EPʻIK Summer: Integrating Earth, Planets, ʻIke, and Kuleana into an online summer camp for high school students and teachers in Hawaiʻi

Abstract:

The EPʻIK (Earth-Planets-ʻIke-Kuleana) Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) is a new educational initiative for high school students in Hawaiʻi to gain exposure to Earth and planetary science in preparation for a successful college experience. Two key objectives of EPʻIK are to offer opportunities that help (1) diversify and broaden participation in the geosciences, with a particular emphasis on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and (2) integrate elements of ʻike Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian knowledge) and kuleana (responsibility) to promote awareness in the geosciences. One of these opportunities is EPʻIK Summer, a multi-day summer camp for Hawaiʻi students and teachers from Native-Hawaiian-serving high schools, designed to promote exposure to the geosciences, career pathways, and the importance of geoscience within our community. Due to COVID-19 social distancing measures, we offered EPʻIK Summer in an online environment, comprised of a 5-day sequence of inquiry- and place-based sessions, emphasizing commonalities between Hawaiʻi's unique geologic environment and Native Hawaiian ancestral knowledge and cultural traditions. Topics included Hawaiian volcanoes, the Hawaiian water cycle, geology of Hawaiian beaches, and ocean navigation based on the night sky. We also teamed up with UHM sea-going scientists for a virtual research cruise experience on the R/V Kilo Moana, including a pre-cruise workshop with the Kilo Moana science team before leaving port, as well as online streaming of video from the Kilo Moana and its remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the Luʻukai. This remote activity provided an extraordinary opportunity for EPʻIK participants to interact with Kilo Moana scientists as they deployed the ROV and explored the bottom of the ocean floor. Here we report on these activities, online (and interactive) curricula development, feedback from our participants, and lessons learned from our inaugural EPʻIK Summer experience.