Mid-Pacific's new tech center has wow factor
By Kalani Wilhelm
Advertiser Staff Writer
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Mid-Pacific Institute geometry teacher Cynthia Brown noticed a change in her students from the first day they visited the school's new $12.5 million math/science/technology complex.
Keisha Goya, an 11th-grader at Mid-Pacific Institute, tests chemicals in one of the new chemistry labs, with help from teacher Ed Tuthill. The school has a new math/science/technology complex and plaza.
"The kids were like, 'Whoa! What else can it do? What else can it do?' " Brown said. "They're more attentive and really want to learn."
That's just what the school was hoping for when it launched a plan five years ago to build a center that puts Mid-Pacific at the forefront of technology at schools nationwide.
Today marks the grand opening of the Mike and Sandy Hartley Math/Science/Technology Complex and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Technology Plaza, one of only six such technology centers in the nation, according to Robert McIntosh, chief operating officer at Creative Learning Systems, the San Diego-based company that built the center.
"People are going to be very wowed with what they see," said Principal Richard Schaffer.
"Multimedia, interactive models, communication tools, digital photography, animation, pneumatics and robotics, you name it, it's here," said technology coordinator Mark Hines. "Everyone recognizes that the kids can learn faster and already have more knowledge than most of the teachers. This center is designed to honor that fact."
The goal of the complex was to integrate the school's math, science and technology curriculums while bringing "independent, integrated learning to the Manoa campus," Schaffer said.
Students and teachers use the 83 computers and other technology to bring lessons to life, to demonstrate principles in action, to use such things as video-game technology to enhance learning and to give the kind of instant feedback this generation of students is used to seeing.
Since the school year began Aug. 13 students have been flowing into the 39,000-square-foot facility, making it the talk of the school and new campus hot spot.
"The kids could be going home, going back to the dorms, doing nothing, but instead they choose to come in here, do their homework and get their studies done," McIntosh said. "I think we have already seen the benefits of the center in a little over a week's time."
One day after school this week the technology plaza was jammed with students.
In the computational science zone, the sound of explosions could be heard among a circle of students playing a chemistry simulation game.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Twelve-year-old Kat Donahoe wondered what would happen if she mixed potassium and ethanoic acid. The result — "Boom!" — an online explosion.
Foreground, from left, Leanna Agcaoili, 13, Keri Matsumoto, 14, and Adam Clayson, 14, work on their homework assignments in the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Technology Plaza at Mid-Pacific's new math/science/technology center.
In the collaboration cove, eighth-grader Matt Conners was using a program called Dark Basic, teaching himself how to make his own 3-D video game — his science project, due next semester.
"There are always a lot of kids here," said Conners, 13. "This place is great."
It's education for the video-game generation.
"Kids today grow up playing video games," said Mid-Pacific tech facilitator Tom Donahoe, Kat Donahoe's dad. "This is how kids learn today. Many don't even realize that they are learning."
The new complex also includes a two-story building with 14 math and science classrooms. Each features a $2,000, touch-sensitive computer monitor called a smartboard, which is equipped with an interactive calculator, wireless keyboard, DVD player and other features used to help students follow class lectures.
The project was financed with several large donations: Mike and Sandy Hartley, former owners of Cheap Tickets, donated close to $3 million; Weinberg Foundation, $2 million; Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, $1 million; Atherton Family Foundation, $1 million.
The school also received more than 2,000 smaller donations from alumni, parents, corporations and other foundations, said Mid-Pacific Vice President Kristy Tong.
And while it's the technology that draws the oohs and ahhs, that's only the beginning.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Technology is just the tool for the kids," Hines said. "We want kids to be global thinkers that can problem solve who are also good writers and good readers. The technology is just the starting point."
Shelley Goto, 16, a junior at Mid-Pacific, does her homework on one of the many computers at the new Mike and Sandy Hartley Math/Science/Technology Complex. The complex is the new campus hot spot.
There's so much to learn at the center that it has two full-time tech facilitators to advise teachers and students on how to use the technology.
"Our job is to point students to the resources," said facilitator Tom Iwamoto. "A lot of the kids know more about computers than we do, so we pretty much let the students lead the way. Our job is to help them make discoveries for themselves."
Faculty members in the math, science and technology departments spent 30 hours during the summer familiarizing themselves with the new technology through software training workshops.
Geometry teacher Brown said she is "learning on the fly."
"There is a whole lot more that I have to learn," she said. "I have barely scratched the surface."
But, she said, "It's unbelievably wonderful. Everything is so much faster that it allows more teaching time."
Senior Derek Fujio, one of four students who helped install most of the software in the center, said he was honored to be a part of the project.
"It's an awesome feeling because nothing like this has ever been done in Hawai'i before," said Fujio, 16. "It's a good feeling for me and good for the future of Mid-Pac."
