HIKI NŌ 402 Next, on HIKI NŌ, stories from across the island chain.

From Hawaii Island, Kealakehe High School finds out what goes on inside a mysterious building in Kona.

From Maui, students at Kihei Charter School show us how to make something out of almost nothing.

On Kauai , Kapaa High School lets us in on the latest game craze on the Garden Isle.

From Oahu, Aliamanu Middle School shows how a library brings the community together.

Waianae High School follows a struggling student who reaches out for help.

Leilehua High School discovers how surfers are revitalizing Wahiawa.

Punahou School introduces you to Hawaii's youngest beekeeper.

And Kainalu Elementary shows us what to do with all of your old electronics.

On Kauai, Kapaa High School lets us in on the latest game craze on the Garden Isle.

This episode of HIKI NŌ comes to you from Mililani Middle School on Oahu, home of the Blazers.

That's next, on the nation's first statewide student news network, HIKI NŌ.

Can do!

We're here at this episode's home base school, Mililani Middle School, Hawaii's first multi-track school.

A multi-track school is like four different schools put into one.

Although this may sound hectic, our schooling system is very efficient, because classrooms and facility are always being used.

For example, one track would go off break today, and tomorrow the next track would replace it.

The goal of every multi-track school is to one day combine all four tracks into one, as the enrollment of students decreases due to the aging of our community.

From Central Oahu, we travel now to Manoa for a story from Punahou School about Hawaii's youngest beekeeper.

Dakota Miller, a freshman at Punahou School, spends his time caring for over thirty thousand bees, making him the youngest beekeeper in Hawaii.

A few years ago in 2009, we met this guy at a farmers' market.

His name was Howard McGinnis, and he offered to take us out beekeeping.

And we went out to his hives, and he showed us how to bee keep, and after a few times of going out with him to his hives, he then offered us a hive in our backyard, and we said, Sure, we'll take one.

And that's basically how we got started.

One of the benefits of beekeeping is, of course, the honey.

You can often find Dakota and his father, Keith Miller, working side-by-side harvesting their honey.

To collect the honey, first we have to take the super off the hive.

Then we take the frames out, take the cappings off the frames, which is the wax over the honey, and spin out all of the honey.

And then, we drain it out into a bucket and filter it, and then we put it in bottles.

And we put the frames back on the hives, and bees can build more honey on them.

Most of the time, we just sell it to family and friends, but once a year, we normally sell it at the Honey Festival, which for the past few years has been at Senator Fong's Plantation.

Dakota is concerned for Hawaii's dwindling bee population, as a significant reason why he invests so much time and effort into caring for these bees.

I'm concerned about the bee population in Hawaii, 'cause probably about ninety percent of the wild beehives in Hawaii have been killed off by either the varroa mite or the small hive beetle, and that's not good for the environment or crops.

Bees pollinate almost two-thirds of our food crops, and a lot of other plants that make up the forest.

We're propagating bees by making more beehives and helping put more bees in our area, 'cause they can fly up to five miles in any direction from the hive, so that's a lot of bees to go around.

When the bees need more space in their hive, they swarm and move to a new location with a new queen.

Sometimes, people don't want beehives in their house, they call an exterminator 'cause they think the bees are gonna attack them.

So what we do is, we come in and we save the bees, and give them a new home in a safe place.

Beekeeping makes me feel happy, and I'm pretty proud of being the youngest beekeeper in Hawaii, 'cause it's an interesting thing, and it's fun to bee keep, and watch how your hives change, watching bees grow.

Although maintaining the hives requires work and dedication, for Dakota, protecting Hawaii's bees and helping to preserve their place in our ecosystem is his sweet reward.

This is Alayna Kobayashi from Punahou School, for HIKI NŌ.

We're back on Oahu at Mililani Middle School, home of the Blazers.

You may ask, What is a Blazer?

The term Blazer has multiple definitions.

According to the dictionary, a trailblazer is someone who creates their own trail through uncharted territory.

But to us, a Blazer is someone who creates their own path at school to become a better student.

Another definition of a Blazer is a shooting star.

We shoot for our goals as we prepare for new challenges in our life and future.

We take you know to the Kona Coast of Hawaii Island for a story for Kealakehe High School about a mysterious building and the secrets found inside.

On Keahole Point, between the airport and the town of Kailua-Kona, exists a futuristic looking complex, the purpose of which is a mystery to many.

It's like an energy place, maybe for fishing?

Not only is the building's function unclear, but the form is unusual too.

It looks like really holy, and kinda like the Eiffel Tower in the way that part of it's structured with all the holes.

It looks funny, the building looks very funny.

It's pretty, though.

We met with an expert to uncover the mystery.

The building, when it was first conceptually sketched out, was designed to kind of have that idea where these space frames are actually sails of the sailing canoe.

And then the wind, the tradewind would blow this way, and that's the energy for propelling the sailing canoe in the direction it needs to go.

The design connects with ancient Hawaii, and the facility serves as a model to educate visitors about the future of energy efficient technologies.

This building is the LEED Platinum Hawaii Gateway Energy Center, which was built in 2005.

Leed, L-E-E-D, stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

And we were able to get the highest platinum rating because of our unique, one-of-a-kind passive seawater air conditioning system which cools the building to a comfortable seventy-three degrees without any fans or moving parts.

So the way we cool this facility is using the heat of the sun and cold seawater.

The cold seawater flows through what is called a heat exchanger, which is located right back behind this building.

After we force the hot air out via convection, then warm air from the outside is virtually sucked in through that heat exchanger, and it comes up and then is rising into the building.

So if you put your hand over a grate like this, you can feel cold air rising.

So, we are now going over to see the seawater heat exchangers.

In addition to cooling the building, this is where tropical air is condensed to produce pure water.

So, we have a manmade raincloud right here, is what it basically is.

[INDISTINCT] Yeah, so it's raining on us, artificially.

Condensate.

That's what we use for flushing our toilets.

This might look like a normal restroom, but it actually has the cleanest toilet water in the world.

When you're driving by on the highway, you can't miss seeing this uniquely designed building, which really inspires the kids about how we as an island can achieve our goals in food, energy, and water simply by using what we're blessed with the most, seawater.

The next time you see the Gateway Center, keep in mind its net zero, because it produces more energy than it consumes, all thanks to the sun and the sea.

This is Kari Van Mols from Kealakehe High, for HIKI NŌ.

If you'd like to comment on this story or anything you see on HIKI NŌ, join the discussion at facebook.com/hikinocando, or send us a Tweet at twitter.com/hikinocando.

We're back on Oahu at Mililani Middle School, at the Peace Garden in front of the sixth grade building.

Every year, the sixth grade Blue Track students end their year with a peace ceremony, which concludes their social studies unit on war, conflict, and resolution.

A peace rock represents what peace means to you, and every year towards the end of sixth grade, the Blue Six students invite their parents and World War II veterans from the 442nd and 100th Battalion to present their rock and say a short speech of what the rock is and what it means to them.

Not far from here is Leilehua High School, where students created the following story about efforts to revitalizing their town, Wahiawa.

Drugs, bars, homeless people, and prostitutes; these are the common labels one might hear about the town of Wahiawa.

Fifty-one percent of the community is low to moderate income, so there's a lot of need here for people that need food, or just need love and need encouragement.

So, Wahiawa was a great place for us to come and work out our mission, which is just loving people and changing lives.

Surfing the Nations is an organization made up of people from around the world who are determined to create a new image for Wahiawa and transform the town.

Well, first of all, Wahiawa is an amazing place.

And obviously, Surfing the Nations as a humanitarian organization will come into a community and see what the needs are, and then meet those needs by just being available.

And so, when we came into lower Wahiawa, which is primarily the Ohai Street area and this area from the bar to the twenty-four-hour porn shop, to the liquor store that sells porn in the strip bar, and so we felt that what we could do is come in and influence and to change, and to create a whole new environment in lower Wahiawa.

Surfing the Nations purchased a handful of retail and residence spaces, including an apartment building where staff members reside.

The organization extends far beyond the coffee shop that now fronts the building.

In rooms that were once used for numerous kinds of adult entertainment, Surfing the Nations employees work diligently in many different departments to complete outreach projects.

Feeding the hungry is the largest and oldest department in the organization.

We work with the Hawaii Food Bank, and we have the opportunity to feed about three thousand people a week.

Basically, Surfing the Nations is a group of young people who are using the sport of surfing to make an impact and to give back to a certain community.

Whether we're actually in the water or out of it, we're coming as surfers who want to make a difference, who want to give back.

The staff comes from all over the world, from as close as Mililani to as far as South Africa.

They hear about people that are living in a community from the inside out, and just want to bring hope and love, and they get inspired, and they want to come help.

Well, we think we've seen amazing progress.

I mean, just in the kids that come to the program, plus we're transforming, you know, the four properties that we have, and we want it to be family-oriented and bring a whole new facelift, so to speak, to Wahiawa.

Because people are finding out that Wahiawa is an amazing place, and we feel so privileged to be a small part of it.

This Jolanie Martinez from Leilehua High School, for HIKI NŌ.

We take you now to the Island of Maui, where students from Kihei Charter School show you how to make a work of art that you can wear.

Let's learn how to finger crochet a bracelet.

The materials you'll need are string and scissors.

First, pick as many colors as you wish.

Two is recommended.

Start with a simple loop, and take the longer side of the strong and pull it through.

Let's see that again.

To continue, repeat the loop and pull process.

You can use all types of materials; yarn, embroidery string, and even strips of cloth.

The more strands you use, the thicker it is, and also, the harder to make.

The more you do it, the easier it gets.

Practice makes perfect.

A common mess-up is pulling the string too far.

But if this happens, don't panic.

Just take the string knot and pull it through as much as possible.

When you're finished, cut the loop and tie it to your wrist.

Have fun with it, and make some for your friends and family.

They make great presents.

Welcome back to Mililani Middle School, where we are helping to preserve Hawaii's natural beauty.

We are building a greenhouse, where we will be growing native plants and planting them in places around Oahu, such as Mokuea and Palehua.

Our school has built a hydroponic system along with a school garden to grow vegetables.

We grow Manoa lettuce, bok choy, eggplant, taro, sweet potato, and other produce to promote local-grown foods instead of imported goods.

A few miles south of us is Aliamanu Middle School, where students tell us about a twenty-year- old building that is very dear to their community.

The local public library is one of those places that always seems to be there when you need it.

As the Salt Lake-Moanalua Public Library celebrates its twentieth anniversary, it is clear that it has found a special place in this very diverse community.

However, the building itself represents only a portion of the history of a public library in the Salt Lake-Moanalua area.

The first Salt Lake-Moanalua Public Library was located in the Salt Lake Shopping Center, and it opened June 30, 1984.

It was just a little storefront library, and it was between Joanne's Salon and the Lung Hwa Chinese Restaurant.

That's where that library was until this library opened August 29, 1992.

State Senator Donna Mercado Kim gives us a little background on how it all started.

The people of the community said that we needed a library here at Salt Lake, and the nearest library was Kalihi-Palama or Aiea.

One of those community members, Mrs. Esther Shima, led a petition drive to release funds for the building of a new library.

We got different people in the community together and so, we were able to get two thousand names ... in ten days.

All of these efforts have paid off, as the library has seen a steady stream of users throughout the years.

A couple of former Moanalua High School students recalled how the library was a convenient source of information.

We had a project that the whole class had to do, and this was before the Internet was sort of widely available to the public.

So nobody had the Internet and you literally just had either your encyclopedias at home or the books you had in school, or whatever was in your school library.

Growing up, my family used to come here every Wednesday.

My mom would bring all four of me and my siblings to the library to borrow books.

I participated in their Team Reading Program growing up when I was a student at Moanalua High School.

It's still a popular place for students nowadays who find the library a safe and quiet place to get their work done.

I search for things, and do my homework.

Sometimes, if I have like an important project that I need to do it on the computer, I do that.

I like to talk to my friends a lot, but we're not really allowed to talk in here, so we mostly read.

You know, I think libraries are really changing, especially with the invention of e-books and e- readers.

It's also become a place where people can come to use the Internet.

I think our libraries are gonna continue to be important resources for our community; it's just a matter of how do we develop a library that meets the needs of the community.

The Salt Lake-Moanalua Public Library will continue to be a part of people's lives, or as one of the speakers put it, a pillar of the community.

From Moanalua Middle School, this is Sophia Dipinto, for HIKI NŌ.

Welcome back to Mililani, the town built on pineapple fields.

Believe it or not, Mililani was once covered in pineapple and sugarcane until the early 1960s.

Hawaii is just as well known for its pineapple as it is for its beautiful beaches.

Pineapples used to inhabit our land, just as the Hawaiian alii did.

Hawaiian chiefs thought of Mililani as rich land.

With the rich soil and rain, the Hawaiians could grow crops.

The same conditions applied for producing pineapple.

Though the pineapple fields are not in Mililani anymore, Dole, the owners of the pineapple company built a museum to remember Hawaii's pineapple fields that are gone today.

Our next story takes us to the Garden Isle, where students from Kapaa High School tell us about a traditional game from Japan that is all the rage on Kauai.

Oh, my god!

A new trend on Kauai has appeared over the summer with surprising popularity.

The sensation that is Kendama has showed up everywhere, from surf shops to elementary schools.

In the past three months, we've ordered over a thousand Kendamas, and they're all sold out right now.

We have regular customers coming in, and they all purchase like their fourth or fifth Kendama, and they just stay in the store and they play it and battle each other right here.

[CHUCKLE] Kendama is a present-day play on the traditional ball-and-cup toy found in many cultures, and is thought to have appeared in Japan as early as the late 1700s.

This little toy has become so popular that competitions have sprung up on weekends.

The competition is a lot of fun, because you get to show off what you can do.

And then if you catch it, you're just like, Oh, my god, wow.

Competitions, I never entered.

I believe competitions are not for Kendamas; they should be just to have fun and everything.

I mean, that's what it's for.

It's a toy, so why not.

[CHEERING/APPLAUSE] There are thousands of trick variations with unusual names, from Ken Flip to Inward Lunar.

My favorite tricks would have to be Tornado, Handroll, and Lighthouse.

Airplane ... Inward Lunar.

As long as there are kids to enjoy the Kendama, it will continue to be a source of fun and competition.

This is Rilee Neuman from Kapaa High School, for HIKI NŌ.

Welcome back to Mililani, an all-American city since 1986.

During that time period, Mililani received the All-American City Award from the National Civic League for recognizing our community's ability to work together to tackle problems and achieve exceptional results.

It was in the early 1980s that our town faced a water contamination issue from chemicals from nearby pineapple fields.

In reply, our community put together a campaign, and a petition of six thousand two hundred and twenty signatures.

They then presented it to the Mayor of Honolulu, who gave our city water filtration devices that now sit next to the H-3 freeway.

Through the town's effort, we then received the All-American City Award.

But this wasn't the only reason Mililani received this award.

Mililani is a planned community with shopping centers placed in walking distance of many residents' homes and bus stops built near parks for parking ease.

So far, Mililani has been the only town in the State of Hawaii ever to receive this award.

We now go to the West Coast of Oahu for a story from Waianae High School about a struggling student who finally finds help.

What do you want to play with ...?

Making others happy is what it's all about for Daisy Agae.

[CHUCKLE] Her little brothers couldn't agree more.

As a sophomore at Waianae High School, time is off the essence for Daisy.

Did anybody wash clothes yet?

From being the mom of the house, cooking, cleaning, and washing everyone's clothes, Daisy has barely any time for herself.

My daily routine is that I wake up at seven, and then I feed my brother.

And I have to make sure that my brother is ready to get to school at eight, eight-fifteen.

After school, I come home, cook food, and then I stay up all night to do my homework.

Although her mother lives at home, a fall that left her barely able to walk forced Daisy to take control of the household duties.

It all started when I was twelve, because that's when my little brother was born, and that's when my mom fell, like a major fall, and she could hardly walk.

... Oh, yeah.

Her brother Samson was born with physical complications that makes it hard for him to eat and breathe on his own.

With all the responsibilities at home, Daisy finds it hard to change her attitude towards school.

My grades are kind of low, 'cause of all this.

My grades are like Ds or Cs.

It's an all too familiar story at Waianae High School in the Leeward Complex.

With dropping HST scores, it lets the DOE that schools here need help.

So it May 2010, the State applied and secured the Race to the Top Grant.

It's a federal initiative for schools or states, or schools part of different states, to make improvements.

Race to the Top is a $75 million grant that will be split among the Nanakuli Complex, Waianae Complex, and the Kau Complex on the Big Island.

These schools are receiving this extra support in means of funding extra programs at the school campuses, where we are now able to offer tutoring, additional courses for students.

For this year, we will be extending the learning time.

For Daisy, this means she gets more time to hang around in school in hopes of cleaning up her grades.

It's been pretty challenging, because trying to balance out how to do your homework, plus cook dinner and make sure that your brothers and sisters go to sleep on time.

Yes, it is tough to balance, but she knows that it will be the only way to truly help her family.

I'm gonna go into the Army.

I'm gonna let my family move in with me, so I can take care and go to work.

The steady balance between home and school will remain uncertain, but if the extra hour does help to improve school data, it will not only make Daisy happy, but also the rest of the schools in the zone.

This is Dezalynn Tiell from Waianae High School, reporting for HIKI NŌ.

If you'd like to comment on this story or anything you see on HIKI NŌ, join the discussion at facebook.com/hikinocando, or send us a Tweet at twitter.com/hikinocando.

We're back in the upper part of Mililani Mauka in the field across from the middle school, where the eighth graders participate in their yearly Walkathon.

The purpose of the Walkathon is to raise money for a cause or causes of each track's choice.

In the past, Mililani Middle School has walked for organizations such as the Mokuea Island Restoration Project, Dads Against Drugs, and the Ka Paalana Organization which helps homeless families that are struggling to survive and educate their kids.

Since the annual Walkathon started eight years ago, Mililani Middle School has raised over thirty-one thousand dollars for multiple charities, and each year, that number grows.

Our final story takes us to the Windward side of Oahu, where students from Kainalu Elementary show us how to recycle electronic waste.

Have you ever heard the term e-waste?

We asked some of the students at our school if they knew what e-waste was.

No, I've never heard of e-waste.

I have no idea what e-waste is.

We found out that zero percent of the students knew what e-waste was.

E-waste is the discarding of electronics such as computers, cell phones, keyboards ... TVs, VCRs, and other electronic devices.

Getting rid of electronic devices is a growing problem.

That's why there's e-waste drives where people can drop off their old electronic items to get recycled.

Here we are at Kailua Intermediate School's parking lot, where they're having an e-waste collection where the community can bring in their electronic waste to get recycled.

Today, I'm bringing in my old computer monitor.

Just doesn't seem to be working anymore.

I'm recycling my e-waste to make sure that the future is not as polluted with any type of electronic products like the one I'm discarding today.

It's pretty crazy.

Probably enough electronic waste to fill up an entire skyscraper.

Once we collect the e-waste, we take it back to our Halawa facility.

We shrink-wrap it, put it on pallets, and ship it to Roseville, California for final destruction.

Hawaii has a policy for discarding e-waste which requires manufacturers of electronic devices to collect the products they manufacture and recycle them.

Currently, the law in Hawaii requires television and computer manufacturers to register with the State and to fund the collection of the products that they're selling.

Most of Oahu's municipal waste is taken to the H-Power facility where it is processed into energy.

H-Power also recovers 20,000 tons of metal for recyling each year.

What H-Power does on Oahu is it collects most of our municipal waste from our homes, grinds it up, burns it, and turns it into electricity.

The best thing to do is pull the recyclables out before it goes to H-Power, but H-Power does have the ability to sort through metals and aluminum and cans, and pulls those out so they don't get burned, and they do get recycled.

Here at H-Power, we have magnets and another system that removes metals like iron and aluminum and copper.

So we're able to recover those and take them to the right place for recycling.

It's precious metals like are in computer parts.

They can put those back into the manufacturing process and make new electronic products out of it.

We can be good stewards of the environment by recycling our e-waste and not dumping it into the landfills.

You can have recycling drives in your school and community easily.

Just contact an e-waste recycling company and make a scheduled pickup.

I'm Hannah ...

I'm RJ ... And I'm Hunter, reporting from Kainalu Elementary School, for- HIKI NŌ!

That's it for this episode of HIKI NŌ.

Remember, all of these stories were made by hardworking students like us.

We hope you've enjoyed the show as much as we have.

Tune in next week to see the students of Hawaii HIKI NŌ.

Can do!