HIKI NŌ 405 Next on HIKI NŌ; stories from across the island chain.

On Hawaii Island, Hawaii Preparatory Academy discovers how to build classrooms out of bamboo.

On Kauai, students from Island School will teach you how to stand up on a surfboard, while Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School investigates the pros and cons of Smart Meters.

On Maui, students from Seabury Hall Middle School learn that something you wear on your head can come from the heart, while Lahainaluna High School introduces us to a young woman who has found her dream job.

On Oahu, students from Kalani High School show us a quick way to make ice cream.

St. Andrews Priory asks students if they are for or against rail transit on Oahu.

Also from Oahu, this episode of HIKI NŌ comes to you from Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, home of the Warriors.

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

Welcome to Kapalama Heights, home to the Kamehameha Schools on the Island of Oahu.

Our six hundred acre campus sits on a mountain, which provides a very unique learning experience for our over twenty-seven hundred kindergartners to twelfth graders.

While many associate us as the school on the hill, our humble beginnings actually began down in Kalihi where the Bishop Museum stands today.

In 1887, the wishes of the last royal descent of Kamehameha the Great, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, were fulfilled with the founding of a school to educate Hawaiians.

During her lifetime, she witnessed the rapid demise of Hawaiians' health and welfare.

She believed education would improve the wellbeing of her people.

One hundred twenty-five years later, her extraordinary vision continues to inspire us today.

Our first story takes us to Kauai, where students from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School look at the positive and negative points of a new electronic metering system.

Kauai's power company, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, also known as KIUC, has recently started a new program that replaces all current meters with their new Smart Meters.

This is a Smart Meter.

This is what goes on the side of your house.

What it does is, it sends a signal and gives us the amount of energy that you're using.

This sends a signal into the office, so we don't have to send a meter reader out there at all.

So in the future it will enable you to be able to look at your own energy usage on a home computer or on an iPhone, see how much power you're using on a daily basis.

Despite KIUC's effort to make the Smart Meters a smart change, there has been a controversy against them.

They are causing widespread damage to people's health.

They can damage the brain, the lungs, the central nervous system, the immune system, the endocrine system, and cause cancer.

And children are especially vulnerable.

One of the reasons we're seeing the Smart Meters show up everywhere and technology that's not safe is because in our culture, what's rewarded is the fastest product to market, and not necessarily the safest product to market.

But despite the controversy, there are still others who find there are no problems with these Smart Meters.

Smart Meters are a good plan with very little downside.

I know that there are detractors, but I think that they're mistaken.

You cannot escape radio waves; it's all over the place.

In your house, your television sets, your cell phones.

The helpfulness for the Smart Meter outweighs the harmfulness.

And so, that's why I don't have a problem with Smart Meters.

We understand that some people have concerns about health, and we want to be sensitive to those concerns.

Somebody can fill out a form, and we'll leave their present meter on their house.

Each side has its own reasons as to whether or not a Smart Meter is good for you.

It is now up to each individual customer to look at the facts to make a smart decision for their household.

This has been Lia Yamasato from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, for HIKI NŌ.

We're here at the Kaiwakiloumoku Hawaiian Culture Center, Kamehameha Kapalama's newest building.

It's an intergenerational learning center dedicated to nohona Hawaii, Hawaiian living and learning.

Students as well as community groups can learn about traditions such as food preparation, crafts, and deep sea navigation through hands-on experiences at this site.

This year, Kamehameha Kapalama celebrated the opening of an updated middle school, Keliimaikai.

It features a very unique trait; no walls.

Yes, open classrooms achieve a more halau style of learning and sharing.

This makes a lasting impression upon them before venturing further mauka to the high school campus.

Our next story takes us to Seabury Hall Middle School on Maui, where students learn that a woven act of kindness can travel a very, very long distance.

Seabury Hall students are busy making hats on a loom.

The Hats Program at Seabury Hall has been going on since 2005.

Miss Debi Davis, our middle school math teacher, started the program with the vision of brightening the lives of underprivileged children all around the world.

I wanted to find a project that middle school boys and girls could do where they give other children around the world.

What The Hats Program does is, they make hats, which you can see right here, all these different kinds of hats.

They learn to do it on a round loom, and each student makes hats.

They are distributed to children all over the world.

It's a project where it comes from the heart.

They can do it, they complete it with their own hands, and it goes to somebody.

They'll never get a thank-you, they won't know which child gets it, but they know that they have helped some child somewhere in the world with the hats that they make.

Nick Corbat, a Seabury Hall freshman and former member of The Hats class, went to Africa for a safari during summer break.

During his trip, he visited a school and delivered hats.

When we would drive by, there was a little village, and they had like two schools.

And the kids would always come out and they would yell, Sweets, sweets!, because they wanted us to give them candy.

So we asked our guide where we should take the hats to, and he told us to go to the school.

Seabury Hall graduate Megan O'Malley visited Uganda on a missionary trip.

We went with a lady named Carol Adams, who used to live here on Maui, and she moved there about seventeen years ago and opened an orphanage, and it's called the Manna Rescue Home.

It's for kids infected by HIV or AIDS.

Many of the children are also battling malaria.

When they are infected by malaria, they get vey cold and then they get the shakes, so the hats will keep them warmer.

We've had former students who have taken them.

One student, when she was in college in Stanford, she delivered a bunch of hats to a country in Africa.

One year, we had a bunch of upper school students from Seabury take hats on their winterim to Peru.

They rolled them all in their backpack, and all the villages they went to, they passed them out.

We have delivered hats to Uganda, Rwanda, Peru, China, Russia, the Philippines, and then all over the United States.

We asked students in The Hats class how they felt about making the hats.

Heartwarming and fun.

Well, I feel like I'm helping someone, even though I don't, like, know who it's going to.

I still feel like I'm helping out in some way in the world.

The vision Miss Davis had has come to fruition as hundreds of children around the world have received the gift of a warm hat.

This is Marley Mehring for HIKI NŌ.

If you'd like to comment on any of the stories on HIKI NŌ, join the discussion at facebook.com/hikinocando, or Tweet us at twitter.com/hikinocando.

And now, to St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu for their Student Voices segment.

The question: Are you for or against the proposed Oahu rail transit project?

I'm more neutral about the rail, because I feel like it would be very beneficial to our island, but detrimental at the same time.

I'm against the rail because although everybody is obligated to pay for it, I won't be using it myself.

It's out of my way to have it being built even over burial grounds for Hawaiian ancestral grounds and whatnot, it's just ... yeah, I wouldn't use it personally.

I feel like it would affect a lot of people in a positive way because it's such a easy way of transportation for them to use, and it's more eco-friendly.

And given the fact that we've put so much money into it already, I think it would be a very wise thing for us to continue.

Welcome back to Kamehameha Kapalama, the home base for this episode of HIKI NŌ.

With students hailing from Waimanalo to Makaha, we face the challenge of transporting them to our hillside campus every day.

The Kamehameha bus fleets do just that.

They also transport students to athletic events, or more significantly, they shuttle us up and down the 1.5 mile long campus to our next class.

For some students, Kamehameha can really become home.

Students may board in Grades 7 through 12, and come from all over our island state.

In fact, some even hail from the U.S. mainland or internationally.

Over five hundred boarding students take advantage of Kamehameha's facilities after hours.

Over the course of their stay here, they create unbreakable bonds that can only be defined as ohana.

Our next story takes us to the Valley Isle, where students from Lahainaluna High School introduce us to a young woman who has found her dream job early in life.

Hi; my name is Tamara Paltin.

I'm a ocean safety officer here at the D.T.

Fleming's.

When I was eighteen years old, I actually applied for a job with the County of Hawaii as a swim instructor, and I got turned down.

[CHUCKLE] And they offered me a job at the beach instead, and I never looked back.

After that, I was sold on the job.

My first choice for like a career was to be teaching, so when I heard about this Junior Lifeguard Program, it was like combining my two chosen careers.

And I never got to do Junior Lifeguard when I was a kid, so I thought it would be kinda fun as well.

I feel drawn to the ocean because it's never like the same, yeah?

You can have like huge days, and the very next day come and it's flat, and then just like unexpected, unpredictable.

That's what I like the most about it, it's not gonna be boring.

It's kinda like the icebox, yeah?

That's where you go to catch your food.

But I mean, it's also ... you travel through the ocean, and you can recreate in the ocean, and pretty much it's everything.

It's not like an office where your boss is like standing over you, making sure you do a good job.

You have the opportunity to come to work in shorts, tee-shirt, and slipper, and possibly save somebody's life.

You know, and I don't think it gets better than.

We're back on the slopes of Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, where our freshmen and sophomores experience the grueling physical education program by running the hills.

We have one of the only programs in the nation that requires its students to participate in PE for four years as a graduation requirement.

As freshmen, students have the option of a 3K swim or a 10K run.

As sophomores, students must compete in a biathlon.

Freshmen and sophomores train year round and have a culminating event every May at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Here at Kamehameha, students learn the value of healthy living habits for a brighter tomorrow.

Now, we take you to Kauai, where students from Island School teach us how to stand up on a surfboard.

[MUSIC] So today, we're gonna show you how to stand up on a surfboard so eventually, you can learn how to do this.

Have you done any board sports before?

If so, which way do you stand?

You can have someone push you from behind.

Whichever foot you put forward is the way that you will stand.

If you stand with your left foot forward, you're regular; and if you stand with your right foot forward, you're goofy.

Your leash always goes on your back foot.

Now lay down, and make sure you're in the center of the board, not too far up or down.

Keep your head up and always look forward towards the shore.

Start by putting your back foot down, and then bring your front foot forward.

Or, you could just pop up.

Don't let your hands off 'til both of your feet are solid on the board.

Now you should be ready to stand up and catch a wave.

[MUSIC] If you'd like to comment on any of the stories on HIKI NŌ, join the discussion at facebook.com/hikinocando, or Tweet us at twitter.com/hikinocando.

Aloha, and welcome back to Kapalama Heights and our Kamehameha Performing Arts Center.

This is where students can hit high notes as part of our Chorus or Concert Glee, or take to the stage in theater classes.

And who doesn't love to dance?

Some like to get funky with the Kamehameha Dance Company, or go back to their roots as part of the Hawaiian Ensemble.

Lastly, there's an annual televised Song Contest where classes get together to compete for prestigious awards, and most importantly, bragging rights.

We take you now to East Oahu, where students from Kalani High School teach us a fast new way to make an old fashioned treat.

Do you want to learn how to make ice cream in four easy steps?

Well, here's how.

Ingredients ... A tablespoon of sugar ... Six tablespoons of rock salt, fourth teaspoon of vanilla, half a cup of milk ... A quart and a gallon-sized resealable bag.

The first step is to fill your gallon-sized zip bag halfway up with ice, and add in the rock salt and close the bag.

Make sure you close it tightly.

The second step is to put the milk, sugar, and vanilla into the quart-sized zip bag and seal it up tightly.

If you cannot drink milk, then you can use almond milk, soy milk, or rice milk.

Here is a helpful tip: half a cup of milk will make about one scoop of ice cream.

The third step is to put the mixture into the bag of ice and seal it up tightly, then shake for about five minutes or until it hardens.

When the five minutes are up, and your ice cream is ready to serve, you may add toppings of your choice.

Share the ice cream with your friends, have an ice cream party.

Enjoy!

We're back at Kamehameha's much acclaimed Akahi Dining Hall.

They say the way to someone's heart is through their stomach.

Well, let's just say the students here at Kamehameha are very loved.

Where else are you gonna find a dining hall equipped with hot entrée buffets for vegetarian and meat-eating students, two salad bars, two soup-of-day stations, a pasta bar, sandwich station, and a cold cuts station, powered by our amazing Akahi staff that treats us like family, which is what we are, considering our school's boarding program that is served three meals a day.

From our students to our staff here at Kapalama, we're offered the one thing you can't find at any other high school or college; Akahi family style dining.

We return now to St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu for Round 2 of answers to the question: Are you for or against the proposed Oahu rail transit project?

I'm against rail because taxes are being used to compensate for construction, everyone pays for taxes, but not everyone's gonna use the rail.

We could be spending our money that we put into these efforts to fix our roads, and to just make Hawaii a more eco-friendly place.

I feel that, from what I've heard on the radio, on the news, and what I've heard from my parents, that having rail would probably be very beneficial for that side of the island, just because it would help ease congestion.

And I know traffic is terrible over there.

I am against rail, because I feel like there's already so many transportation systems to use in Hawaii.

People use cars, and there's the bus, and people can carpool, whatnot.

And I already use the bus, I'm comfortable with the bus, and I don't really want to use the rail.

I feel like it's already taken up a lot of space and money, so I don't think I'd use it.

Mahalo for joining us here at Kamehameha Kapalama.

While most of our studies take place here, Kamehameha Schools is actually the largest private landowner in Hawaii.

To extend their reach to Hawaiians beyond our campus, our Land Assets Division provides community education partnerships to allow young people to malama ancient fishponds with Paepae O Heeia, or propagate native Hawaiian plants with Hui Ku Maoli Ola in Waipo.

Even when we break for summer, our campus remains open for a number of Explorations programs aimed at perpetuating cultural pride and providing enrichment activities for children not enrolled at Kamehameha.

With much mahalo for Kealii Pauahi's legacy, Hawaii's future generations are equipped with the cultural immersion and experience needed to become good and industrious young men and women.

Now, we travel to Hawaii Island, where students from Hawaii Preparatory Academy discover amazing uses for one of the world's most flexible plants.

I never really thought that much about bamboo until I met Bobby Grimes, a local farmer who caught the bamboo bug while attending a UH workshop, and has ever since been advocating for its use.

Now, he's working with HPA students to construct a temporary classroom made from bamboo, which we affectionately call Eco-boo.

Let's go check it out.

So, the type of bamboo that we've been using here primarily is guadua angustifolia, and it also grows fantastically around the Big Island of Hawaii in the Hamakua region, down in Hilo, down in Puna, where it likes nice soil, and it likes a lot of rain.

We've built three bamboo outdoor classrooms here on the island for kids to study environmental ecology, agro-ecology, organic gardening practices, and also let the kids learn to build with bamboo.

We designed the Eco-boo classroom to be easily movable.

We could lift up the structure and slide it around, we could move it, we could disassemble the bench assemblies and take it apart.

It's designed to be extremely strong, because here in ka makani land, the wind come over the mountain and can exceed ninety miles an hour.

We set a date to erect the major frame part of the building on Earth Day, as HPA had a big Earth Day celebration this year.

We made the tables that you saw in there out of a locally milled deadfall tree, and that's Norfolk Pine.

And the legs are made out of bamboo from Whispering Winds Bamboo on Maui, and they're brandisii.

Yeah, the blackboards are one of the more tricky things that I've ever worked on.

The frame of the black bamboo is atroviolacea gigantochloa.

And so, we rabbeted out the bamboo and we slipped in some mahogany plywood in there, and we painted it with chalkboard paint.

So it's all sustainably harvested local wood, and local bamboo as well.

So that was kind of part of the goal, was to see how much local building materials we could source for the Eco-boo classroom, and teach the kids also how to utilize the resources within our unique island community here.

The building is built to be very, very strong.

But to flex a little bit, that's the characteristic of bamboo.

It's very, very, very strong, but it also gives, and it's a good analogy for our students that they be flexible, yet strong in the face of the challenges that face us today.

Reporting for HIKI NŌ from HPA, I'm Remy Koppes.

[HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE] Well, that's it for this week's show.

[HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE] Don't forget to join us next week here on PBS Hawaii to see what the students of Hawaii can do on ... HIKI NŌ!