What makes a unit STEMS-y

The problem with the idea of “STEMS²” concepts is that it’s one of those things that I can’t really quantify or classify.  It’s more of a feeling than a description, for me.  When I think about what I felt were very STEMS-y lessons, adventures and activities, I think back to our 2 and a half weeks together on O’ahu and Big Island.  I suppose I could label certain vague aspects of a unit or lesson that could make it qualify as STEMS-y.

-        Generally, we were outside for our learning journeys, so, if it’s not in a traditional classroom setting, that’s a good indicator.  Even though we were inside for a few of our learning days, the things we covered linked to our outdoor experiences. 

-        Most of the time there was a Hawaiian aspect involved in our lessons.  This doesn’t mean that if it doesn’t have Hawaiian culture in it it’s not STEMS-y.

-        There were lots of hands-on activities, we were mostly doing stuff rather than reading or writing

-        People who weren’t our teachers were our teachers for that day

-        Time was a very fluid concept

It might be easier to just go over a few examples of what were the most memorable experiences for me and why I feel they are very STEMS-y

Sailing with Na Pea

This has to be my top pick for best STEMS unit we did on Big Island.  There were so many facets of this day that are so memorable.  I can go through the basic check marks.  We were outside.  We had very hands-on activities.  There was Hawaiian cultural side to it.  The kids were the ones who were our primary teachers for this lesson.  And, we totally ran over our time limit.

Why was this lesson so memorable for me?  Usually in a classroom we just learn about what the boats look like, what they’re used for and how they work.  It’s very superficial and you form no connection with the lesson.  For this lesson we were experiencing them.  I learned from the kids how to sail, along with the other side of sailing like rigging the canoe, tying ropes, etc.  I think I was just mostly impressed how much the students knew.  They had so much knowledge and were really good at relaying the information in their heads to us.  People think teaching is hard, but they were making it look really easy.  Essentially, the teacher/student line gets a little fuzzy here.  When someone else teaches the class, the teacher becomes a student who learns alongside their students.  The students get to actually see that the teacher is now learning with them.

Another interesting aspect of this day was the concept of dealing with the unexpected.  Different people take away different things from any given moment.  For my experience, I was so stoked I got to work the sail and that I didn’t screw up.  I figured since everything went by the book my experience was solid.  The other group sailing in the other boat all of a sudden huli-ed.  They got back up and everyone was fine.  When we got back in I asked them about it, and they were so stoked they flipped.  They got to experience the procedure for when shit hits the fan and they performed well.  From the students’ point of view, they only have to execute shit hit the fan procedures if they screw up.  From the teachers’ point of view, they took away something valuable.  The students were confused by this.  But that’s the beauty of the unexpected, you never know what you’re going to learn nor what experience will be valuable. 

I think the most important aspect of this lesson that made it so STEMS is the fact that it’s so engaging.  It accesses and crosses so many different disciplines at once into an action.  Being active is another aspect that makes it a good lesson.  Experiencing the boat, the sail and the water was the part of this trip that stands out the most.    The one overall aspect of this lesson that made it so memorable, it was fun.

Night Activities

We had lots of fun night time on this trip.  Aside from the nights we had at the Tooman house, I’m talking about the couple of nights at Kilauea.  These were unscripted adventures, but were very much inspired and linked to the lessons learned throughout the day. 

Night photography may not have been inspired by anything we learned, but it was fun.  It was also a nearly perfect example of the design process in action.  Examining a long exposure pictures of the stars revealed a streak of red light.  Someone asks the question, “What is that?”  Someone says it’s a headlamp of someone walking across the shot.  One thing leads to another, and we’re taking pictures and experimenting to see which iteration of variables creates the best picture.  I’m fairly certain this was DJ’s first attempt writing the STEMS² and all of our poses.  1^st try, best try.

Other night activities were the walk back to the cabins from the crater.  I don’t remember who had the idea to walk back, but it was a good’n.  As we marched, we got to see different plants, and some shrine or prayer rocks.  I had my headlamp and flashlight full blast.  I assumed it’d be pitch black because it was night and there were no lights around.  Everyone else also had their lights and part way, someone decided we should stop, turn our lights off and enjoy the darkness.  Turns out, the glow from the crater we all saw a little while before was being reflected off the haze.  The sky was a bright orange and we could clearly see each other without our flashlights.  Pretty cool. 

Another one of these night activities was that night we sang with each other in Kona.  Just a fun exchange of cultural knowledge.  Seeing who could play the ukulele, who could sing, what songs we knew, who could dance?  Mostly though, it was just fun to be around this group and enjoy their company.  

 Shout out to Jen Seki.  Two of these are from her efforts on the trip

Free Blog

In the past (as in, during teacher’s ed), I’ve enjoyed these free topic blog posts because I’m constantly experiencing things that make me think, I need to share this with the class.  I like it cus it’s fun and I get to talk about whatever I want while still getting credit for it.   These days, I’m experiencing less of these sharable moments.  I only have one in recent memory I thought I wanted to share with the group.

This is something that happened at bowling practice one day.  I am lucky enough to be a part of a staff that doesn’t really have a “restriction” on who we are teaching.  We have three teams (varsity, JV black and JV red).  Technically my title is head JV coach, which means my primary responsibility is the black team.  The fun thing is that every one of our staff feels free to coach everyone, we’re not limited to our “own kids”.  One of these days I was watching the team as a whole and noticed one of the bowlers (kid A) having issues so I started to give him advice.  While I was doing this, the others were listening in and one of them (kid B) started chiming his own two cents.  Mind you kid B has had a total of 3 months of bowling experience under his belt, so, even though I liked the fact that they’re collaborating and helping each other, I was quick to point out that one of us has more experience and should probably listen to me (since the two cents kid B offered was completely wrong).  The rest of the conversation went like this:

Kid A: But Panda, he’s my Tutu

Me: …he’s your grandmother?

Kid A: No, no…what’s teacher?

Me: Kumu.

Kid A: Oh yeah, that.

Kid B: …I thought that was humu?

Me: That’s a fish…and not even its full name.

Kid B: Oh yeah…

First I thought, that’s hilarious.  Second I thought, wow, these kids have almost no useable Hawaiian knowledge.  Is that what we were talking about this whole time, how a lot of students have zero real connection to the place they’re from when they go through their schooling career?  It made me kinda sad, that these are the kind of people who spread their limited and incorrect local knowledge to the rest of the world.  Probably why we as local people watched the re-made Hawai’i Five-0 for a little while, laughed at all the mistakes and fake pidgin accents then stopped watching cus it ended up irritating us (my experience).  I mean, recently I was reading an article in Guns & Ammo about a hunting trip the writer took to Maui.  He wrote about his fondness for the “authentic” luau he attended at some touristy establishment and how they slow roast pigs in underground pits.  He couldn’t even write imu, although it’s probably best he didn’t because his next statement was that while he was searching possible hunts to take while in the islands he’d found a guide to take him on a pua hunt.  I sat there thinking to myself, …you’re going flower hunting?

These two occurrences merged into one when I came to a thought about the importance of place-based or cultural-based learning we’re experiencing in this program.  Yes, this style of learning is largely beneficial to someone like me or to the others in our program and to many of the future students we’ll have as educators.  But that very thought of, “These kids are going to go to school in the mainland after high school and spout off so many inaccurate statements about being “Hawaiian” made me wonder about the goals of certain students’ education.  The students I’m in contact with attend a college prep school, the goal of their education being preparing them for college.  A lot of students to end up going to UH: Mānoa, like I did, but for the majority of the class, the next level of education happens at some other school on the continental United States.  I’m going to irritate people when I say, this stuff we’re learning is important but I can see why for some people they just won’t care because it’s not the goal of their education.  The goal of some people is to not be members of the culture we have here in this place.  Personally, I value the place/cultural-based education facet of learning.  Being from this place, I wanted to know more about the culture and history of Hawai’i.  I took the Hawaiian history and culture classes offered at ‘Iolani.  I took a year of Hawaiian language at UH for fun, even though I’m awful at learning languages and my degree had zero language requirements.  I bought and read books about Hawaiian mythology, even though I hate reading.  It’s important and interesting for me because I’m from here, I’m a part of this place.  Knowing more enlightens my being here and allows me to see things from various perspectives.  That’s just me, everyone’s different; apparently, especially people from the same school as me.