Zeb educating people about plastic bag use at the Earth and Ocean at Kealakehe HS.

On April 20th, several WHEA students participated in two events in celebration of Earth Day: The Earth and Ocean Fair at Kealakehe High School and  HPA’s Earth Day Environmental Science Symposium  At Kealekehe, students set up a booth that educated the public on water pollution recycling, composting with worms.  They also presented a puppet show about marine debris for the younger audience!  Zeb dressed up as a ‘plastic bag monster’, telling people facts about plastic bags and their effects on the island. “It was great to see so many people interested in working towards creating a greener Hawaii” said Skyla,

At HPA’s fair, students presented their environmentally-related projects to a large audience. These projects included Reef Teach, Snorkel Survey, Aquaponics, DeepSea, and Tide Pool Survey. The students were able to show the public what WHEA is about, and how everyone can make a difference in Hawaii. “Take care of the earth because we only have one” is what Trentin took from the experience. Gavin said “Very little is left, so we must be good stewards.” Overall, the Kealekehe Earth and Ocean Fair and HPA’s Earth Day Celebration were great opportunities for students to share their projects with the public, and encourage others to take care of the `Aina!

WHEA’s robot during the FIRST Robotics Competition on Oahu

Saturday April 6th, 2013

8:00- We arrive at the stadium. Isis and I are working as Ambassadors today for many visitors from Time Warner Cable Company.

9:20- Meet up with VIP visitors to give a tour of the pit and watch some matches.

12:15- We’ve been picked for an alliance with team 7. This means we have made it to the finals.

1:30- Finals begin!

1:40- We win the first match!

2:40- We’ve lost the last two matches and can’t continue on.

4:10- Congratulations Leilehua High School , H.P. Baldwin High School, and Kalani High School on winning this years FIRST Hawaii Regionals!

4:35- The Award Cerimony

7:00- Team Dinner in town and back to the house for a fun game of Apples to Apples. Good Night.

Sunday, April 2013

9:00- We make a late breakfast out of all our leftovers. After packing and cleaning we are all ready to have some fun!

1:00- After playing a few rounds of laser tag and some arcade games we all pile into the vans.

1:30- Arrive at the Mall for a few hours!

3:30- Head to the Airport to head home after a long and fun weekend!

6:30- We’ve safely landed and are heading home. Good bye!

Loke, Elissa, Emily, Kari, Josh, Brittany, Joe, Koa, Chelsea, Ms. White, Rachel, Isis, and Lina (from left to right) scout the competition at the Stan Sheriff Center at UH Manoa

by Skyla D. Graig-Murray

Friday April 5th, 2013

8:15- Arrived at stadium for the day.

8:30- The opening ceremony begins with a Hula performance before the matches begin.

9:48- Today we will be randomly paired up with other teams to compete in qualifying rounds all day. Our alliance wins in our first match of the day.

11:00- Even though we lost this match our robot was able to hang from the first level, gaining 10 points for our alliance.

11:50- Some problems with the robot, we weren’t able to climb during this match because of another robot blocking us.

1:00- We received our Ambassador assignments for tomorrow.

1:15- Students who aren’t in the pit working with the robot are scouting out teams by watching how their robot performs during matches.

2:45- Our robot scores its first goal! It shoots a Frisbee into the 2 point goal.

3:20- We were able to climb for ten points and our alliance won the match 33 to 14.

4:10- We played a successful and integral role in this match winning 73 to 3!

5:00- Playing defense we defeat the opposing alliance 35 to 20.

5:10- Isis is interviewed for KITV News at 6:00 and 10:00! Can’t wait to see it later.

5:30- All the teams, mentors, sponsors, judges, referees, volunteers, and other participants gather for an award ceremony.

6:30- Every team meets on campus for pizza and ice cream. The team social involved lots of loud music and dancing.

7:20- We all head home for the night.

Riley, Ben, and Josh work on WHEA’s Robotics Team’s robot at the FIRST Competition of Oahu

Thursday April 4th, 2013

6:15- We’ve settled in the plane and are on our way to Oahu for competition!

6:50- Landed and collecting bags, and crates of spare tools and parts. The pit crew is headed straight to the Stan Sheriff Center where the competition is taking place.

8:45- We arrive at our rental house to unpack luggage and get settled.

9:20- Other students are off to the competition to start scouting out teams. Scouting is to assess the best teams for future alliances. Three of us are going grocery shopping at Costco.

12:20- Finished at Costco got a little lost on the way back to the house. Done putting away groceries, we’re now going to the competition to help out.

4:00- Ambassador meeting for students to show around VIP visitors. Two students from every team are expected to volunteer to help. Isis and I participated and are working with a VIP Saturday morning.

4:10- We pass inspection! All teams have to pass an inspection that makes sure you are within the requirements of the building guidelines. FIRST values safety, so robots must meet all safety tests, too.  

4:45- Our alliance wins the first practice game we participate in this season. An alliance has three teams, each with one robot. A game is two alliances competing.

5:15- Many students head back for the day. We start dinner.

Koa pictured with WHEA’s Robot before it was bagged up for shipment to Oahu

The robot has been packed up and is ready to be shipped off to the Stan Sheriff Center in Oahu where the Hawaii Regional’s will take place. The team has been worked nonstop throughout the build season, spending a number of late nights at school perfecting the robot.

Koa says he “didn’t like robotics at first but the build season and competition made it interesting”. Koa is now hoping to pursue a career in engineering specifically aeronautical engineering. When speaking of the robotics project Koa says it’s “fun and I learn a lot, it will help me in the future.” Koa also spoke highly about his mentors, saying they’re the “perfect mentors because they’re helpful in everything!” Rod and Alan both sacrifice their own time to help the students with any problems.

The competition will be held April 4th at the Stan Sheriff Center on Oahu. Be sure to stay tuned for results!

Deron Spencer of Isemoto Construction, Paul (6th grade student), Mel Gross (WHEA Graduate and Project Mentor), Nina Buchanan (WHEA Governing Board Member), Leesa Foreman (Teacher), Heather Nakakura (Co-Director), Ken Melrose (Project Manager), and Curtis Muraoka (Co-Director) break ground to begin construction on WHEA’s new campus

On Febuary 1st WHEA officially broke ground at the new campus site! Mrs. Nakakura, one of WHEA’s co-directors gave an emotional speech telling students that “this is the next phase of WHEA” and thanking everyone, “we wouldn’t be here without your hard work.” Eight people including our co-directors, a teacher, one of the first graduates of our school, and our youngest current student dug into the ground to start construction on the new site.

West Hawaii Explorations Academy was founded in 1994 and has been a tenant of NELHA ever since. Over the years there have been increasing factors to encourage WHEA to relocate the campus. The relocation will put the school only about a mile away near the top of NELHA road. By moving up the road, WHEA would receive less air traffic, especially with the Kona airport planning to expand. The new airplanes would exceed allowed noise levels at our current location, but the new campus location would be out of their range. Further, WHEA is currently very close to the beach and in a tsunami evacuation zone. The new campus design is brilliant and can be seen here: http://whea.net/planetwhea/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Campus-Big.jpg

In May 2011, WHEA was granted 1.5 million dollars from the state and this money was released early December of 2012. Now that the money has been released, we are glad to have Isemoto Contracting Company doing the grading work on our new site. Ken Melrose our project manager has been working in this position for about 30 years, and has been working with the school for the past 2 years. He refers to the campus relocation project as a “golf putt, there’s a long distance” between point A and point B, but with a lot of work we will get there.

To have gotten to this far it has “taken a lot of hard work and persistence” Lessa Foreman, WHEA teacher and Exploration Foundation Chair, acknowledges. All the help and work to get the ball rolling on this huge project has been from staff and volunteer board members. She mentions some of WHEA’s accomplishments like having over 25,000 visitors and being the first accredited charter high-school. Mark Yap, who has been working at WHEA for eight years now says he is happy about the move. He says that even though the goal is to move to the new site in the 2014-2015 school year there is still a lot of cleaning and organizing to do right now at our current campus.

This year’s sophomores will be the first class to graduate from the new campus, which will also be WHEA’s 20th anniversary!

Kaia, Shannon, Star, Jaylynne, and Kristina stand with NFL player Sampson Satele

On January 22nd WHEA students had the opportunity to meet NFL players Sampson Satele, Fred McCrary (Retired), and Nat Moore (Retired), along with cheerleaders Samantha and Heather. They were in Hawaii for an NFL Pro Bowl Youth Clinic, where youth were able to participate in football drills and cheers. We were lucky to have them visit our school campus, and they gave motivational speeches that were very inspiring.

Sampson Satele, a graduate of UH gave some useful advice “No matter what happens in life, always love your parents.” The others shared an encouraging message to follow your dreams and strive to be the best you can be. Everyone was excited when given the chance to ask questions and receive signed hats and shirts! When asked what she did besides cheer, Heather shared that she had a passion for teaching special needs children at an elementary school. Samantha added in that she loved to dance, and was opening a dance studio. The two concluded that if you have a passion for something, it is possible. Fred McCrary was hilarious to hear from and enjoyed showing his NFL championship ring that he won with the New England Patriots. I’m sure all WHEA students can agree, hearing from Sampson, Fred, Nat, Samantha, and Heather was a great experience that left everyone feeling motivate

Clownfish eggs

The clownfish pairs at WHEA are a bunch of happy sea creatures. How can you tell? By how often they are breeding. And they are breeding quite frequently. There are three clownfish pairs and all three of them produced eggs last semester. Two of the pairs have had over 4 different births of eggs in just a few months! Observations on the clownfish show much tail wagging and “dancing,” which shows they are in a stress-free and happy environment.  By keeping the tropical fish area a stress-free place our clownfish are now living happily.

Fun Clownfish Facts:
•    The clownfish can change its sex from male to female when a female is needed. No surgery needed!
•    Clownfish will usually never leave their sea anemone during their lifetime, swimming only 2-4 inches from their home.
•    The clownfish is an aggressive fish, known for attacking scuba divers!
•    Clownfish breed in relation to the lunar cycle!