Waiola Shave Ice

 Celebrating our wonderful journey with some cool, colorful, sweet goodies! 

Mahalo to Darren and Sheree for volunteering your time to drive us! 

Dirt on Garbage with Electric Ed

Mad Science Workshop: 

Dirt on Garbage 7/18

In pairs, the students pieced together a timeline of what they predicted how long each item would take to decompose. The shortest span? Paper. Longest? Styrofoam, which NEVER decomposes. 

Next, students took a look at landfills. What are some "ingredients" in a landfill? Soil, clay, gravel, plastic, soil liner, and trash. 

We took a look at how water absorbs sand and clay differently.

Then, we added a layer of gravel.

 This is what it might look when chemicals from our garbage seep through the soil. The aftereffects? Polluting our water supply.

We learned that landfills are NOT the best solution when it comes to holding our garbage. It is not a great place for garbage to decompose because it lacks water, heat, and air.

Plastic bags are one of the items that takes hundreds of years to decompose. Electric Ed showed us a special type of plastic made of PVA. This plastic is water soluble and can decompose much more quickly as we saw and felt!

 It feels squishy!

Though styrofoam can't decompose, Electric Ed showed us a little trick that helps us to shrink the styrofoam so it doesn't take up as much room...using nail polish remover (aka acetone).

Did you know the main ingredient in styrofoam is air? 

Real styrofoam "feels like clay" according to Kira. 

Ecofoam is a better solution to styrofoam. This can decompose. Using some water, the students dampened paper towels and used it to help stick the ecofoam together to create an art piece. Their creative minds were at work!

Magic Island by Kara & Lucas

Magic Island

What we did at Magic Island

1. When we got to Magic Island, we found a spot to begin snorkeling. As we walked, the sand was very hot and it roasted our feet.

2. The lifeguard told us the rules for snorkeling.

3.We went snorkeling and saw cool fish like needle fish, butterfly fish, and pufferfish.

4. When we were done we played in the water and sand (Mrs. Porter tossed me, Liz and Steve)

5. We grabbed all of our stuff and went to change.

6. The girls beat some of the boys at changing.

7. We went on the bus and went back to school.

8. We played the quite game on the bus and we were so happy when we got back to school.

 

Some of the sea creatures we saw

• Pufferfish
• Needlefish
• Butterflyfish 
• Algae
• Coral (Brain coral)
• Damselfish

Q1. Describe your experience at Magic Island (What did you see?)

Kara: It was really fun, but there was a lot of sand. Plus Mrs. Porter was throwing some of us. She was also flipping me and Liz. My snorkel wasn't working most of the time. 

Lucas: Magic Island was my third time snorkeling! I do not have much experience snorkeling but I like snorkeling and I could do it again in a more shallow place. I saw a lot of algae and coral. I saw 3 small damselfish, 3 brain coral, 1 coral patch, and 1 needle fish. I acted as a turtle and Bryant was a shark that could walk on land, and Haruka was a monk seal with no abilities whatsoever. And it was very exciting!

Q2. Describe the water

Kara: The water was murky and really deep. I had to dive down into the murky water to see the beautiful and colorful extremely tiny fish. I think the water was murky because there was a lot of sand and the sand was floating up.

Lucas: It was very murky and I had to look very carefully to find the objects below me.

Q3. describe the three different beaches that we went to. 

Lucas: Magic Island was less popular than Hanauma Bay. Magic Island is way smaller than Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is in the shape of a bay and Magic Island is a beach protected by rock walls because the currents might be too strong for swimmers and snorkelers.

Kara: Both Magic Island and Black Point Beach had lots of black, white, and grey fish. They also had murky water and I didn't get hurt when we went there. They were both in the ahupuaʻa of Wakiki.

Lucas & Kara: All of these places have beautiful coral and they were really fantastic! These places were all on Oahu. (Which is were we live.)  :))

Blue Planet by Steve and Aidan

Blue Planet

Experiences with David Aquino

With David, we learned about conservation of energy. One experience we did was an energy process to show how much energy it takes to turn on a light bulb. The LED was super easy, the CFL was also easy, and the regular light bulb was quite a bit harder than the other two.

l. What are some environmental changes due to rising temperature?

A. Ice is melting because of the heat, killing land animals in the Arctic. It is getting warmer, causing wildfire and killing many species. Also, the air and sea are becoming poisonous from CO2, killing many species. Thus, all these factors will cause a mass extinction all because of mankind's ignorance and laziness.

2. What caused the rising temperature?

A. When we burn fossil fuels, then the atmosphere gets thicker with carbon dioxide, so the heat gets 

trapped inside. That is what happened in Venus. 

3. How can rising temperatures affect Hawaii?

A. It can kill our fish and reefs that cannot adapt well to heat. It will also flood the island shores and cities. When the ice melts, the water's height increases and Hawaii could sink because Hawaii is a island. There could be going to be a lot of wild fire. 

4.What would happen if there was a 1 meter rise in the sea level?

A. Waikiki, Ala Moana Park, and Honolulu Zoo would flood all the way up to Iolani!

 Island sanctuaries would sink and animal species would die.

5. Why clean energy?

A. We use clean energy to reduce the carbon dioxide output because it can affect a lot, like some islands sinking or global warming. Clean energy does not release carbon dioxide. Clean energy is made by solar energy, hydro energy, wind energy, and bio fuel.

6. Where does energy come from?

A. 95% of energy is from oil (Coal)

- Solar energy by solar panels

- Hydro energy by the speed of water

- Wind energy by the windmill

- Electricity by the oil

Kira using a very small amount of energy to light up an LED bulb

 

Elizabeth using a little amount of energy to light up a CFL bulb

Hiroki using a LOT of energy to light up the original light bulb. 

Our Awesome Class

Waikiki Aquarium by Kara, Kira, and Hiroki

Waikiki Aquarium 7/11/13

These are some interesting facts we learned about some fish. ENJOY:) :) :) 

Parrot Fish

• It lives in Tropical Reefs
• There are approximately 90 species of Parrot Fish
• Its scientific name is Scaridae
• They are considered to be herbivores

Yellow Tang

• They're in the surgeon fish family
• The adults can grow up to 20 centimeters
• They have a white hook by their tail
• They are popular fish for marine aquariums

Blue Blubber

• In Sydney waters the Blue Blubbers bell is white or brown colored
• This Jellyfish is found in the Indo Pacific
• It eats plankton, small fish and crustaceans
• They're tentacles have sting cells
  

What are some of the advantages of the sea creatures living in the aquarium?

1. People can't grab them
2. People can't step on them
3. The aquarium workers take good care of them
4. They get properly fed
5. It is a safe place
6. The aquarium workers try to create a realistic habitat for the fish.

What are some of the disadvantages of the sea creatures living in the aquarium? 

1. The creatures don't have a lot of room to swim in
2. They might be feeding the creatures the wrong food
3. The workers might have the creatures in the wrong habitat
4. The creatures get scared because people pound on the glass

Paper Making by Kate and Steve

Paper Making 7/10 

Today we made paper. The first paper was made in Egypt.

The paper we made was made with bread ginger's body, recycled paper, lye, mother-in-law tongue, and water.

1. First, we shredded papers and cardboard into small pieces. 
2. Next, we cut bread ginger and mother-in-law tongue's body into little pieces. 
3. Under a towel, we used a mallet and hammered it to separate the fibers.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Then we boiled it with lye until the color was brown.
5. Then we took the boiled fiber out and blended it with onion skin and pulp.
6. After blending, our teacher poured it into a water bucket.
7. Next our class used the deco to scoop the final mixture. 
8. Each person took the top part off the deco and flipped it onto a cheesecloth.
9. The water got soaked out by the sponge.                       
10. We dried the paper by sticking the paper on the window. We rolled the paper onto the window (cheesecloth faced up).
11. Remove the cheesecloth and let the paper dry.
12. The paper will be dry the next day. Using a plastic card, scrape the paper off the window.

Define the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. 
Reduce: to make the amount smaller.
Reuse: using something again and again.
Recycle: making something that is not useable into a useable thing.
 
What are some ways to use paper? 
To write on.
To print something on.
Making origami, postcard, and decorations.   

What are some ideas of items to reduce, reuse, and/or recycle?
Reuse Cans as a pencil holder
Capricious into wallets

Reduce
Something that you could only use it once
Water- Not using a lot of water by washing hands
Electricity- Not using electronics a lot
Trees- Not using a lot of paper

Recycle
Glass as a new glass
Plastic water bottle to something made out of plastic