On May 9. Deacon “Dr. Beachcomb” Ritterbush, will present Connecting to Nature Through Beachcombing. Families will create beachcombing art. For more information, please contact Koh Ming Wei at 881-4266 or mwkoh@hpa.edu.
Speakers to give ecologically themed presentations on Wednesday nights
Hawaii Preparatory Academy will present a series of monthly Ohana Nights at the Energy Lab from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning Feb. 8.
Ohana Night at the Energy Lab will provide hands-on learning opportunities for families in the areas of energy and water conservation, energy generation, water clarification, zero waste, food sovereignty and green chemistry. The fee, which covers all materials, is $15 per family per evening or $50 for all four evenings in the series.
The first session will feature Dilafruz Williams, Stanford Fellow and professor at Portland State University, who will present Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: How Parents and the Community Can Support Academic Achievement in the Garden.
As part of the presentation, families will get to take home one pound of worm castings to use in their own gardens. Williams has been studying the effects of ecologically based education on academic achievement, social skills acquisition and nutrition for more than 20 years.
As a parent and former public school board member, she values education that builds relationships with nature and humans. She is the co-founder of Portland School District’s Sunnyside K-8 Environmental School and co-founder of Leadership in Sustainability Education, where she established a master’s level academic program, initiated and designed Learning Gardens at several schools, thereby addressing local farm-to-school food and nutrition issues and integrating the effort into major curricular goals for grades K-8.
Future Ohana Night at the Energy Lab events will feature Bill Wiecking, director of the Energy Lab at HPA, on March 14 with Solar Energy: Applying Energy Lab Technology at Home.
Families will bring a list of home appliances to assist in calculations and will take home sketches of home systems.
On April 11, Angela Kang, a Hawaii County recycling specialist, will present Zero-Waste Your Home and Office. Families will make an alkaline battery capture bucket or sew a reusable bag.
On May 9. Deacon “Dr. Beachcomb” Ritterbush, will present Connecting to Nature Through Beachcombing. Families will create beachcombing art. For more information, please contact Koh Ming Wei at 881-4266 or mwkoh@hpa.edu.