Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation Mini-Grants
Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation Mini-Grants fund projects and teachers from Hawaiʻi schools to assist in advancing their environmental goals in the classroom and pursue stewardship endeavors. KHF Mini-Grants are available to assist Hawai’i public school teachers pay for supplies and trainings for their classroom environmental education initiatives of up to $200 per teacher or $1,000 per school.
Applications for the 2013-14 school year will be accepted now through March 1, 2014.
Click here to download the application.
For questions about Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation Mini-Grants please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Here are a few KHF Mini-Grant projects from the 2012-13 school year:
Aiea Aquaponics/Agriculture Project
Project created to establish and maintain an aquaponic system at the High School and make ese of the and maintain land behind the school to create a farmland setting all for educational purposes. The project will be an on-going effort to educate students now and in the future about the math, science, and labor behind aquaculture, aquaponics, hydroponics, and agriculture, and the difference between each.
AINA In Schools, Garden Component
Students will build bins with worms that will provide the gardens with nutrients for the plants.
Aquaponics
Enrichment program student will learn about the positive impact that a simle aquaponics system has on the environment and to students’ overall health. Some of these benefits include growing vegetables without the use of pesticides, being able to grow 10 times as many veggetables with the same amount of space, and using 70% less energy and 98% less water than traditional farming practices.
AVID First Year Memorial Garden
This is the first year implementing the AVID program and we would like to start a garden. This would be a great foundation for future success for our kids, being able to learn in a hands-on environment.
Building a Healthier Campus: Mind, Body and Community
Holy Nativity School’s (HNS) mission for academic years 2012-2014 is to move toward a healthier campus in mind. (i.e. improve the rigor of the education by promoting out of classroom and project-based learning), body (i.e, address the way our children understand nutrition and engage in movement noth on and off campus), and community (i.e, working to make the campus more “green” for the godd of the student and the greater East Oahu region through green initiatives and community service). For this application, HNS seeks Kokua Hawaii Foundation’s help to support the “community” component, mainly to contribute the school’s initiative to help reduce the campus’s contribution of land-based run-off in an effort to help improve the health of Maunalua Bay.
CSI:KALO - Cultural & Scientific Investigations in Container is Kalo Culture
Students will apply the scientific method in investigating the feasibility of container growing several varieties of Hawaiian Kalo using a variety of naturally occuring media materials. Students will research and discuss, with the input of cultural and scientific experts, the mythilogicial, historicial, nutritional, and cultural significance kalo palyed in ancient and modern times and report their findings in various modalities.
Dole Gardens
Students in our Newcomers team of English learners will apply science, math, language, and social studies concepts through an interdisciplinary curriculum as they research, build, plant, maintain and harvest a school garden. Eventually, the rest of the students in the school will be involved in growing and harvesting plants through their science classes as they create and plant raised bed gardens and living walls around campus.
Eco Explorers: Finding Eco Solutions through Campaigning on Campus
This project will create oan outdoor learning environment for kindergartners. Students will have the opportunity to explore nature as our best teacher. Students will engage in a variety of outdoort lessons that are aligned to the Common Core and Hawaii Cnotent Standards. Students will learn about conversation and gain an appreciation of nature.
Exploring a School Garden
We will construct an exploratory wheel once a week which is where we’d like to do a school garden.
Garden Warriors Farm to Table Challenge for St. Anthony School Presentation of Learning
Students are participating on the planning, growing and preparing for the snack for our big Presentation on May 17th. This is a Schools of the Future event and St. John Vianney will also be present. The students are researching healhy choices and using items they are growing in their garden to create the food for everyone in the school community. Our main goal is to educate our school community on making healthy eating choices and choosing local options.
Green School Summit
2nd Annual Green School Summit is to educate students leaders in becoming advocates for environmental sustainability and advocacy. Our goal is to move closer to
Kaelepulu Learning Garden Enhancement
The Kaelepulu Learning Garden has been created and needs enhancements in order to incorporate new environmental (ex:water cycle in the garden) and cultural (ex: Hawaiian surviial garden) lessons. In addtiion, materials are needed to enhance the effectiveness of time within the garden while promoting health to our plants and systems.
Kalihi Waena Elementary School Wide Recycling
The 4th grade students will lead a school-wide effort of reducing, reusing, and recycling. We will provide each classroom with a “blue Bin” and do follow-up presentations and lessons to increase everyone’s knowledge and practice of malama ‘aina and aloha ‘aina.
Ka Mala ‘Olelo Hawaii
Students in Hawaiian language classes will utilize the proposed mala olelo (olelo garden) to learn about the appropriate vocabulary and language to use in a garden or outdoor setting. This will teach them necessary language skills in a real life context. The goal of this project is to give students another context to practice and strengthen their olelo Hawaii.
Making Vermicast from Cafeteria and Paper Waste
We would like to have a worm bin to divert school cafeteria and paper waste to support our gardens. Cafeteria staff, students, and teachers will collaborate to create vermicast to support our gardens.
Malama Earth
Malama Earth is an afterschool environmental awareness program for 4th-6th grade students that is entirely voluntary, and will be presented as a club to encourage participation. Once a week there will be workshops where environmental concepts will be workshops where environmental concepts will be discussed, then there will be a correlating hands-ons-activity, then finally, connection are made between the student, the project, and malama for our earth.
Nana Ka Maka Hana Ka Lima
This project will focus on teaching students’s aquaponics with the use of HCPS III Science standards. The project will also increase student interest and participation on “green” sustainable living.
Native Plant Rain Garden
In partnership with Malama Maunalua,we have started our first phase of researching native plants that would be most appropriate for the Kaimuki area. We are currently in touch with a nursery who will be helping us with this selection and we are also working with Malama Maunalua to plan and implement the project. We are going to get both plants and seeds (some by donation, some by purchase) and allow the seeds to grow in pots until they are ready for planting. We are anticipating this process to take around 4-6 months (advice from nursery). So our goal is to get the plants started this summer and then this upcoming school year we will get them planted. We are also planning to use rain barrels. The installation of them will take some time too because the drain that will feed the barrels are made of steel so we will need to get this handled by a professional who can assist us. It is a big project and one that we are excited about!
Outdoor Classroom No Child Left Behind
We will design and contruct an outdoor classroom. This classroom can be used for outdoor learning opportunities or just a change in venue from the typical indoor classroom. The goal of this project is to create a healthy outdoor environment for learning opportunities (particularly science)where there is fresh air and natural lighting.
Pearl City High School Special Education Green Campus Project
This is the second phase of the PCHS SpEd Green Campus project that currently is compositng approximately 50% of the pre-consuner and post consumer cafeteria food with our 10-foot pipeline worm system and two commerical Protapos with black soldier flies. This next phase would involvebegin training our Resource recovery trainees in methods where we process 100% of the cafeteria waste and begin tacking te paper, newspaper and cardboard generated by PCHS through additional composting methods such as thermal composting and bokashi technologies. The goal of this project is to drammatically decrease the organic waste (food, paper, carboard) being thrown away into the school dumpsters. To train Special needs studens to become Resource Recovery Specialist for future employment.
Pipeline Worm Bin
We have established a Native Hawaiian garden on campus and will be setting up an aquaponics system which will make up our Outdoor Learning Center. In addition to the garden and aquaponics system, we would would like to include a pipeline worm bin as a part of our Outdoor Learning Center.
Recycled Paper Makeover
Kindergarten students will recycle paper/contruction paper to create the invitation cards for our Spring Showcase. The invitations will be sent home and to special guests who helped our students completed the project.
School Waste Management through Vermicomposting
We will be reducing paper and green food waste from entering landfills by doing vermicposting. Vermicompost will be used to grow edible produce inour school’s garden.
Sustainable School Garden
We want to support our unit of study on plants with the hands on project of building a garden, because learning by doing is best.
Vermicomposting: A Simple Way to Make a Big Difference - Part Two
We will be installing a pipeline worm bin to continue our vermicomposting efforts. We are making the transition from a single 10-gallon bin to a larger 10-foot pipeline.
Vermicompost Project
We would like to expand from our vermicompost classrroom bins to worm hangout
Worm Farm
Students will build bins with worms that will provide the gardens with nutrients for the plants. Students will collect garbage and cuttings, fee
In-Class Presentations Ideas
Bishop Museum: Holoholo Science - We Come to You!
Holoholo Science is a traveling science outreach program that brings exciting, hands-on, standards-based science to your school. Presented by dynamic science educators, the programs encourage inquiry and exploration, and offer the rare chance to handle scientific specimens, cultural artifacts, and state-of-art equipment. For more information please visit their site: www.bishopmuseum.org
The Green House
Does your classroom need a worm bin? Would you like a classroom workshop on eco-footprints from The Green House? Are you ready to start a garden with your students?
For more information please visit their site: www.thegreenhousehawaii.com