THE LAST POST EVER

The Ho'oulu Ia Kamehameha project is finally over...as in over, over. We're done! With much anticipated relief, there is now a time to look back at what we had accomplished.

Back when fourth quarter was just starting, we had learned there was to be a project in which we would have to fix some type of problem at Kamehameha, in a way that relates to physics that is. And so the quest began to find a problem and solution. Looking back, I wouldn't have changed what we did. I believe we choose to attack a problem that has and will continue to impact Kamehameha. The tardiness challenge took some time to figure out, but in the end, we took care of it. I feel our 5-minute warning had a significant impact on the students of Kamehameha because it was campus-wide. Not only were the number of tardies reduced, but we also had a happier atmosphere, which was unanticipated but highly appreciated. For this being the time of year it with what with finals coming up, seeing students dance and be happy showed us that this warning has other purposes too. It has been suggested to us that we look into sticking with one song/tone and having that as a 5-minute warning. In all honesty, I see that failing for the lack of uniqueness to it; after awhile, thanks to psychology, the bell becomes an ignored noise for many, and it would cease to serve its purpose. Hopefully in the future, this project can be continued. Although it is a hassle for students to do during the passing periods, I hope that it can one day be part of Island Signal's system.

Having said that, it's a bittersweet moment to look back at what we had all done, all the stress that had been paid, all the waiting that had idled us...and now we're done. I remember when this project first started, and we had no idea what to do. And then we thought of something. And that something succeeded and came to fruition. A successful project now completed, we can look back and know that what we did had a real impact on Kamehameha.

I wholeheartedly believe that our project worked because our group had no dead weight. All members were productive and did what was asked of his responsibility. We never missed a blog post (except for this final one, haha, but this is individual, so it doesn't affect my group members' multipliers. Atleast I hope not). We worked as a group on all aspects of the project. When one of us needed help, we helped out. When someone needed to go see a person in charge, the others waited for response and looked for other people to question. I am completely happy with my group; I could not have wished for a better one. For a whole quarter, I got to meet new people in my class, and that was pretty cool.

Final Blog Post

Today marks the final day of the 4th quarter besides finals.  Doing this project during the 4th quarter was a very fun and enjoyable experience that taught me a lot.  I feel that the project was a great success that all came together the night of our presentations.  Things that went well with the project are that we the students we able to make a difference in the school that can be seen, some on a bigger scale than others, but just knowing that you made a difference is rewarding enough.  Also i like how this project was able to make me more familiar with my group members and helped me to get to know people that i didn't know before.  Things that didn't go to well include, a very long waiting process and not enough time to collect data.  However these thing could not have been prevented and were all apart of the learning process.  Waiting for the administrations approval showed me how much people go through in order to plan events for us.  It also tested our groups patience, but was so rewarding when it finally came through.  One of the main things I learned from this project is to always expect the unexpected and be able to adapt to it quickly.  I was taught this when our group had to face the waiting period of over a week to get our bell approved.  It showed to me how hard it is to get anything approved by administration, and made me thankful for all that our class advisors do for us.  I think what could be changed to help make this project better is that we have student logs of what we did each day.  This will show exactly how much work is being done, and if need be will be able to show who messed up where.  Other than that i would keep the project the same, because it was a really new and exciting experience.  I do think that I was doing science, however it didn't feel like it.  I was having so much fun doing this project that it didn't feel like science although we clearly were doing science every day, wether it be inquiring data or coming up with a hypothesis.  In general this project was a great success and i would really recommend that it be done in the future.

It All Comes To A Close

After 10 long weeks dedicated to this project, we are coming to a close. We have completed are final presentation during the symposium and have just turned in our final written report. Now that the project is over, it is time to reflect on what we have done and learned.

Overall, I think that this project really taught me a lot about many aspects in life. We had to deal with actual deadlines and actual people making decisions that we really couldn’t control. We learned to work as a team and to fulfill our own responsibilities or take the consequences. In addition to teamwork, we used problem solving skills and creativity to construct and implement our own ideas. This project is very unique and something that was well worth my while.

Some things that really went well include the symposium and actual completion of our projects and many of them working. The blog posts were a nice way to keep track of our progress and inform others who were interested in what we were doing. Like many things in life, not everything went the way we could have hoped. However, this is what made the project so realistic and meaningful; it showed that not everything will go the right way and you have to simply adjust. For example, the

If I could change anything about this project, it would be the time given. I believe that this is more of a semester project rather than a quarter. Although most groups were able to compete their tasks in the allotted time, I believe that over a semester, projects could be better planned, and data collection would be more accurate as far as longevity.

Was all of this related to science? IT’S PHYSICS BABY! Everything in life is science and when you collect data, you are truly doing science. That is what we did, and that is what we accomplished.

Thanks to Mr. Blake for the life lesson, and thanks to Princess Pauahi for the opportunity!

Image: http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/images/topics/monarchy/pauahi-03-398x459.jpg

Final Blog Post

I thought that the overall project was really difficult, but fun at the same time. It was rather difficult because we had to really analyze Kamehameha Schools and pinpoint a major problem on campus. Our group brainstormed for a week or so and was finally able to identify a complication at school. The project was also fun because we were able to run a five-minute warning on both high school campuses for almost a week. Being in charge of a major undertaking like the warning bell was truly an awesome experience. Several things went well with our project. One thing was we were able to reduce the number of tardies on campus, which was our initial goal. We also were able to make Kamehameha a happier place because the students were able to hear some of their favorite tunes over the PA system. We even caused students to dance, which was totally cool. Another positive thing was that the hallways were much clearer, and all the credit goes to our implementation of the five-minute warning. Along with the good things were things that did not go as planned. One thing included the five-minute warning turning from a whole song to a 20-second clip. This was because Mr. Ako was in a meeting at the time of the first warning and said it was a bit of a distraction. Another thing that did not go as planned was the late implementation of the warning. We had scheduled with Mrs. Martin to have our proposal out by May 9, but it was postponed because of AP testing. From this project, I learned that I can’t please everyone in this world. This is so because a certain number of individuals complained about the music selection from time to time saying that they wanted their requests over the PA system. I believe it was hard to please everyone, especially when you are apart of a campus of 1600+ students. Through this experience, I did whatever I felt was best for the vast majority. All in all, a vast majority of students enjoyed the music selection and said it was really good. To make this a better activity, I would say that the school service students should manually run the five-minute warning instead of us. This would be better, so we wouldn’t have to personally go into the office five times a day to run the PA system warning. It would really save us a lot of stress and trouble. To make Ho'oulu iā Kamehameha a better project, I would say that the students should have more days than just a quarter to work on their proposals and implementations. Maybe give them an entire school year, while still doing physics activities at the same time. I honestly do believe we were doing science. This is so because the five-minute warning implemented music and music includes sound waves. Sound waves are directly related to physics, which is in part science. Also, our group was collecting data during the implementation portion of our project by asking teachers to record the number of tardies before the warning was set up and even after. Data collection is directly involved in the science process, so we were definitely participating in a science-related activity.

Post Presentation

Friday night was the night of our speeches and the culmination of 8 weeks of hard work finally came together.  Everyone was feeling the pressure, however were still able to do the presentation.  As for our group, i feel we did exceptionally well.  The grades we got were 40/40 for the powerpoint/keynote presentation,  and 108/112 for the actual presentation.  We could not be any happier with these grades seeing as it translates to a 97 % for our final exam grade.  The overall effort my group members and i put into this project definitely paid off.  We could not have been more happy for ourselves and happy for each other.

Presentation Day

Today is the day of our final presentations! We have finalized our keynote yesterday with several bits of information, pictures, and even videos. Each of us has different responsibilities in our presentation. Tylar is covering the proposal, Sam is going into detail about our design, I am dealing with the implementation, and Jessica is explaining the results and concluding our presentation. We feel rather confident in our group’s presentation and truly believe that we’ve made a difference on campus. The bell has had many positive comments and feedback from not only teachers, but also students. We hope that the parents and administrators see how big a difference this bell has made on campus.

Final Day!

Today was the last Block Schedule day of the school year, which means it was the last day for the 5 minute warning. Although the Five Minute Warning (FMW) has only been implemented for 4 days, we have seen a change in the student body. The combination of the end of the school year and the FMW has appeared to liven up the school. As we walk through the hallways during passing period and the sound of the PA announcement warning tone rings, students anxiously wait for a song to be played. Some students would sing along with the songs played and others would dance. Many students made the primary use of the FMW and got to class on time. It was somewhat saddening today to give the last warning. We announced over the PA that it would be the final FMW and we even played the song a little longer than normal. We really believe that it made a difference at school despite some opposition from some students. We have learned that there is no way to please everyone, but when a majority is happy with what you've come up with, that's all that truly matters.

Image: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/kam/campus.gif

Third Day of Implementation

This is our third day of implementation of the five-minute warning. The results have been positive with many compliments. We can see that the music has brought happiness to the hallways and has reduced tardiness at Kamehameha. On the other hand, some teachers have complained about this endeavor of ours because the music has “ruined their concentration.” Also, several students have complained about music selection and aren’t always satisfied with the respective songs. Today, we have played “Replay,” “Super Bass,” “Danza Kuduro,” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” We are starting to end our control over the PA system, but we have definitely seen a change on campus.

Today is the second day of having our bell in action. It's a good feeling: something WE have put out there, a product of our doing that affects all, and it is being sounded all through the high school campus. We have observed that students are enjoying the music, first by dancing to it and energizing themselves and second by getting to class on time. We noticed that the hallways were significantly clearer. I had even talked to a friend, who shall remain anonymous, say that he wants to hurry to upper campus just to make it in time to hear the music. Having such an upbeat clip of music makes a different in the demeanor of students. It makes the students happy.

The following songs were played today:
--Rolling in the Deep - Adele
--Cupid Shuffle - Cupid
--The Show Goes On - Lupe Fiasco
--Hello - Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette

Friends have told me that they're pretty excited for the music. Whenever the ring comes on to announce something over the PA system, they anxiously await to hear the period's picking.

However, we face the problem of volume control, first and foremost. Yesterday, some of the music was a little soft and others were a little loud. Trying to find a balanced, controlled level of volume will now be the goal. Another problem we have is duration of the music. Currently, we are playing clips for 30 seconds. There are students who want the music to be longer. This creates the problem for the teachers trying to instruct their students. Whatever, they heard this at the faculty meeting; they should know and not be salty.

Overall, we are happy with the response we are getting. It's great to hear some feedback. I hope we can continue this with positive results.

Positive Results

Today was the first successful day of our bells implementation.  The results we got were uplifting and made us feel proud of what we were doing.  We noticed that not only did our bell make students more prompt for class, but it also brought smiles to the faces of students in the hallway.  Some students were moved by the music so much that they started to dance.  In order to achieve these results we had to troubleshoot.  At the first bell our music was too loud and it wasn't a good experience for some people, however we were able to fix this problem by the time the next period came around and things were running smoothly.  We feel good about our solution and are anxious to see how it will do in coming days.

Here We Go!

Monday is just several hours away and we are ready to implement our warning. Unfortunately, due to the process of approval for this warning, we will only have 4 days that it will be up and running. This will still give us some data to compare the "non-warning tardies" to and we will be able to see if our project actually had an impact on the tardies. For tomorrow, we will begin putting in the warning 5 minutes into the passing period. The times that the warning will begin will be 9:00, 10:30, 11:20, 12:10, and 1:40. For our warning, we will be playing a song during these passing periods over the PA system. For Monday, we will be playing Hawaiian music and see how it works out. Hopefully, the songs will be loud enough to be heard over the PA with all the noise of the busy hallways. We are getting really excited as we FINALLY get to test out our idea.

Image: http://travel.mauidreams.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Woods-Koa-Top.jpg

Monday, Monday, Gonna Get Down on Monday!

Today’s class included completing the Olympiad, which took the entire period. Our group is very excited to implement our new bell system to the high school campus on Monday. We have created a specific system for the implementation of the five-minute warning music. Tylar and Sam will manually incorporate the music into the PA system on even days, while Jessica and I will play the music on odd days. This is so because half of our group has free periods on one type of day, while the other half has free periods on the other. Our group still has to discuss what types of music we shall play on the PA system for the week. We will probably aim for a good selection of Hawaiian compositions from famous local singers. Our group believes inputting the new warning bell system will be easy and doable for the next four school days. Let’s hope that the school is ready for this type of change!

And It Begins...ON MONDAY

So today if Friday, the 13th of May. Our bell was successfully implemented...kind of. Two days ago was the deployment date where our device should have been put into motion. And it was, in a way. Technically, it could have been, but AP testing got in the way. Now, as we go into the weekend, we are awaiting the bell on Monday. On Monday, at 9 am, our device will be implemented in motion. The projected times in which the bell will ring are as follows: 9am, 10:30 am, 11:20 am, 12:20 pm, and 1:40 pm. After days of patiently (and stressfully) waiting for the bell to be put into action, it has been set in place. Our group is sad that the bell could not have been put into place on Monday. That is the day that Mrs. Martin came into our class and told us that it could be put into place. Now, we've been waiting while other groups have their devices implemented. Waiting is the worst, though. Waiting is what we hate the most. And hopefully, after this weekend, there will be music (the "bell") to signify the warning to get to class. ON MONDAY, IT WILL HAPPEN. IT WILL!

(http://ohs.leusd.k12.ca.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/568565/Image/old_school_bell_ringing_hg_clr.gif)

The Wait Continues

Today our final product was supposed to be deployed and its effects felt.  However our solution couldn't be deployed due to a few unaccounted variables.  When developing our proposal we didn't take into consideration the students who will be taking their AP exams.  We understand that our fellow classmates don't need any more distractions and we have took them in consideration and decided to move the launching date of our solution to next week Monday.  What we are working on in class and will be working on for the rest of the week is our rough draft, our keynote presentation, and finally our final peer review, which isn't due until after the presentations. 
"Waiting Room ." Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.aiga.org/Resources/SymbolSigns/gif_large/17_waitingroom_inv.gif>.

It's Here!....and It's Gone...

After our approval of the warning bell/song being implemented, we as a group have been so excited to see the turnout of this prototype. We have been so excited in fact, that we didn't think everything through fully. The bell is a go and the teachers have been notified, but there is one factor that we didn't think about. As we explained to our teachers yesterday at their meetings, one teacher mentioned the disruption of AP exams, by this 5 minute warning. We have decided to postpone the implementation of the warning until the AP exams have been completed this week. This means that the warning will be implemented come Monday, the 16th of May. This delay gives us more time to schedule how the warnings will be run, what songs/sounds to use for the warning, and let the student body know what will be happening, so they aren't caught off guard. The great news is, the project has been approved and we will actually be able to test out this warning. We can’t wait!

Day 28: Warning Bell Awareness

Today was a really productive day for our group. After days of waiting for administrative assistance in incorporating the new bell system on campus, Mrs. Martin set up a meeting with us during physics in the classroom. She discussed that incorporating the new bell with Island Signal would be quite costly, so the alternative would be to manually ring the five-minute warning bells in between passing periods. We plan on playing music at the five-minute mark of the ten-minute passing period to notify students that half the passing time is over. To get the word out about our Ho‘oulu Ia Kamehameha project, Mrs. Martin proposed that our group talk to the teachers at their faculty meeting today after school. Jessica and Sam traveled to Paki after school, while Tyler and I stayed in Konia. At the presentation, we presented our proposal to the teachers and got some insight from the faculty. One comment regarded a possible interruption with the new system and AP testing. Taking this into consideration, we may need to postpone the new bell system until AP testing is over, which is next week. I can now sleep at night knowing that our system has been accepted by the teachers and faculty at the school.

Preparing for the Coming Week

As the days count down to the final implementation and physics symposium, we continue to work on our presentation and finalize our bell. To be quite honest, this is much more difficult than we would have ever expected. We got off to a reasonable start with interviewing teachers and trying to find a problem. That is something we will mention in our final presentation. We have also made it a point to mention the process we've gone through. For example, calling Island Signal multiple times to get the bell set up and then meeting with the administrators.

This week in physics, we will continue to work on our final presentation speeches and keynote. Sam has already started the keynote presentation, and we will figure out who will say what. Basically, we will tighten up our proposal and detailed design so that it is eloquently described and answers the questions that will be asked. We need to take more pictures for the final project. Data collection has begun as well. We shall use that as additional data and, hopefully if the bell is implemented soon, can use the additional data to support the bell being a success.

An update: Hopefully, by the end of this week, we will have implemented the bell. Again, we have continued to inform Mrs. Martin about the urgency of the bell. We're still in high hopes that the bell will happen this week. THIS WEEK.

Day 26: Final Approval

Today our group got in contact with Island Signal and Sound and were informed that Mrs. Martin was interested in our groups ideas and wanted an explanation from us about the bell.  We are now sending her an email with an attachment of our proposal and if that is not sufficient enough we will schedule a meeting with her and clear up any questions she may have.  We are very focused on getting our bell out there to help the students.  Because we cannot do anything more to help the implementation, we have focused our attention to preparing for our final speech presentation.  Yesterday we divided up the responsibilities, and have each got started on writing and creating our keynote slides.  We will continue to keep our hopes up and continue to strive for excellence.  

Back In The Waiting Area

Since all there really is to do is wait for the prototype to be deployed, we are focusing on our future assignments. We have begun preparing for our presentation on the 20^th of May by starting our Keynote presentation and working on what we are going to say. We have divided up the tasks on who will be saying and preparing what for the presentation. As an update, we have given out data sheets to several teachers who have agreed to assist us in this project. They will be collecting data for us from within their classroom. For the past week the selected teachers have been taking note of the number of tardy students per period. This is, of course, before the bell is put into place. Now that the “constant” of our data has been established, it is time for the true experimentation. As mentioned before, we now await the sign from Mrs. Martin saying that the bell will be up and running. Let’s hope it gets done!

Day 24: Prototype

Today our prototype was to be deployed. Sadly, our prototype’s release date must be postponed on account of several factors, mostly miscommunication problems. Although we’ve submitted our blogs, proposal, and detailed design in on a timely manner, our prototype could not be expounded to the public on time. This is so because there was a miscommunication error between the Island Signal company and the administration at Kamehameha. We were able to get approval from the administration a week ago, but the contact between the two parties was not in order. As of today, Mrs. Martin and Island Signal are in contact with each other trying to set up the bell system, which should be up in a matter of time. All in all, everything that was preventing us from achieving our prototype deadline was out of our hands. We are just waiting for word from Mrs. Martin as to when the bell will be implemented.

Um...Maybe?...Okay, Probably Not

Today is Tuesday. In less than an hour, our prototype will have to be deployed.

That's where the problem begins. The 5-minute warning bell was supposed to be put into action by tomorrow. As of right now, at 11:02 pm on Tuesday, May 3, neither Mrs. Martin nor the other members of the administrative team have updated us on the status of the bell. Kala spoke to Mrs. Martin yesterday, and he said that she would call Island Signal to touch base with them on the implementation of the bell. Because she was not at the last AT meeting, Mrs. Martin is somewhat lost on the topic but reassured Kala that she would do her best to coordinate the bell. I don't feel confident that the bell will be in place by tomorrow. And that's fine. We've done all we could and scheduled everything we had to schedule and talked with people from whom we needed answers. Our proposals went out, the administration heard about what we wanted done, and they approved it (much to our surprise). We've been persistent in getting administration to contact Island Signal, but I understand that there were other more important things that they needed to deal with first. At the end of the day, we've done all we could and while not having the prototype in by the deadline is devastating, we really did try our best.

In the end, we're doing this for the students and teachers. We've stated our purpose in doing this multiple times, and we'll stand by our decision to have this bell. When all is said and done, we believe this bell will benefit the community at Kamehameha.

Day 22: Time is Running Out

Today is May 2nd, 2011; two days before our prototype has to be out and about servicing the students and faculty.  Where we are at right now is, we have been approved by the school and the administrators.  The only thing holding us back now is Island Signal.  We're patiently waiting for them to implement the new bell schedule.  However we're beginning to get a little worried as the due date is approaching fast.  The baton is no longer in our hands, and its been passed to the workers at Island Signal and Sound.  We will continue to contact them, and are hopeful that they will bring it home for us before the May 4th deadline.

The Week Is Here

After much planning and anticipation, the week of prototype deployment has arrived and we are hanging on by a thread. Our prototype must be implemented around Kamehameha by the 4th of May, which is when we will begin the second step in our data collection. Over the past week we have distributed a data sheet to various teachers, noting the amount of tardies per period. After the bell is implemented, the teachers will continue to record the amount of tardies in their class and we will hopefully see a positive change. In addition to preparing for our data collection, we will also be sending out an announcement to the student body, via Puka Mai Kala, informing them about the bell change. We are prepared for the bell to implemented, now we await the confirmation from Island Bell Systems to input the warning in our system. It's getting close!!!

Day 20: Awaiting Confirmation

Being approved by the administration at Kamehameha Schools is a blessing, but the road block is sort of getting to me right now. Our group is awaiting a confirmation call from Island Signal, who is in charge of incorporating the various bells on our school campus. After the verification from the company, our group will be able to actually get our prototype out in the "wild." At the end of this trial session, we will truly be able to see if this new five-minute warning bell system will be a positive attribute to the campus in eliminating tardiness during school hours.

Day 19: We're Approved...

We are approved! Having a thumbs up from the administration at Kamehameha is really great, especially since it's a student-based proposal. Now that we have consent from the head honchos of the school, we are patiently awaiting for Island Signal to incorporate the new warning bells into our school system. While we are at this pause in our scheduling, we are passing out our data charts to various teachers in order to incorporate data to our proposal. This will really be the portion of the project that will reveal if our proposal has been a positive aspect to the school, specifically in reducing the number of tardies. We're reaching for our goal of clear hallways with this five-minute warning bell proposal!

Day 18: Stepping Ahead

Last week, I had scheduled an appointment with Kumu Hailama regarding his view of our proposal. The appointment was scheduled for today, April 27, at 9:15.

After a brief overview of our purpose and why we are doing this proposed 5-minute bell in the first place, I got down to it. I handed Kumu Hailama a copy of our proposal and started explaining the red folder in generalized details. Right off the bat, Kumu Hailama said he agreed with our proposal when he heard it at the Administrative Team meeting. He then continued to share that the trial had been approved and was just waiting on Island Signal to get the bell scheduled into the block days (a note that some time may be needed as there is already difficulty and some inaccuracy with the current bell system). It was quite a relief to hear that we had the approval from Administration. Hearing Kumu Hailama say that he was for it, that it was a welcomed change to try something new, was amazing. The mere fact of the matter is that for the first time, one on one, I had the opportunity to see changes happen, to be a part of the implementation of something that will hopefully benefit students and teachers. However, it was brought up, I am told, that "students need to be INDEPENDENTLY responsible of their passing time." And there is nothing wrong with that. But what our proposed bell system is supposed to do is ween students into learning about that responsibility. The idea behind it is to help students; leaving them to learn responsibility cold-turkey would only do harm. Thus, the idea proposed was sound enough to gain Administrative approval.

How refreshing it is to hear that the Administrative Team is in favor of trying this! I am enthralled that the AT is listening to us and hearing our ideas. Kumu Hailama even emailed assistant Vice-Principal Mrs. Kimura to schedule the proposal at the meeting going on today. So it's progress; we're moving ahead, and things are being discussed. The main thing is that the Administrative Team approved our proposal. That was the challenge in itself.

Day 17: Keeping Our Hopes Up

Todays class period was another day for our group to spend working on our projects.  Today we were limited with what we could do, because our meeting with the administrative members isn't until tomorrow.  However we were still diligent with our time and found things to occupy our time.  We worked on our mid term peer review, as well as looked over our proposal again to see what could be done to make it even better.  Our next task will be to inform teachers about what we are doing, and ask they if they could help us fill out our data charts.  Tonight we will be hoping and praying that our plans go through tomorrow, to give us enough time to beat the May 4th prototype deadline.

"Hope." Web. 27 Apr 2011. <http://uploads.blogia.com/blogs/u/ul/uli/ulises/upload/20080418125132-hope.jpg>.

Day 16: A Change In Tactics

As our deadline for our prototype implementation nears, we have changed our tactics on getting the warning bell started. We realize that our Ms. Martin is very busy and has much on her plate; this means that there are probably more important things that she has to worry about right now than our warning bell system. We have decided to talk to Mr. Farden (Kumu Hailama) and set up the warning bell system down at lower campus instead. Our data collection will be the same and the design is all the same, the only difference is the location. We will be meeting with Kumu Hailama this week to discuss our proposal for the warning bell. Now, all we can do is...wait.

Image: http://walyou.com/cool-chess-sets/

Day 15: A Realization

"Stressed Out? Overwhelmed? Lost? There's Help..." My High School Journalism. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. http://my.hsj.org/.

Today, in physics our group really opened our eyes to the very stringent road-blocks involved with getting a proposal approved with the administration at Kamehameha Schools. Mr. Blake talked to our group recommending that we attempt to get Kumu Hailama involved with our proposal approval, since Ms. Martin has her hands tied a bit. Jessica made contact with Aunty U‘i in the Paki Office during class in order to set up an appointment with him. She was able to schedule a meeting on Wednesday during seventh period. After our talk with Mr. Blake, we have decided to make some revisions to our proposal in order to make it a bit more specific and accurate, so the administrators can truly see the thought process that has gone into this long project.

Day 14: Pushing Forward

Today we were told that the administration board had been informed about our proposal, and their approval would mean our plans would go through.  This idea of ours to help out the school, is footsteps away from becoming a reality.  We can only hope now that our proposal is effective enough to persuade these people and win their approval.  This task is a little startling at first, knowing that our solution is tangible and just around the corner, however we are determined for its success and will not give up hope.

Another reality that set it was the matter of time.  Today there is officially 14 days until our prototype should be out and about, and 21 more days until our final project needs to be implemented.   As the days start the wind down and the stress level starts to rise we will remain calm, and work together.  As Benjamin Franklin say, " You may delay, but time will not."

"Time Management Cartoon." epitomeofsuccess.com . Web. 21 Apr 2011. <http://www.epitomeofsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/time-management-cartoon.gif>.

Day 13: Getting in with the Know

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting with Mrs. Cheryl Yamamoto, Dean of Student Activities. As we sat in her office for a quick and very informal interview, I was alerted that the Administrative Team was aware of the 5-minute bell we had proposed. She let me know that she thought the idea was sound as she flipped through our proposal; however, she also brought up that administrators felt this time management between passing periods was a student responsibility. We still feel that this bell will help those walking from upper to lower campus and vice versa. The bell was designed with the intent on helping students get to classes on time, even if they do not have adequate means by which to tell the time. This was somewhat discouraging, but it was nice to hear that we had our foot in the door by our proposal being brought up at the meeting. It is a good thing we emailed Mrs. Martin when we did! Mrs. Yamamoto then informed me that Mrs. Martin, who had brought up the proposed 5-minute bell at the meeting, was looking into the cost and difficulty of having this proposed bell installed, as well as the earliest possible time the bell could ring.

The group that coordinates our bell system is Island Signal & Sound. Mrs. Yamamoto said Mrs. Martin would get information from them, but as our Vice-Principal was absent today, I decided to get answers for myself. The woman with whom I spoke on the phone referred me to Bob. Yes, his name was really Bob. Sadly, Bob was on his lunch break. I shall call tomorrow to inquire further the questions I still have about the bell.

This is progress. Hearing Mrs. Yamamoto say that Mrs. Martin had brought up the bell at an AT meeting is very encouraging. I feel that Mrs. Martin cares about our project and the students whom this would affect. At least now we know that our proposed idea was heard by the Administrative Team. Hopefully, now, action is taken, and we can move forward. I hope to hear back from Mrs. Martin very soon, with regards to her answer on the proposal.

Below is the information for Island Signal & Sound:

-contact: Lou Ann Souza

-tel: 845-1351/ fax: 847-4399

Day 12: Awaiting The Call...

We still await Mrs. Martin to reply to our e-mail, sent a few days ago. We understand that she can be very busy watching over the entire upper campus so we may have to make an appointment to see her personally. What we hope to do is propose our idea to her professionally. We will give her a copy of a revised proposal from the one we turned in and show her we are serious about this. The proposal will also contain the timeline for our project to show her we have thought this through. After showing her the proposal and timeline, we hope that she gives us some feedback and a 'yes' or a 'no'. Should we receive a 'no' from her, we will propose to her a Plan 'B'. Our Plan 'B' is doing the 5 minute warning bell add-on, on a smaller scale. Instead of implementing this warning into all passing periods, just put it in a few and see if it works. We hope that she will be open to the idea and allow us to test this warning, especially since it seems to work for the first period of the day. We'll just have to wait and see!

Picture: http://lifehacker.com/#!5613984/keep-your-waiting-for-response-emails-visible-so-you-dont-forget

Day #11: Timeline Preparation

Kamehameha Schools. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://www.ksbe.edu/campuses.php.

Our group has decided to follow through with the five-minute warning bell as our project proposal. Although Ms. Martin has not e-mailed us back as of yet, we have decided to personally pay her a visit this week in her office to ask her about our group’s proposal to incorporate a new warning bell. After proposing a new bell to Ms. Martin, we have devised a brief timeline to follow through with our proposal. After receiving approval from the administration, we will get the word out through Puka Mai Kala and the KS Connect bulletin regarding this new bell system, so the students are not taken completely off guard about it. We will then try and work with the administration on what the new bell should sound like and how to input the new ring tone into the system. Lastly, Ms. Martin and Kumu Hailama will most likely make an announcement over the PA system he day of the prototype being released to inform kids of the upcoming change in the bell system for the day. Depending on the prototype’s results, we will see if this proposal is definitely a change for the better.

Day 10: Through the Weekend

So today is Senior Picnic. And today is also the day we finished up presenting proposals to the class. I was not there. Kala has informed me that our plan has a go-ahead; though just in case, we should have a plan B. Now, it is imperative that we focus on planning a detailed design and timeline for our proposal. We will continue to work on a design for our bell, but it really cannot be modified unless we need a completely new bell. As for the timeline, we would have hoped to have met with Mrs. Martin, but she has not yet responded to the email we’ve sent her. Hopefully, she will get back to me by Monday. In case she doesn’t, I am prepared to meet with her in person. She will be able to tell us how to get our plan off the ground. Next week, I will also be talking with Ms. Zane at the Student Activities Center. Because she is the person in charge of writing the Daily Bulletin and the messages that pop up on the idling blue screen of the television, I feel she could give us some helpful information and insight on this bell schedule and how to get our plan jumpstarted. It is almost time for us to start this bell and to see how students respond to it. We will tighten our plan even more this weekend and discuss our advances next week.

(http://www.mycrunkspace.com/content/graphics/7b2c4850b12053748d659d9e219755d7.gif)

Day 9 The Next Step

Following each groups proposal yesterday our next task was to create a detailed design of our project which will consist of a detailed schedule and plan for the design, construction, and installation of your project, a complete list of materials and equipment needed, and finally a brief discussion of the design of our project.  Also we will need to elaborate on the underlying physics of our project.  We are very optimistic that our solution to this problem will be effective.  The only thing now that is preventing us from going out and putting our plan into action is the administrations approval.  Hopefully once we gain their approval we will be able to launch a prototype and get students and teachers reactions and feedback. 


"Happy Writer." freeselfpublishingblog.com. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://www.tip.duke.edu/independent_learning/language_arts/writers_journey_intro/JPEG_Happy_Writer.jpg>. 

Day 8: The Proposal

We finally finalized our proposal for this quarter long project. Our proposal was simply implementing a five-minute warning bell on block-scheduled days in order to warn kids that half the passing period is over. This new bell would have a completely different tone, which would cause students to realize that passing period is almost over. We want to have a frequency that will have enough intensity to be heard and noticed; along with a frequency that will be easily heard over the noisy hallways. We must also take in to account that the bell should be heard in areas where there is no speaker. This is the physics behind our solution, and there are definitely a few factors we must take in to consideration in order to implement our idea.

Day 7: Finalizing The Proposal

As we near our deadline for the completion of our proposal, we have successfully chosen a problem, found a physics - related solution, and put it down on paper. Today, we finished writing our proposal in a group effort and it has been completed. Tonight the paper will be finalized and ready for presentation to the class tomorrow. We have chosen to go with Mr. Mokunui's idea and implement a 5 minute warning bell in between passing periods. In physics we deal with sound waves and frequencies; this will be our physics connection.
Hopefully we will be able to communicate with our administration and they will allow us to test this out. School starts at 7:35 but there is a 5 minute warning bell at 7:30 to let us know that class will start soon. When students hear this bell they immediately make their way to class. If this 5 minute warning bell works for the start of the school day, then we believe it will help throughout the school day during passing time.

Picture: http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/campuses/lge/about.cfm

Day 6: Continuing with the Proposal

As we continue on with this journey of trying to solve some of the problems we have at Kamehameha, we struggle with formulating a sufficiently detailed and thoroughly thought-out proposal. At this point, our ideas still span in every direction because we have difficulty with the concept of having our problem connect to the physics aspect. The stretch we attempt to make regards time: the concept of time. Quite frankly, the decision to remove the restrictions of this project would be greatly appreciated, as it is very difficult to make a connection. The time we shall relate to students having a lack of independence and freedom on campus. We are heading in the direction of having students be able to leave campus.

What we really need to do now is continue with our planning and finalize our idea. This will come in class tomorrow.

(http://www.idswater.com/common/header/WP.jpg)

Day 5: Formulating the Proposal

Yesterday in class each group shared their results from their interviews with the class, allowing for a class discussion and guidance in the right direction.  What we found out from most of the interviews was that there was actually more problems than we realized, some of those problems happening internally within the teachers and administrations and some that everyone can see.  Following our discussion we were instructed formulate a 2-3 page proposal to our solution, keeping in mind materials needed, budget, and a timeline for completion.  With all the different problems around the school, it should be interesting to hear what the other groups have identified as their problem and their proposals to solving those problems.

"Romantic Boat Proposal." Mariage Proposal Ride. Web. 9 Apr 2011. <http://www.sailingbrooklyn.com/marriage-proposal-ride.html>.

Day 4: Sharing of Ideas

Maule, Shannon. "Ten Ways To Relieve Stress." AzTeen Magazine. Web. 08 Apr. 2011.

Today in class, all of the groups discussed their findings, which they uncovered from their respective interviews. I found that many individuals had had the same problems that I had encountered concerning the difficulty of this entire project. The teachers/staff members interviewed had given many problems to us students, but never truly gave us physics-related difficulties involving our campus or school lifestyle. In my interview with Mrs. Osserman, we discussed the problems involving our school administration. She stated that the administration is very closed off from our campus and feels like they are on their high horse. The administration is never among the students or teachers to really receive feedback on what the campus can improve on. Instead, the administrators send out surveys, which they don’t even utilize for improvement on campus. If there was a way to fix the problems that she voiced to me using physics, then that would be an ideal project proposal. Sadly, that is not the case in this scenario. If there was an tangible way to fix these problems involving the works of physics, then that would be the ideal project.

Day 3: Interview With Abraham Mokunui

As an English teacher at Kamehameha High School, Mr. Abraham Mokunui joins dozens more as a member of the faculty and staff of Kamehameha. Students often view teachers as higher authority who seem to have minimal or no problems whatsoever. After speaking with Mr. Mokunui I have come to realize that teachers either have or see more problems than that of which would come to a normal students mind. Mr. Mokunui has a very critical output on what should be done to help Kamehameha as he is not only an English teacher, but also a Kamehameha graduate.

On a more generalized portion of the interview, Mr. Mokunui presented some issues faced at Kamehameha along with ideal solutions that he believes could be effective. These issues include:

1. The use of recycled trash (bottles/cans)
2. Hallway Etiquette (loitering in the middle of the walkway)
3. Roadway from Paki to Akahi with cones (students moving cones into the middle of the roadway, making teachers get out of their car to move them out of the way)
4. Upper campus vs. Lower campus ( Minimal interaction between all grades 9-12)

After looking at Jessica's interview with Mr. Kauka, our group decided that time management and responsibility is an important issue that should be focused on trying to solve. With this in mind I asked Mr. Mokunui about problems he sees in Kamehameha with these aspects especially. He immediately replied that students getting to class on time seems to be a large problem.

"I don't understand why students are late to the second half of the day when they had lunch right before this (along with a 10 minute passing time)." - Mr. Mokunui.

He is absolutely correct because students have more than enough time to get from class to class. With a 10 minute passing period (assuming the student is let out from the previous class on time) a student can get to any place on the entire high school campus if they are aware of the time. Mr. Mokunui also noticed that many students don't realize passing time is over until the final bell to start class has rung.

During the interview we came up with an idea that a five minute warning bell might assist students. Perhaps a bell, with a different tone from the normal bell, would let students know that half of the passing time is over and create an awareness to get students to class on time. This is something that we can look in to further on in the process, but this is a simple and could be a cost effective way to help a growing problem.

Speaking with Mr. Mokunui has given me a greater outlook on the issues we face here at Kamehameha. Some of us are too blind to see the obvious problems we face that could easily be solved with simple solutions. Of the many things I got out of this interview is "awareness" and "mindset". Students and teachers need to be aware their surroundings at school to help make it a better place. Simple situational awareness like seeing trash around or knowing when your next class starts, can take away from some issues our campus faces. With the right mindset from not only students and teachers, but from all branches of the school system, we need to be willing to try new things to make our school a better place. Thank you Mr. Mokunui for the inspiration!

Picture Citation: "It's My Life . School . Time Management . You Vs. The Clock | PBS Kids GO!" PBS KIDS: Educational Games, Videos and Activities For Kids! Web. 08 Apr. 2011. .

Day 2: Interview with Jay Kauka

Interview with Jay Kauka, Psychology and Hawaiian History teacher on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.

As I sat speaking with Mr. Kauka, affectionately known as just "Kauka" to many who have taken his class(es), I discovered one thing: as students, we fail to recognize the problems of teachers. We drone through class and enjoy pleasant conversation with our educators, even ranting to them about our problems. But we never ask them about theirs, which is a pity. So as I sit and write this, it is absolutely vital to add that that fact was taken into account.

[After formalities and such have been graced, the girth of the interview is chronicled below]

Jessica Keomalu: So, Mr. Kauka, what problems do you have that Physics could solve?

Kauka: [Brief chuckle] "Oh, I have problems, but I don't know how Physics could solve them."

JK: It's alright, please describe further the problems you do have.

K: "My problem with the school is that I think our students could be a lot more productive, but they're being held back. The environment we have constricts them and it doesn't teach them to be productive. So, for example, how do you be more productive? How do we get you to learn more? How do we restrict you? We stop you from responsible, for both you and your own development. here, we don't allow you off campus. In a long period, let's say you have lunch and this period free. How much time is that, 2 hours? In 2 hours you can get something to eat, run errands, do all the things you need to do and come back up. That's all restricted. That kind of stuff you guys are restricted from. And homeroom, where we as teachers babysit you because [sarcastically] obviously you aren't capable of being responsible for yourself. And even when you have time on your own, you have to do something around here [campus]. I want you to be responsible, teach you to be responsible for yourself."

JK: I completely agree. How can we, as young adults, be prepared for this whole concept of "time-management" if we aren't allowed to do the meaningful things we need to do.

K: "Yes, yes. It's all apart of the constriction and responsibility. Now, I want you to be responsible for yourself. And I want you to be more productive. I want you to want to learn more and to learn a lot. And I think the standards, teachers give you busy work. They expect less of you, a lower caliber of excellence. Oh, and take this. The administration gives all these announcements and such. The other day we got an announcement about laptops. If a student doesn't have a case or a strap or cord, whatever, he'll be charged for whatever is missing. Right? Okay, so what's to stop that student from stealing someone else's stuff. Here's what's going to happen. What's going to happen is that because they don't have it, they're going to steal someone else's. I'm thinking, 'Well your the administration, tell me, you know this kind of stuff goes on. Why aren't we out there teaching them that stealing is wrong?' You know, instead of teaching them to take care of their own property. Instead, we just say, 'Ok, watch out for your stuff because someone's going to try to steal it.' Take care of your responsibility, take care of your own stuff. And if you're negligent, you pay the fine. I'm thinking, 'You're just supporting the stealing thing.' So...[sigh] that's my problem."

JK: I can see where you're going with this. In Physics, we have to make or implement something that can help your problem. And going back to the whole idea of us not being able to leave campus, we could work with something there. What if we could somehow use a check-in system for those leaving campus. Granted, we'll work the physics aspect out later, but having a monitoring system where the school would have tabs on us, but at the same time, we could be more independent.

K: "Exactly. I like your thinking. I like it. Because I'm just seeing a problem, and you're seeing the solution. That's real thinking. That's real thinking. That's what we don't have at this school! [slams table] There is an utter lack of real thinking happening here. And for you to come up with a solution on the spot, it's gratification to know that real thinking, real-life problem solving is happening at this school. There's another thing, why don't we have more thinkers, more kids coming up with solutions to their problems. You know, none of this text-book style problem-solving, but real-life application. Ah, there's another problem. Oh, okay, so as students, where's the independence? You just made me think of independent thinkers. We have kids in flocks to the same college just to stay with the Hawaii people. That's good and all, but where's the independence in that? None, absolutely none. With this way [as in the idea of a monitoring check-in system], I think it will teach students independence."

JK: Wow, okay, thank you for the input. But come on Kauka, I know there's more you can share. Basically, the more you give us, the more we have to work with so that we may find a way to fix or alleviate the problem.

K: "Going towards the teaching thing is, way back when I was a student, we got textbooks. My teachers expected me to know a heck of a lot of stuff. Some was deeper meaning stuff, other stuff was surface level stuff. But regardless, we had to know it. And we did, you know, we learned the stuff. But what about today? And I ask kids about what they know. The looks on their faces say it all. The kids today, they're poor at grammar, at critical reading, at English. They're poor readers. I think the worst department in this school is English because the kids, they don't know how to write, they don't know much literature. My problem is how do we improve that? How do we improve them knowing? I think part of the reason is this is a battle, how to get kids to study. And how do you do that? Well, it's possible to make studying interesting. The kids who struggle with a subject don't have the drive, don't study. They don't study. Okay, in college you go to college because you want to be there. You're gonna love it. You go, and you sit. You're in that lecture hall because you want to be there. You want to learn. Here, in my class, you have to be here. It's a whole different mentality. You sit in class, and you think, 'I wanna be here, I want to learn.' Whereas here, everything is required. My problem, I suppose, is we're not teaching kids what I wanna do, we're teaching them this is what I have to do. And you will be more productive when you want to be there. I think somewhere down the line we lost that. We like the school, we like the atmosphere, but how do we want to learn, how do we want to know more? I think this is one of the reasons, one of the things, I think the school has to have an active part in. The learning and the idea of kids wanting to be here, in class, learning and understanding. Those are the problems I have."

JK: Thanks, Kauka. This was very helpful.

K: "I think this project that you guys are doing is great. It's helpful, and I think in the end, you'll see the fruits of your labor. This is great, trying to solve problems we have at this school -- student-run change. Wow. Keomalu, when you're done with this, you gotta teach me how to do this project in Psychology too."

--Jessica Keomalu

So after that extensive and informative interview, I have now come up with possible physics-related solutions.

-The problem of being independent, to be able to leave campus during free periods. I understand that administration has the big problem of liability. To allow students to go off campus, still representing Kamehameha, is a huge liability and risk. The school, in the event of a serious event, has the big possibility of being sued. I understand that, but how else do we teach students independence? Sure, we can allow them to waste time on campus, droning away, doing nothing but wasting time. Or we can teach them responsibility: if you go off campus, be back before your next scheduled class or homeroom, or received a substantial number of detention hours. In this way, independence is taught. The solution: a security type gate similar to the one at Main Gate. Students will be able to leave by scanning their ID cards at these security gates.

http://www.oksolar.com/abc/gate_operators.htm for more information.