Proposal

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Our project...


The community garden that we are proposing will make Kamehameha a better place because it will help to start to revert the students and faculty to be less dependent of technology and other inventions. Instead we will become a more self-dependent school. The action of creating a community garden at our school addresses the need for Hawaiian to become in contact with their Hawaiian ancestry once again.
The people that can benefit from this project are primarily the students and teachers at our school. Teachers have been complaining for a number of years now that students don’t have enough responsibility and they encourage students to do community service. The community garden that we are setting up can address both of those issues. Also, teachers can benefit from this garden because it can be a way for them to give back to the school. The garden can also be used as a volunteer activity to bring the students and teachers together. We can all benefit from this garden because we can reconnect with our Hawaiian ancestry, we can participate in community service, we can give back to our school, and we can have time to spend with teachers outside of the stressful school environment.

Our Proposed Solution...

Our proposed solution is to create more land that can be used to plant native Hawaiian plants in order to teach Kamehameha staff and students how to become more sustainable. Another proposed solution is to allow students to vist lo’i and wind farms in Kahuku in order to learn more about how to become more self dependent and sustainable.

This solution is unique because Kamehameha Schools was made for the Hawaiians, to live the Hawaiian culture, and by creating this garden we are practicing the arts of our ancestors. Also when harvest comes around we are able to enjoy the food our ancestors ate. This also shows the pride that we take in our school. I dont know any other school that has done anything like this.

First off this solution is good because we donʻt need to use the $100. We can still solve the problem at hand without dipping into our budget. It also allows students to practice the Hawaiian Culture. Our native culture needs help, we need to perpetuate it and by creating a garden for native plants we are doing just that. This will teach students responsibility, a side from gardening skills, and gives them a chance to give back to the Hawaiian culture and our aina. Over all this solution is good because for one it reverts the students back to practicing old Hawaiian culture and ways. It also gives students more responsibility in the school community where they have a sense of making a change.

Our proposal will be one that needs ongoing maintenance and will go on until maintenance ends. Ongoing maintenance is needed because plants need attention in order for it to grow. We propose to create a group of student and teacher volunteers who are willing to come to the garden on their free time to care for the plants. We will need people to come to create the garden, plant the seeds, water and maintain the plants, and harvest. We hope that our garden will be able to go on for many years because of maintenance for many years after we start this project.

Our solution is very practical because it makes use of the school’s open space to teach students how to be more sustainable. Within a month, we can at least clear land and begin growing plants. The main purpose is to begin to teach people who to grow their own native Hawaiian garden. The only thing that could take a while is getting permission to clear out land for our project.

For the construction of this project our tools necessarily don’t have to be special. Just maybe tools for planting just to make the work a little more easier. I learned from Hawaiian teachers that things like planting plants or making food or doing a chant or a song, you always need to have your mind cleared or bring good thoughts to the work that your presenting or doing. For this case, if we as a group go into this project with good thoughts then the plants will grow and so will the knowledge of the people who are associated with the garden we are planning to build.

The approximate cost for this project would actually be $0 because we all have the planting tools necessary for planting at home and we all could bring them for use. The only thing we are not sure of right now is where there is open land to plant the native plants. We might need to get permission from the administration first asking if we could use the land to plant native plants and tell them the main purpose.

Physics Principles...

Our project is related to physics because when we plant and cultivate more vegetables we will depend on out-of-state shipped produce more. This is important because we the less fossil fuels and energy we used to transport produce from the mainland to Hawaii, the better. Being dependent on out side resources makes Hawaii have a lot of potential to create a way to sustain our own island. Therefore, there is potential energy in Hawaii’s local produce market. The type of procedure used to ship the produce from the mainland to Hawaii falls under the category of kinetic energy. When we learn to plant our own produce, eventually will will become a self-dependent state. Instead of relying on shipments of food to the islands, we can be self-dependent and sustainable. In the long run, we hope to teach people how to change their potential energy into kinetic energy so they can become more sustainable.