education department to provide a taste of the current state of technology in education to these teachers in the making. The ED 314 course allows the students to explore the "... theories, application of principles, acquisition of practical skills of educational media and technology relevant to teacher/learning situations..." This week, we are bringing Cindy Fong of Hilo Intermediate School and Tom Murphy of Hilo High School into the three sections of classes this week. Cindy gave a Powerpoint on the underwater Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV), and the class of competition called BIRR (Big Island Regional ROV) she coordinates for the island of Hawaii. Tom talked about his experience as a teacher, some of the issues he has to deal with regarding administration and students, and his involvement in robotics programs. I think the students get a lot out of these sessions with an in-service educator, and I am so glad that Cindy, Tom, Shawn and Kurt were able to give a good portion of their time to share their mana'o with them. Kudos to Nina Buchanan for having such a provocative program at UH Hilo. Many thanks to my assistant Kenyan who has been very supportive in not just these presentations, but mostly through his continual involvement with robotics teams, coaches and students throughout East Hawaii.
Thursday, February 21, 2008 - Festivals and Events Workshop
I am participating in a three day International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) Certified Festival and Event Executive (CFEE) training program, made possible by a partnership with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and IFEA. The CFEE provides professional certification, which will enhance professional stature among peers, provide an opportunity to learn of best practices in the industry, provide a leveraged position from which to negotiate and build career success and set higher standards for the festival and events industry. There are approximately forty participants from the state of Hawaii attending the workshop that is being held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki, O'ahu. We have been producing the AstroDay Festival now for six years and have added RoboFest Hawaii to our roster of events we have created and produce. AstroDay has been pretty successful, having won national awards each year since its inception, including two "Best Astronomy Day" out of events taking place in almost every state and 21 countries. Along the way we have discovered a few things: what to do, what not to do. Much of the discovery taking place slowly and by trial and error. I wish I had this training program when I first stared AstroDay, as it would have helped ease the learning curve of being a festival organizer significantly. Many of the concepts and content taught at the training sessions are things that I had to learn the hard way. Others are things that I had yet to learn, so my participation in this program has been most valuable for me. I have learned many things along the way, have shared some of my experiences, and met many like-minded people at this workshop. I have already put some of the principles learned into practice and have many ideas waiting to be implemented. I only wish I had more time to do so before our event that will take place in 2.5 months ... yikes! Okay, back to work.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - Satellite Shootdown
Tonight, the Navy shot down the USA 193 spy satellite, whose orbit was decaying and was in jeopardy of reentering into the atmosphere and crashing to earth with a load of toxic hydrazine fuel on board. An announcement from the Pentagon stated that the satellite was hit by the missile shot from the USS Lake Erie located northwest of Hawaii, and that a fireball was seen after the strike. Spectral analysis of the airborne vapor cloud indicated the presence of hydrazine. A debris field was created with objects as large as a football entering into the earth's atmosphere. At the same time, UH Institute for Astronomy graduate student Ben Granett thinks he caught images of the interception with the Pan-STARRS all-sky camera on Haleakala on Maui. The camera captured images at a rate of 1 frame/second and shows an unidentified object at 5:27 pm HST, and are posted on Ben's webpage.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - ED314 Class on Robotics
Shawn Mishler, Kurt Jarrett, Kenyan Beals and i taught a class on educational robotics to Nina Buchanan's ED314 students this afternoon. The class consisted of about twenty students, most of which were young. I opened up with a slide presentation on robotics in education, from elementary through high school and beyond that included video clips of robots in action. Kurt followed up with a presentation on his work integrating robotics activities with math and music curricula in the middle school. He demonstrated a couple of musical robots that played two-part harmony renditions of the theme to "48 Hours". Shawn Mishler then gave a presentation on his work with younger children at DeSilva Elementary School. He presented a couple of videos depicting his students' work on building a parade, complete with mobile floats, streets, buildings, bridges and spectators. Kenyan then broke out the robots and demonstrated their capabilities to the students. Finally, we opened up a couple of Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kits for them to explore and play with, lending assistance when necessary. This was the first in a series of classes we'll be teaching, targeting students in the Education program in three separate sections. Next week, Tom Murphy of Hilo High School and Cindy Fong of Hilo Intermediate School will share their experiences with FIRST and BIRR robotics, respectively.
Monday, February 18, 2008 - President's Day
When I was young, we used to celebrate the birthdays of the Presidents Washington and Lincoln with holidays for both. Nowadays we lump them together, and although we lost a holiday, the remaining day off is a great reason to spend time with the family. My 'ohana took a trip over to O'ahu to visit my father and mother and to do some work at their house in Ewa Beach. I also had a chance to pick up a used 9' longboard from surfer in Kapolei who had far too many boards in his quiver. I've been spending so much time on O'ahu, and have been jonesing over seeing waves and not being over to surf at my mom and dad's house, that the acquisition of a longboard made perfect sense. So I had a session out at Sand Tracks in some sloppy ankle busters that was still a lot of fun. I was able to impersonate someone who knew what he was doing, after an absence of over twenty five years from surfing proper (I have been standup paddleboarding, but these two pursuits are related but approached from a different perspective). The board is a wood-veneer Surftech nine footer, 22 5/8" wide, 3" thick, with a 2+1 fin setup and in very good condition. This was one of the best weekends and birthdays I have had in a long time (painting notwithstanding), and the only downside is that I have to leave my board in Ewa Beach. Maybe I need to get a second longboard for the Hilo waves, eh?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - Big Robots
After a grueling day in a seemingly endless parade of meetings, we visited the Waiakea High School library to see the handiwork of the Hilo High School and Waiakea High School robotics teams. The robots are for the FIRST regional competition which will be held on O'ahu at the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus on March 28 and 29. The students had six weeks to design and construct their creations, which may weigh up to 120 pounds. At the time, we could only see the Hilo High robot (the Waiakea High School robot did not yet make an appearance while we were there). We were impressed by what the Hilo High team was able to accomplish in two and a half weeks. After receiving several calls for assistance, we were able to hook the team up with Subaru Telescope Master Machinist Brian Elms. Brian offered his 35 years of experience in machine work to guide the students on their chassis construction. The machine is clean and fast, able to zip through a mock playing field that was laid out in the library, with competition props. We wish the best of luck to all Hawaii Island teams as they head down the homestretch toward the regionals next month.
Friday, February 8, 2008 - Mauna Kea Summit tour
This day is shaping up to be a full-featured, fun-filled, Outreach-O-Rama for our young visitors from OneWeekJob.com. Sean Aiken, a young man in search of a career he can be passionate about is traveling around the country working a different job every week and posting his experiences on the web. This week, Sean is working for me in the Science Education and Public Outreach office at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy in Hilo. We've been putting him to work in classrooms throughout East Hawaii, and today Kenyan brought him to Hilo High School to give a motivational speech to the students there. Meanwhile, I was off to the radio stations to promote tonight's AstroTalk public lecture with our speaker, Dr Kevin Grazier of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Besides his work on the Cassini spacecraft (which is currently orbiting Saturn), Kevin is the science advisor for several science fiction television shows including Battlestar Galactica and Eureka. We talked story with DC in the Morning on B97 and Kat and Keala on KWXX. After lunch, Kenyan brought Sean, Ian and their Big Island host Tammy Aguiar up to the summit of Mauna Kea to experience the epitome of ground-based astronomy. Our original plan was to bring them up on Wednesday, but the weather did not cooperate because snow and ice closed the access road and thus our opportunity. But today's weather looks a little better, and the roads are open to the public, so we are taking them to visit the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the UH-88 Telescope. After a dinner at the mid-level facility Hale Pohaku, Kenyan will drive everyone down to Hilo, where they get to attend our AstroTalk public lecture at the University of Hawaii at Hilo UCB100. Hope you all can join us, but if not, please check Kevin Grazier's AstroTalk page after tonight for a podcast of his talk. A hui hou!
Thursday, February 7, 2008 - Journey, Canoes and ROVs
Today, OneWeekJob visitor Sean Aiken will be working with Kenyan at Kaumana Elementary School, for the Journey Through the Universe program. We'll be reprising the "Astronomy Then and Now" Powerpoint presentation followed by a refractor telescope building and observation activity. We will be engaging students in second through fifth grades throughout the day at Kaumana, and one of those classes will include my seven year old son Kaipo. I will also be running over to Kapiolani Elementary School to deliver material to IfA grad student Joseph Masiero who will be giving presentations to second and third graders there. Then it was off to Imiloa Astronomy Center for a crew meeting for the Hokualaka'i. Captain Kalepa Baybayan apprised us on the plans for our second 'Imi Na'auao crew training workshop to be held next month at Imiloa. The participants will include crew members from several sailing canoes from around the state. The training will include navigation, planetarium viewing of Hawaiian star lines, night time observations of celestial objects at Kalae, knot tying and rope work, and of course sailing. Later that afternoon, Sean and Ian will accompany me to Hilo Intermediate School for a Big Island ROV Regional competition planning meeting. The third annual Big Island regional competition will be held at the Sparky Kawamoto pool on Saturday, April 26. Cindy Fong and Pascale Pinner, science teachers at Hilo Intermediate School (coordinators), Dean McMahel, Mike Bechtel (HELCO), Allan Honey (Keck Observatory) were in attendance and we discussed logistics of the competition event (while we were meeting, Sean and Ian were building their own underwater ROVs out of PVC tubes and couplers). There were a lot of good ideas shared and I have every confidence that this year's competition event will be an outstanding success. Finally, Sean, Ian and I headed over to the Department of Education Annex for a Journey Through the Universe potluck get together. Hilo-Laupahoehoe-Waiakea complex area Superintendent Valerie Takata and her staff hosted the event which was well attended despite yet another deluge. I get a feeling that Sean and Ian are started to get a feel of what an inclusive, supportive community Hilo is. Dang I'm lucky!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - Mauna Kea Observatories Base Tour
The weather throughout the state, particularly on Hawaii Island and especially the summit of Mauna Kea has been severe over the course of the last week. Over 31 inches of rain fell at the Hilo Airport over the weekend, and the rain kept falling. While people were dealing with flash flooding down at sea level, up on the summit Mauna Kea Support Services road maintenance staff plowed snow off the access road. Our plans to bring Sean Aiken of OneWeekJob up to the summit were thwarted by mother nature. So instead, we arranged a tour of the Subaru Telescope base facility, where we were greeted by Dr Saeko Hayashi. We were taken through the Simulation Lab, where Sean and Ian were able to see the giant telescope simulator, a large test dewar, and a telescope primary mirror actuator. Next, we checked out the Fujitsu supercomputer, electronics and detector labs before viewing a video on the recoating of the primary mirror. Sean and Ian then joined Dr Bobby Bus of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility for lunch at the Imiloa Astronomy Center Cafe.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - Journey Through the Universe
After a delayed launch of Hawaii Island's 2008 Journey Through the Universe program (because of school closures due to heavy rain), scientists from Mauna Kea Observatories and visiting institutions begin their assault on science education in the classrooms of Puna and Hilo. The fourth annual Journey program returns to East Hawaii as one of nine communities around the country that engage in education and outreach in astronomy and space science. Today, we will be in Keaukaha Elementary School with Sean Aiken, our "OneWeekJob.com" intern, his cameraman Ian MacKenzie, and his Big Island host Tammy Aguiar. Our presentation and activity will be based on celestial observation: from naked eye stargazing that our ancestors used to navigate their canoes throughout the Polynesian Triangle to the cutting-edge research that is being conducted on the summit of Mauna Kea. We're bringing cardboard tube telescope kits for the students to build and use to observe solar system objects (pictures of which will be hung on a far wall within the classroom). After school, its off to the Imiloa Astronomy Center to let Sean, Ian and Tammy experience the 3D Stereo Planetarium show "Dawn of the Space Age", followed by a tour of the exhibit hall. Sean's experience in astronomy outreach would not be complete without some time spent within the titanium cones of the Big Island's newest science center. At 5:00, we will make our way to the Hilo Yacht Club to join Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Hawaii members in a special reception for the scientists of the Journey Through the Universe program. The Hilo community holds this reception each year to show thanks for the contribution these scientists are making during their week in the local school classrooms, giving science talks and presentations.
Monday, February 4, 2008 - One Week Job
Today marks the start of a week with Sean Aiken of OneWeekJob.com. Sean graduated from college with a degree in business, but wanted to get a 'taste' of different jobs from around the country to find his passion and a career to embrace. Sean is traveling around the country taking on jobs in various fields - this week, he will be working in the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy office of Science Education and Public Outreach (SEPO) as an Outreach Assistant. We were approached by Tammy Aguiar of Co-Creator Productions, who is coordinating Sean's activities on Hawaii Island, to see if we could place him in our office for a week. With the fourth annual Journey Through the Universe program taking place this week, we felt it would be an opportune time to share with Sean exactly what we do in astronomy outreach here on the Big Island. So, we are taking Sean along with us to several schools in East Hawaii to engage students in science activities throughout the week. Unfortunately, because of the inclement weather, all schools in the Hilo-Laupahoehoe-Waiakea complex and Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex were closed for the day, as was the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College. So, we welcomed Sean to the IfA, and gave a persentation on the Science Education and Public Outreach Office, and briefed him on the activities we were planning for the week. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we'll have better weather.
Saturday, February 2, 2008 - New Teacher Orientation
Under rain-drenched conditions, the Hawaii Department of Education held their annual Kahua New Teacher Orientation seminar at the Institute for Astronomy Hilo building today. In attendance were over two dozen educators from the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex, along with resource teachers, program coordinators, and kupuna who opened the day with a pule and oli. The program's essential mission is to help the new teachers guide the learning of their students in a way that addresses their cultural, social and academic needs. The methodology is through the cultural concepts of Ho'olohe (to hear or listen), Ho'opili (to mentor or have a relationship), Ho'ohana (to work), and Ho'opuka (to graduate). I was able to give a Powerpoint presentation on the various educational activities that SEPO is involved in. Near the end of my talk, the projector bulb exploded, putting an end to the slide show, but not before making an impact on many of the teachers and kupuna. It was an honor to host this group over the weekend, and we look forward to hearing from and working with many if not all of them in the near future.