Students hear 'the call of the fishpond'
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KANE'OHE — The goal of the Waikalua Loko Fishpond Preservation Society was to restore a crumbling complex of walls and water gates that the ancient Hawaiians built at Kane'ohe Bay. But the society found it could do far more, from reaching reluctant students to creating a learning program using the fishpond as a classroom.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
A program titled Kahea Loko —"the call of the fishpond" — will use the Waikalua fishpond and others like it throughout the state to teach science, social studies and language arts to students in the fourth to 12th grade, imparting knowledge discovered hundreds of years ago and encouraging the youngsters use it to solve problems of the 21st century.
Kahea Loko project director Herb Lee, accompanied by agriculture specialist Clyde Tamaru and his wife, Christine Tamaru, checks on stock at Waikalua Loko Fishpond. Lee says education was an outgrowth of a restoration program.
The program is the culmination of three years of planning, building on the society's experience at Waikalua Loko Fishpond and a $1.1 million federal grant. Teacher training begins this week, and the program will be used in Hawai'i's schools beginning next school year.
By connecting what the students learn to how they relate to each other and the world around them, Kahea Loko provides a lesson too often lost in a classroom where students get everything from a book, said project director Herb Lee.
"We never expected to go down this road," Lee said. "As we cleared the mangrove, we began to see that it was providing us with different choices and opportunities we never imagined."
The nonprofit Waikalua Loko Fishpond Preservation Society was established in 1995. For years, it had requests from students and teachers to visit the pond on field trips. In 1998, it initiated a pilot program for Castle High School juniors and seniors.
The program was a great success in transforming reluctant students into active participants in learning who eventually used their newly acquired knowledge to mentor younger students at the fishpond, Lee said. Students were teaching students.
Teacher Sheila Cyboron won the Windward District Teacher of the Year Award for that class, and today's fishpond education program is modeled after hers, Lee said.
For details, call Pacific American Foundation at 533-2836 or visit its Web site at www.thepaf.org.
Cyboron said the students learned a lot about science and social studies because the curriculum was local, high-interest, physically involving and built on prior knowledge. On the cultural side, they created their own Hawaiian chants and learned about fishponds.
Workshops for teachers
"The kids who participated in the original project were, for the most part, low achievers, taking a 'cruise' science course called 'Plants and Animals of Hawai'i,'" Cyboron said. "Their involvement was gratifying for us and for them."
Upon assessment of the pilot project, everyone agreed the program needed to start with younger children, so they could learn the principles of stewardship and malama i ka 'aina (to care for the land) early and have them reinforced, Lee said.
In 2000, the society received a $1.1 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a culturally relevant curriculum for Grades 4 through 12 in science, social studies and language arts, in partnership with the Pacific American Foundation, Lee said. PAF is a nonprofit national organization dedicated to improving the lives of Pacific Americans.
Curriculum specialists and researchers were hired. The University of Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program and Hawaiian cultural specialist Frank Hewitt have been involved, along with state Department of Education kupuna, Lee said. DOE supported the project and encouraged teachers to help by testing the program now being offered, he said.
"Without their help and support, I wouldn't have gotten this far," Lee said.
Beginning Saturday at Windward Community College, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers will be trained in the program and given resource materials. Workshops also are scheduled for Maui, Moloka'i and the Big Island. In June, another workshop will be held on O'ahu.
Clyde Tamaru, an aquaculture specialist with Sea Grant who is responsible for checking lesson contents, said the hands-on program is a great tool for students and helps them understand the usefulness of their knowledge.
"We can make people connect with math, science and even writing," Tamaru said. "In a class, you just watch the kids' eyes. You put them to sleep."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
