Kauai Community Science Center

Happy Aloha Friday! Since yesterday was Earth Day and we have a Climate Connect Initiative at KCSC, today’s #fridayreads is about climate change! Today’s feature is Climate Change and You: How Climate Change Affects Your Life, by Emily Raij. This book covers weather and climate and is recommended for grades 3 & 4. Why should you care about climate change? Weather affects your everyday life and climate change can have major impacts. Discover how scientists study climate cha...nge, what current research shows, and what you can do to reverse its effects. Come to next week’s KCSC HOTspot to check out this cool book!

Don't worry if you didn't make it to our event over the past weekend! We have three more events scheduled over the next few months. Our next event will be on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at the Kaumakani Pavilion. Our first session will be from 4:00pm to 5:00pm and our second session will be from 5:15pm to 6:15pm. We still have spots available for both sessions, please use the following link if you are interested in joining us https://kauaicsc.getomnify.com/ If you have any questio...ns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We hope to see you there! #kauaicsc #kcschotspot

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning". -Albert Einstein #kauaicsc #wisdomwednesday

Here’s a great opportunity for Kekaha Residents ages 4-18 to share your creativity in the Kaunalewa Color Kekaha Art Contest. Grand prize is an Apple iPad and entries are due Friday, May 7th. Check out the link for all of the details and please share this with anyone you know who might be interested. We love art at KCSC and creativity is among the important 21st Century Skills we promote and model through our work at KCSC. These skills of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication are all important for our students to develop so they can thrive in the future. Thanks to Kaunalewa for providing this amazing opportunity for our community.

Although we didn't get to go back to Alakoko Fishpond today, we still had so much fun! Today we focused on "Design Thinking". To give the student's an idea of what design thinking is, Braelyn and Kathleen gave a short presentation on their projects and how they used design thinking. Braelyn explained how she is currently designing a children's treadmill through 3D printing and Kathleen presented us with a robot that her and the WHS Robotics Team built for competitions. Today'...s activity was called "a-MAZE-ing Fishponds", which is a two week activity. After learning about the different types of fishponds in Hawaii and its' characteristics, the students broke up into two groups. Each group had to pick a fishpond type to base their maze off of, brainstorm what will be included in the fishpond and start building their prototype. Next week, we will be making the bigger, final maze where we will be able to drive the Sphero through! Malama Huleia Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii - Lihue Clubhouse

Are you curious about the KCSC Industry Partnership Program? Please join us on Tuesday, April 13th at 5:30pm to ask any questions that you have and learn more about the program via a zoom call. Students, parents, teachers and anyone interested in the program is welcome to join. If you have any questions in the meantime, email [email protected] or have a look at our website, https://kauaicsc.org/kcsc-industry-partnership Have a great week!

Happy Aloha Friday! Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring a book from our book collection that we have at KCSC. All of these books are available for students to take home after visiting our KCSC HOTspot event. The first book we will be featuring is Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando. This book was written by Andrea Wang and recommended for ages 4 to 8 years old. Amid the rubble of Japan after World War II, Momofuku Andi encountered people lined up in the bitte...r cold waiting for the smallest bit of food. ‘The world is peaceful only when everyone has enough to eat’, he thought. Haunted by this memory, Ando worked in a little shed in his backyard, experimenting and trying to create a new kind of noodle soup that was quick to make, nutritious, and tasty in order to feed the hungry. Ando worked day and night, but still came up short time and again. He kept tinkering with different formulas. Through persistence, creativity, and inspiration, he finally succeeded! Slurp up the story behind one of the world’s most popular foods! Join us at our next KCSC HOTspot event to check out this tasty book! #kauaicsc #fridayreads

We are so grateful to be participating in the Rise to Work Program! We have two positions available: Director of Development and Director of Operations. If either of these positions interest you, please feel free to apply by using the link in our bio or by emailing us at [email protected] For more information about the Rise to Work program and the other local business participating, head over to https://kauaiforward.com/risetowork/... We hope to hear from you soon!

We are still accepting applications for students who want to participate in our new KCSC Industry Partnership program! The deadline to apply is APRIL 30, 2021. This is a collaborative project that will involve Kaua'i students, professionals from Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) and STEAM professionals from the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY and STE(A)M Truck powered by Community Guild in Atlanta, GA. The student volunteers will be part of a project team with professions fro...m KIUC, Sciencenter, and STE(A)M Truck. This team will meet over the course of a year to co-develop STEAM content directly related to the KIUC business. By working directly with professionals, students will learn about KIUC and the many careers in the STEAM field. They will also gain experience in the important 21st Century Skills (collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity) through being part of this project and team. If you are interested in applying or would like more information please click the link in our bio or email us at [email protected]. #kauaicsc #kcscindustrypartnershipprogram

Please join us TOMORROW for an information and discussion session about KCSC's Industry Partnership Program! We welcome anyone and everyone who is interested in learning more about the program and who have any questions or concerns. The session will be held virtually, over Zoom (https://zoom.us/j/94101079784) at 5:30pm. Please feel free to email [email protected] if you have any other questions.... #kauaicsc #kcscindustrypartnershipprogram

Happy Earth Day! Earthday.org's theme for Earth Day 2021 is "Restore Our Earth", which focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies, and innovative thinking that can restore the world's ecosystems. It is up to each and every one of us to Restore Our Earth not just because we care about the natural world, but because we live on it. We all need a healthy Earth to support our jobs, livelihoods, health and survival, and happiness. At KCSC, one of our core values is c...limate change awareness. Our Climate Connect initiative promotes awareness of climate change and each exhibit at KCSC will showcase this connection. For all of our KCSC Brown Bag activities, we try to recycle as much materials as possible. We use recycled plastic bottles for our DIY horn activity, we use recycled objects and crafts for our 3D art sculpture and we try to 3D print whatever we can instead of buying from stores. With our 3D printed objects, we ask our KCSC HOTspot attendees to return them if they don't plan on using it. We even have a Protocycler that can melt the filament used to make a 3D printed object or plastic, to make more filament! #kauaicsc #EarthDay

Last night was ‘Ele’ele Elementary School’s Virtual ‘Ohana Engagement night and they asked Kauai Community Science Center to be part of it. There were about 70 students and parents who signed up and we made two KCSC Brown Bags for each student, that’s 140 bags total! Depending on their grade, the student got either a parachute activity or measuring activity, then they also got an Oobleck activity. We started the evening off with three of our KCSC interns giving a short presen...tation about their projects they have been working on. Braelyn’s presentation was on the children’s treadmill that she designed using CAD, Kalia presented on 3D printing and explained her role in KCSC’s 3D Printing Club, and Kathleen’s presentation was about the WHS Robotics team and the robot that they built for competitions. After everyone presented, we all did the Oobleck activity together and it was a fun mess that everyone enjoyed! We had 10 3D printed giveaway and books that we raffled off throughout the evening. Some of the giveaways were 3D butterflies, 3D dinosaurs, a book about coding, and about the ocean! #kauaicsc #steamnight

National Dolphin Day is listed as part of the American Veterinary Medical Association Pet Health Awareness Events. Dolphins are cetacean mammals that are related to whales and porpoises. Why are dolphins so important? They play an important role in keeping their environment in balance. They eat other animals (fish and squid) and are themselves a source of food for some sharks and other creatures. Without dolphins, the animals they prey on would increase in number and their pr...edators wouldn’t have as much to eat. This would disrupt the natural balance in the food chain and could negatively affect other wildlife and the health of the ocean environment. In Hawaii, we have three species of dolphin, or nai’a in Hawaiian. They are the spinner, bottlenose, and spotted dolphins. KCSC Climate Connect: In honor of National Dolphin Day, let's make sure to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as we can to keep the ocean, their home, clean. By keeping the ocean clean, we can prevent dolphins from digesting harmful litter. #kauaicsc #nationaldolphinday

Join us this week Friday, April 16th, for a KCSC HOTspot event, featuring some new activities! In honor of April being Citizen Science Month, we will have an Ant Picnic and Wild Sourdough brown bag activities. We will also have two of our interns showcasing their projects! Braelyn will be showing a treadmill for children that she designed and built using CAD and 3D printing. Kathleen will be featuring a robot that she and the WHS Robotics Team designed and built for competitions. This will be an event you won't want to miss! Make sure to reserve your spot today by using the following link: https://kauaicsc.getomnify.com/

We took a break from our mazes today and did a virtual escape room! Big thank you to our intern Kalia! She took the time to research and put the game together for the students. The story of the escape room was about a goby (o’opu) who wandered away from her fishpond and needed helping finding her way home. The students had to solve riddles to help her get home. They did an awesome job solving the escape room and had so much fun! Kalia also showed off her 3D printing skills du...ring the session and even printed some giveaways for the students. She printed sharks, octopuses, chameleons and fishes. #kauaicsc #streamingwithaloha

Kauai Community Science Center collaborated with Kauai Planning & Action Alliance (KPAA) to support their Keiki to Career Student Literacy Program by purchasing science-themed books that we give away at KCSC HOTspot events. The funding for this project was part of KCSC’s County of Kauai, Kpa‘a Kaua’i CARES Act grant. KPAA has access to an amazing selection of books for a reduced price. By collaborating with KPAA, KCSC was able to purchase over 600 science-themed books that w...ill go out to our Kauai community. We have admired the work that KPAA and the Keiki to Career Kauai Program has done for years and we are thankful that we are now collaborators. Be sure to come to one of our KCSC HOTspot events to check out the awesome books! #kauaicsc #fridayreads

Today at Boys and Girls Clubhouse - Lihue we got started on making our big mazes! The students were awesome at working together and making their projects come to life. Next week, we’re painting and finishing up the mazes so stayed tuned! #kauaicsc #streamingwithaloha

Thank you to everyone who came out to our KCSC HOTspot event last night! We hope you all had fun Our interns (Kathleen, Briana, and Braelyn) and their projects were a BIG HIT. Everyone was intrigued by Briana and her 3D printing demonstration, the students got their sweat on with Braelyn’s treadmill, and everyone tested their communication and aiming skills with Kathleen and the WHS Robotics Team’s robot. This was such an awesome event and it was all made possible by our in...terns and their hard work, these events just wouldn’t be the same without them! We brought out a few different KCSC brown bags for last night in honor of Citizen Science Month - Wild Sourdough and Ant Picnic. These are both projects that you setup at home and you get to try your own sourdough that you make and see what kind of food the ants around your house prefer. Our next event is May 1, 2021 and registration is currently open so make sure to reserve your spot today! Hope you all have a great weekend #kauaicsc #kcschotspot