Gratitude for STEAM

Aloha Island School ʻOhana,

What a wonderful week we had, including our unusual break on Thursday in honor of Prince Kūhiō Day! We were so glad to be back together to close the week, especially as we know so many on our neighbor islands are still recovering from the major storms and flooding. As things have settled in, we are waiting to learn where our collective effort might be best placed to help with the recovery – with a sister School or an impacted community center. We’ll keep you posted when a plan emerges. 

With all that occurred around our State this past week, we were so grateful to focus in on what we do best, learning and growing with our students. If you were on site today, you would have seen students beginning to prepare for Hōʻike along with a mass of colorful baseball hats across our campus. Why you ask? Because today was STEAM Day with our PreK and Elementary students, with many of our Middle and High School students acting as mentors and teachers to their younger counterparts. STEAM not STEM? Indeed! STEAM is the acronym for Science - Technology - Engineering - Arts - Mathematics. STEAM, beyond STEM, recognizes that the Arts are a critical component of seeing the beauty in how the world works around us. It was a WONDERFUL day of joy and learning - from tracking our heart rates and learning more about the body, to building tracks to see how gravity impacts water flow, to the engineering design behind paper airplanes and using a microscope to see a slug up close. Clearly what we could feel and see is that STEAM is FUN! Big Mahalo to our Elementary and Na Pua Keiki teachers who led the day and to our US teachers who created opportunities for our older students to celebrate curiosity learning with younger ones.

This is the power of a small school. Our students get to see and explore new ideas with their peers and with adults who know them and care greatly about them. What a great way to close the week!

As always, we are so grateful to you for entrusting Island School with the education of your children.

With gratitude,

Nancy Nagramada P’29

Head of School