The University of Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii Community College united Thursday to offer immersive environmental education and ecological career options to K-12 students at the annual La Honua Earth Day Fair and Conservation Career Day on the UH campus.
Thursday’s fair was the penultimate La Honua Earth Day event out of eight hosted between April 4 to April 22 by the college and university together.
With six East Hawaii schools bringing 40 classes to Thursday’s fair, 839 K-12 students with 57 chaperones took in knowledge from 42 presentations and activity tables throughout the campus, said Hawaii Community College and UH Hilo La Honua Earth Day 2025 committee member Lisa Canale.
Organizations including the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, NOAA, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the state Department of Agriculture were all present to offer education about birds, monk seals, geology and insects, along with presentations in classrooms and at tables on plants, pollution reduction and marine biology orchestrated by current college students and returning alumni.
Activities like ti leaf lei making and opihi shell painting were some of the favorites for the youngest children, like Waiakea Elementary kindergarteners Riley Yoshida and Skye-James Ogata.
“We’re just so passionate for more of the community to have this opportunity,” said Meleana Faumui, vice president of the Community College Sustainability Club that was helping the kids paint shells.
“Not to forget about nature,” community college alum, UH Hilo student, and frequent malama ‘aina field trip guide Juss Kawaianiani Ferry said about the best lesson the youngest students can learn at the fair. “I know video games, TV and all that can be flashy and more fun, but to connect with nature and get your hands dirty with other people, to doing something that’s going to benefit their children and their children, is such a fulfilling experience.”
“We got to touch the seeds,” said Waiakea Elementary kindergartener Dakota Solia of one of the tactile offerings that he enjoyed. “They grow into plants.”
Second- and third-graders from Waiakea Elementary and Kua O Ka La Public Charter School took turns playing with the puppets and instruments provided by Lee Walczuk of Kozmo Mimzi Ohana Arts, which were all made out of recycled materials like newspapers and KTA bags with nontoxic glue.
“We honor recycling. It’s all about using hands and getting kids away from the screens,” said Walczuk, who has been bringing his crafts to UH Hilo for Earth Day events for 20 years.
Airacah Lubong, a sixth-grader from Keaau Middle School, said she was excited to take the knowledge she acquired there back to her at-home gardening partner, her grandmother, with whom she most enjoys growing strawberries and mountain apples.
Michelle Shuey, who has been helping coordinate the Earth Day celebration at UH Hilo for five years, said the visiting K-12 students “love the gardens” on campus grown by the university’s horticulture and agriculture programs.
“There’s multiple gardens around campus, and they love to talk about the relationship to the bees, how different trees interact with each other, how putting certain plants next to each other can feed one plant and help the other,” she said. They love that conversation.”
The tables manned by current and returning UH students offered various sensory activities, like listening to birdsongs recorded by Lohe Bioacoustics Lab while they view photos and read facts about the corresponding native species. Meanwhile, at the MEGA Lab table, students could turn small cards adorned with QR codes into 3-D reproductions of reefs from around the world by viewing them through a tablet.
In the Wentworth Building, UH Hilo professor Dr. Steve Doo’s senior marine science students taught Hilo High seniors about the sources of ocean acidification and the effect it has on corals and shells in the near-shore ecosystem. A second station in the classroom offered a hands-on lesson in shark biology with sand shark and spiney dogfish dissection specimens and a detailed image of labeled shark anatomy.
“We answered some their questions or curiosities about how sharks function in the world, what makes them so interesting and why they matter,” said Zoe Izenberg of the lessons her class taught the visiting high schoolers. “It feels very good. I remember being in high school (being excited) to learn about these things, and seeing other students get excited who are younger feels nice.”
The final event of the La Honua Earth Day 2025 celebration will take place at the Hawaii Community College Manono campus on April 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Learn more by visiting https://hilo.hawaii.edu/earthfair/2025.php.
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
