Posted on: Friday, February 14, 2003

Moanalua students' project blooms

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Moanalua High School students chanted during a dedication ceremony yesterday in front of a Hawaiian garden they helped research, design and plant. Students planted 'akia, red ti leaves, kupukupu ferns and white ginger. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The garden in the central courtyard at Moanalua High School, with its young, spindly trees and plantings, looks like most other fledgling gardens.

But for 70 students, it's a final exam of sorts, a lesson learned about changing the world around them.

Four months ago, the garden was an overgrown mess. Yesterday, the students dedicated a different Hawaiian garden that they had researched, designed and planted.

"It was nothing but weeds; all dirt, not much else," said Cody Tanuvasa, a 17-year-old senior who worked on the project.

The students planted 'akia, red ti leaves, kupukupu ferns, white ginger, yellow hibiscus and 'akulikuli. They trimmed the plumeria and tended the puakenikeni. They put their backs into it, said Portia Wright, a 17-year-old senior.

The project brought cliques together for a common goal, said Wright, who added — with a wag of her mohawk — that she is a punk rocker.

"We got to know each other and came together as friends and one group," she said.

Nathan Anoc, a 16-year-old freshman, said he tried to keep his classmates working hard. Pride was at stake, he said.

"If they don't do a good job, that means it will look poor," he said. "Some people work half good and half junk and that doesn't show much pride."

The teachers involved wanted students to see beyond their textbooks. They say they succeeded. Research papers on gardens and plants fulfilled English requirements. Measuring and designing the garden, as well as learning ratios for mixing concrete, satisfied math lessons. And learning how to nurture growing plants had science classes written all over it.

But English teacher Trudy Moore said it was more than all that.

"Lessons come and go, but when they have something they have to work with, it lasts," she said. "This is an extension. We wanted to show students that learning goes beyond the final exam."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.