SAND ISLAND — One by one, the students took a tentative step toward making their mark on history, joining others who have been aboard the Hokule'a.

Familiarizing the first- through fifth-graders from Kawaiaha'o Church School with the Hokule'a is part of the crew's mission to reach out to the community and enlighten the next generation of the role sailing canoes will play in Hawaiian culture.

The crew's outreach began earlier this year with a sail to Palmyra Atoll in preparation for a 2012 voyage around the world, said Mei Jeanne Wagner, a Hokule'a Worldwide Voyage spokeswoman.

"It is always important to share the information of our culture," said Kaleo Wong, a crew member and one of the students' guides. "The Hokule'a is the best tool we have. It's a powerful symbol for change."

Each crew member has made a contact with a school or community group and remains in contact with the student groups, Wagner said. While on the trip to Palmyra, Wong answered students' questions via the Internet and maintained a blog of his journey.

Before the around-the-world voyage can begin, however, crews on O'ahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island will conduct training sails throughout the summer.

Some of the trips may involve sails to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to give crew members experience sailing in deep water and time to learn navigation away from the main Hawaiian Islands.

The next opportunity for another long-distance sail will be to Christmas Island in January, Wagner said. It will be just as difficult as finding Palmyra because Polynesian navigation is founded on finding islands, not tiny atolls, Wagner said.

Yesterday, three young Hokule'a crew members told students how sailing canoes are made, about daily life onboard, how the canoe's orange triangular sails are a symbol of the renaissance of Hawaiian culture and of the journeys it has made.

Kaipo'i Kelling, a teacher at Kawaiha'o Church School, spoke in Hawaiian to the students about the boat and about the need for respect of the ocean, the land and the Marine Education and Training Center at Sand Island.

"We have to be careful what we put in the ocean because the birds can eat the plastic," Kelling said. "It's important for the kids to learn about the wa'a (canoe) and the islands. We need to take care of both of them. There's only one of each. We're teaching the kids that this is the original airplane.

"You give them the stories and they do the thinking."

But before boarding the sailing canoe, the students performed three oli asking permission to enter the Marine Education Center at Sand Island, to go onto the boat and to say thank you.

"It's pretty cool," said 6-year-old Payton Oku. "It's big."

For Christian Yasuoka, 10, being aboard the Hokule'a was special.

"This is a canoe and they used it to prove to people that navigation is possible," Yasuoka said. "Before they came out with Hokule'a, people questioned if the navigation was possible. It's so interesting that the Hawaiians could do so much and go so far with navigating by the stars."