"kipuka" is a hawaiian word that describes oases of vegetation surrounded by lava flows, from which spread seeds that RE-start forest growth

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $129,298 cooperative agreement to the University of Hawaii at Manoa from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023 under the Coastal Zone Management Estuarine Research Reserves program (CFDA 11.420). The funding will support enhancements to five outdoor education structures located at the He'eia National Estuarine Research Reserve to safely host pre-K through college student and teacher groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the structures will be upgraded to sheltered, well-ventilated classrooms without walls that provide access to the culturally and ecologically rich surrounding environment for small group, socially distanced instruction. A $129,298 subaward to Kakoo Oiwi will support the "Educational Kipuka: Safe Spaces for Growth and Learning" project to deliver estuarine and science education programming, including the Teachers on the Estuaries program, that will preserve student engagement and lay the groundwork for future recovery in the context of steep declines in participation at informal education organizations due to the pandemic.

There is an urgent need for educational kipuka: safe spaces where students can continue learning. In the long-term, this investment will catalyze greater engagement with the education community and increase capacity to deliver programs. The covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to classroom-based education. In distance-learning situations, K-12 students and teachers face major challenges in maintaining engagement and physical, social, and mental health. Schools in hawai I are beginning to reopen, but reducing student numbers on campuses will continue to be a strategy for reducing disease transmission for the foreseeable future. At the same time, informal and outdoor education organizations nationwide have seen a steep drop off in participation and revenue. A study published in june of 2020 estimated that by the end of the year, over one third of outdoor education providers would cease operations, with the impacts disproportionately falling on communities of color (collins ET AL. 2020). The education programs of the he EIA nerr and its partners served more than 4,000 prek-college students from july-december 2019. An additional 2,000 students visited in early 2020 prior to the complete shutdown of visitor programs in march. New infrastructure is needed for the reserve to continue to offer safe, on-site estuarine and science education programs, including the teachers on the estuaries (TOTE) program. Given these factors, the he EIA nerr is proposing to assist kako O oiwi to enhance the functionality of five outdoor education structures (appendix 1) as kipuka to safely host prek-college student and teacher groups during the pandemic, thereby preserving student engagement and sowing the seeds for future recovery and regrowth. The structures are essentially classrooms without walls, providing a well-ventilated, yet sheltered space with easy access to a culturally and ecologically rich surrounding learning environment. The structures are suited to small-group instruction, and are dispersed over a wide area to increase both safety and accessibility of remote parts of the reserve.