Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 1, 1 January 2017 — New space fosters innovation, inspiration anel education [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New space fosters innovation, inspiration anel education

ByTreenaShapiro f innovation isn't the first word to eome to mind in relation to Kamehameha Schools, its new Native Hawaiian Collaboratory in Mō'ili'ili could change that. Outfitted with design space and rapid prototyping materials, eomputers, audio visual equipment and a high definition 3-D modeling system, the two-story educational laboratory is intended to spark creativity, as reflected in its name Hālau 'īnana. And, as "collaboratory" suggests, it's available to educational, business and eommunity partners with a similar interest in enhancing the innovation, social entrepreneurship and leadership of Native Hawaiians. "It will be the piko where Native Hawaiian learners meet for inspiration or to potentially inspire others. A plaee that fosters creative thinking, knowledge sharing, incubating

new innovations that may impact the Native Hawaiian lāhui," Kamehameha's description reads. Recently, Kamehameha Schools hosted Oceanit Research Foundation and its partners from South Korea to introduce educators and potential partners to Alhno, a coding system that helps non-coders te.ach stndents how

to build intelligent robots using different Dro2rammin2

languages like VPL, C language and Rasberry pi. An Android curriculum fosters programming skills as students leam to create their own

smartphone apps. Workshop attendees learned South Korea has made coding a mandatory school subject, like

language arts and math - a reauirement

that has already turned one of Seoul's most troubled schools into one of its most successful. But the new directive ean be hard to imple-

ment when most teachers aren't coders themselves, whieh is where Altino's curriculum, software and tools are intended to help. Several Kamehameha and Hawaiian-focused charter school educators spent two days at Hālau 'īnana programming their own robotic cars to see if Altino makes sense for their students. The space at 2438 South Beretania is available to other key partners interested in supporting students as thev move from hiah

school into college and careers, ultimately becoming contributing members of the lāhui. For more information, contact Kamehameha Schools' Executive Strategy Consultant Stacy Clayton at stclayto@ksbe.edu or 534-8358. ■

Last month, Hālau 'lnana hosted dozens of educators and community members interested in learning about software that helps students learn to code. - Photos: Helson Gaspar

Educators were able to test drive the Altino coding system by programming their own robotic cars.