| Hālau Kū
Māna Public Charter School – Community, culture,
and kaina (land/ocean)-based education for middle and high school
students. With expectations of both academic and cultural rigor,
students are more responsive to hands-on, inter-disciplinary
learning that has relevance to the host culture, environment,
history, and contemporary issues and opportunities.
This is evident through students' massive turnarounds in
attendance, academics, and behavior, while demonstrating a
strong sense of cultural grounding and leadership abilities.
For example, rather than separate classes for each 'subject',
held primarily indoors, students spend over 20 hours each
week in a year-long project. Whether they are in the Waʻa
(sailing canoe), Loko Iʻa (traditional fishpond), or Loʻi
(traditional agriculture) projects, they do the related reading,
writing, discussion and research to meet language arts standards.
They do the types of science and social studies related to
the theme of their project (botany and earth science for Loʻi
project, chemistry for Loko Iʻa project, physics and astronomy
for Waʻa project), and so on. By blending traditional methods
of land management with the relevant western sciences we are
able to nurture students who are grounded in their culture,
yet able to navigate in this ever-changing global society.
Visit HKM's website: http://www.halaukumana.org
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