After going to talk to Ms. Martin, she said that she's not the person to ask for permission to use the field. Instead, she directed us to email Mrs. Yamamoto, who is the person in charge of student activities and such. I have emailed her on Friday asking her for permission to use Konia field to display our signs for the duration of our project. However, I have yet to reply to her because I need to discuss this with my group members because I'm not sure if they want permissions to use the field at Paki as well. However, I am really relieved because it sounds like she is willing to approve us.

Progress so far:

            - Approved Proposal

            - Complete Detailed Design

            - Collection of all Material

            - Working sign display

            - Almost completed signs

This is the progress our group has been able to make so far. We‘ve stayed right on track with all of our assignments and have been quick to finish many things ahead of time. Our working prototype needs to be out there and opperating by May 4th and I think we‘ll be more than prepared to meet this deadline. Everything is coming together well but we still need to keep collecting data by taking a survey of our peers. This is one of the most important factors of this project and I‘m kind of scared that we may be lacking information in this area.

Thanks Dad ! (:

In our “Complications :(” Blogpost, I talked about how we might not be able to purchase a sign display because the website we were planning on ordering it from was not able to ship the product to Hawaii. This would have been a major set back if it wasn‘t for my dad (: One night when I came home, I was complaining that we weren‘t able to find a sign display and that we might have to make one ourselves. He then went outside and brought in the item shown in the picture above. It‘s called a Sawhorse and my dad uses two of them to cut wood when he‘s working on one of our house projects. He said all we needed to do was clean it up and we could velcro our signs to each side and the signs would cover the holes. I thought this was a great idea and it definitely saved our group from a whole lot of stress. Thanks dad, you‘re the best (:

Today we have class and lehua went to the SPC to make the signs for us to use. Me and Jezus went to mrs. martins to ask if it would be ok to use our project on konia field. I hope that she says yes and lets us go on with our project. If not, we will have a lot of trouble figuring out where is the best place to put the sign again. I think the next best choice would be to put it in the middle of konia where everyone passes it. This would be a good idea because everyone walks past the middle of konia at some point in their day. Hopefully we will not have to resort to that though. So i am off to go with Jezus to mrs. martins office. this is a picture of Jezus, he is beautiful isnt he. i am so glad he is coming with me to mrs. martins office, because she scares me a bit.

Complications :(

Today, our group ran into a complication. In our detailed design, we explained that we would be purchasing two sign displays like the one in the picture above from Walmart for $22. When we looked at the sign description again, its dimensions read "10.5 X 25". This was definitely going to be too small to display the signs we were planning on making (that explains why it was so cheap!) So Mr. Blake suggested that we do a little more research and we found a larger sign display with the dimensions of 24 in. wide X 36 in. high. This sign was much larger but was priced at $80.75. Due to our budget of $100, we decided to deduce our project coverage area to just Konia Field instead of both Konia and Paki Lawn. This was able to solve the cost problem. Then Mr. Blake and I came across the fine print displayed above, "This item cannot be shipped to the following state(s): AK, HI". Great. Just Great. On top of that, the item is also listed as "online exclusive". Now we are not sure if we can even purchase this sign. Because of all the complications with ordering online, I plan to go to Home Depots tomorrow night with my dad and see if they have any of these displays in stock. If not, our team may just have to build our own display. Uhh Ohh :(

After taking a closer look at the sign we were considering to use, we became a bit worried that it would be too small to be very effective. It would probably still help, but it's only an added bonus that the sign stand with big and bold letters that just stand out. That being said, we might have to build our own stand to meet with dimensions of our preference. However, there's one problem- I'm not too handy at constructing things myself and never had much experience at it. But if it really comes down to it, I'm sure we would be able to make something decent.

Location of Project

Our group plans to display our newly made lunch signs on both Konia Field and Paki Lawn. At first, our group thought that we could just simply place the signs on the field and all would be done. But, Mr. Blake said we must first discuss our ideas with Mrs. Martin and Kumu Hailama for clearance. This simple task has become quite challenging because both administrators have not been responding to any of our emails, therefore, we will have to personally go in and see if we can set up a meeting that way. I don‘t think speaking to the administrators will be a problem and I hope they are supportive of our idea.

PC: Mr. Blake https://sites.google.com/site/hoouluiakamehameha/

Half of the quarter is almost up and I just have to say that I'm really surprised at how our group is handling this project. At first I had my doubts, and I thought that this project would just bury me knee-deep in work. But from where we're at now, I can see that we are going to do just fine. So far everything has been going well and we've been meeting all the required deadlines. We pretty much know what we're going to be doing from now, till the end of the quarter so I'm not worried at all. I'm glad we have a plan so we don't have to waste our time stressing out on thinking about what to do.

Today the detailed design is due at 3:30 via googledocs. We have consistently been working on our proposal and detailed design and are ready for this. I am glad that my teammates and I can turn in everything on time. We have been consistently doing good which will help us in the end with our multiplier. If we continue on our plan we should make all the deadlines and finish this project on time. I am also glad that we have split up the work of blog posts and writing for papers and the actual set up and break down of everything. This allows less work for everyone and more of a team bonding!!! In this picture Jezus is working hard on trying to complete his share of the project! great job Jezus!!

Late Night

So this is what happens when 4th quarter decides to just put students on blast. Since the beginning of this quarter, my group members and I have had to make time for all the work we‘ve gotten from every one of our classes. On nights when I have loads of homework, I sit out in the garage to make sure I don‘t fall asleep. Tonight we‘ll be working on creating our detailed design for this project. The requirements paper says it has to be 5-10 pages long, but I‘m not sure if that‘s including our proposal or not. This should be fairly easy to do, but it really does take a lot of thinking and evaluating. Making a schedule that works around everyone else‘s schedule is a real challenge, but with good communication between my group members, I think we‘ll be able to agree on something....hopefully (:

Physics Concept

http://www.mdiworldwide.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/265x/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/8320-ss.jpg

In our last physics class Mr. Blake had a discussion with us about our proposal. He gave us his insights on our project and said what he liked about how we're trying to solve our problem. I am very relieved that he said our project is in the right track and that he has approved our proposal. The only thing that he is worried about however, is our explanation on how our solution is "Physics-related". Our explanation in the proposal was pretty weak and irrelevant, and I understand how Mr. Blake wants us to give a more meaningful relation between physics and our solution. He suggested we explain the concepts behind the frame stand we're going to use because the manufacturers wouldn't be selling a product if it didn't work. Like he said, these companies sell these products because they are tried and true, and now all we have to do is just dig deeper and analyze why this is.

hundreds of blogposts

Today we were talking about how we are going to split up the responsibilities of the project. There are three major things that need to be done everyday. Someone needs to make a sign saying whats for lunch. Than someone needs to put up the signs around the campus, and lastly there needs to be someone who does the blogpost on todays activies and such. No one wants to do the blog posts because they require major thinking. We are deciding who is going to do what, and setting up the schedule for the rest of the year. Today in class we are looking over the proposals and seeing how they relate to science. it took us about forty five minutes to decide whose doing what. There was a lot of bickering and fighting, but eventually we used our group problem solving skills and came up with a conclusion. This is a picture of lehua, or team leader who helped us decide.

Still lots to do

During this week, we have a lot of work to do. Our detailed design is due on Friday, April 20, and it needs to include a detailed schedule for construction, an approximation for cost of materials, and continued research on the design of our project. Our report must be 5-10 pages and include all of this information. I‘m a little nervous about all the work we have to get done, but our project seems simple enough to the point where it shouldn‘t take us too much time to finish. Above are pictures of some of the materials we will need. We will need poster boards and other paper to create our letters with. These materials can be found in the SPC and will not cost anything. Having the SPC is an advantage, but can also work against us if closed too often. We will also need a sign display that we hope we will be able to find at Home Depot. Our design is very simple so I don‘t think we‘ll be needing many different materials.

Weekend Work

So as it was noted in our last blog, our proposal is finally finished. In the proposal we answered the various questions:

-How will your solution make Kamehameha a better place?

-Who will benefit?

-Is your solution unique or does it replicate something already available commercially?

-Is your solution practical?

-How long will it take to construct it?

I believe we were able to answer these questions to the best of our ability and that we had a practical answer for each. Our group feels that our solution to the "What‘s for lunch?" problem can be fixed with our simple solution, therefore we hope our proposal gets approved. Now that we‘ve met the requirements for this part of the project, we move on to the next task; the detailed design. We must create a detailed schedule and plan for the design, a complete list of material and equipment needed, and continue to research the design for our project. The deadline for a final project is coming around the corner and I feel our group is making great progress (:

Shopping

Our group just turned in our proposal and it's about putting up a big sign in the middle of Konia field, (and possibly Paki), to inform students to the answer of a very commonly asked question- "what's for lunch?" Now that we roughly planned out our idea, we started to look for sign stands that are suitable for holding up our posters. We've been searching online on sites such as Walmart and Home Depot, as well as other random sites that pop up on Google. There's a huge selection of stands, but we're trying to search for one with clear material to protect our signs from both nature, and students.

Purposal

We are currently in the process of finishing our proposal and are in really good shape for all of our deadlines. Today we are also discussing the thoughts of surveying people before and after we deploy our signs saying whats for lunch to see if it actually helps or not. We will survey fifty people everyday for a week, and see if they know whats for lunch. The following week we will survey fifty people everyday again with the signs being deployed there should be a significant drop in people who cant answer the simple question, whats for lunch.

Lunch

So, as the days pass by I am becoming more and more confident in our chosen problem to solve because it really is a big issue. Although I have noticed the problem of everybody not knowing what's for lunch before, it seems as if I hear that question all the time now. Now, all we need to do is to get some surveys around and physically record this data. However, I don't see this as a problem because I already have a good idea of what the results are going to be. I don't know if we're just going to ask around and tally data or if we're going to put up an online survey, but we should be collecting data soon.

End of the four day weekend

p.c. to kamehameha photo gallery 

Today is a regular schedule and the first day back from a long four day weekend. We have narrowed down our choices of we which problem we would like to attempt to solve. The problem of not knowing what for lunch is a growing epidemic. Everyday more and more people are asking me whats for lunch and i dont know the answer because NO ONE checks the email they send us. So to solve this problem we are going to post up signs about what the lunch is for the whole week and hopefully people will see them and can now answer the question what is for lunch today. All we have to do is make signs and post them up and that is going to be a lot of work, but its worth it to solve this problem.

Happy Easter (: (Establishing our Idea)

Happy Easter Everyone (: This weekend is definitely a good weekend because now that we‘ve agreed on a problem to find a solution to, we can start to work on our proposal. So my group and I have decided to address the question "what‘s for lunch?" This is a frequently asked question by many students and we‘ve decided to find a way to put an end to the constant questioning. Our solution is to make signs in the SPC that read what‘s for lunch that day, attach the sign to a wooden post, and stand it in the middle of Konia Field. Throughout the day, everyone walks past Konia Field and will be able to see the signs. This way, people won‘t have to ask "what‘s for lunch?" Although it seems simple, our group believes it could have a real effect on the students. Its simplicity also allows more time for the solution to work and less time stressing about creating it. To me, it feels like this project is basically doing itself and I‘m very excited to see how it affects our school.

the day before good friday

Today were doing the proposal for our project and finishing up the interview processes. I am happy with where we are in the processes i think we are making progress and will be on time on all of our deadlines which is good. We have come to our decision that we will be making signs that will be posted around school that says whats for lunch everyday for that week. This will take away the question commonly asked by everyone at school, what's for lunch? Hopefully now we can know the answer to those questions and spend more time on school work.

Interview

Today, using our time in Physics class, me and Pono went to go interview Kumu Chun for some ideas on our Hooulu project. He was very helpful and gave us valuable feedback on some of the ideas we already have. One thing we thought about was extending the time they keep lunch open at Akahi. I brought this up because nowadays, before the second lunch period ends, the workers start to put lunch away already, leaving some people unsatisfied and hungry. Extending the lunch time would definitely help in many ways like clearing up congestion at lunch and lessening the crowd. It would also be very convenient to those who have a free period following the second lunch period as they could choose to go to lunch later. Kumu Chun told us that he would try to shoot our suggestion down with questions, but he said we could compensate with him by only asking for a few things to be open.

Finding a Problem

It is day two of our plannin process and I still feel like we haven't gotten very far in distinguishing a problem on campus and creating a solution. Mr. Blake suggested that we collect information from people who know our campus the best, administrators and students. In order to come up with more ideas for our project, I was able to talk to my homeroom teacher as well as many other students. My homeroom teacher suggested that we find a solution to the crowded Konia breezeway after school. She said that one of the main congested areas she's noticed is the driveway that allow cars to exit and enter Konia Circle. As a student who catches the bus, I've noticed this problem as well. This could be a potential inconvenience that our group could look towards solving. After speaking with a few students, a lot of us agreed on one issue we encounter every day...asking what's for lunch haha. We all do it because we're too lazy to check our email and read the daily bulletin. Therefore, I thought that it'd be cool to put a board near the stairway down to lunch that would read what was for lunch that day. It would be in a very public place and everyone would be able to see it. This is the best idea I've been able to come up with, so I hope the boys have some ideas too haha.

By the way, this is the schedule for who has to post each day...DON'T FORGET (:

Day After Spring Break

Today we are currently working on trying to find a problem to solve. This problem needs to be solvable in the time frame given, and also must end up benefiting someone. We tried to brainstorm today, but sadly came up with nothing. I think we need to talk to more people about what they want to see be done at our school to make it better. In the past were a lot of great ideas which makes it even harder to be original. We are considering to fix the rubish problem and the troubles of getting to class on time. We have not yet come up with a specific problem to fix, or a way to fix it. I feel that we are getting off to a good start after a long break.

The Lorax (pono)

one of the assignments this spring break was to watch the Lorax. I personally thought it was a well made movie for all ages. I am 18 years old and i enjoyed it and thought it was pretty funny. The reason why Mr. Blake asked us to watch the movie is to get us thinking about how we can make the school a better place, like the boy in the movie. Even though we think the world is good, its not always the way it seems. In the movie no one knew the problem of no trees until the boy knocked the wall down and showed them what was really going on outside of their little world. Like the boy in the movie we should knock down the "walls" and figure out what we need to do to make this school better.

Lorax (Jezus)

Mr. Blake had told us to go watch the Lorax as one of our assignments over spring break. I had no clue why he wanted us to watch it and I was very curious of his intentions. I found out that he was trying to get us to be inspired to work for a better place to live in. We should take care of our land right now because every little bit counts. At first I thought The Lorax was just a silly kid movie, however I realized it was more than that because it had a deep meaning behind it, trying to inspire everybody to take care of our planet before it turns into an ugly place.

Bug List

So our group haven't thought about what we're going to do for the Hooulu ia Kamehameha project, but we have brainstormed a few ideas or "bugs" that we could try to fix in our school. We're still thinking about it and we don't have a solid plan yet, but here's some of the stuff we thought of:

- Working outlets in Midkiff
- Laptop charging stations (so students don't have to waste time plugging in their charger; don't need to carry around chargers)
- Create more places for students to hang out
- Alter dress code rules
- Simplify student identification
- Water bottle filling stations (so there's no long water faucet lines)
- Check out umbrellas so students to get wet walking to class
- Keep Konia field from getting muddy

The Lorax Blogpost (Lehua)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/03/02/the-lorax-why-do-dr-seuss-movies-suck.img.jpg

This weekend I took my little sister to watch "The Lorax". The both of us had no idea what this movie was going to be about, but only knew that it was a book written by Dr. Seuss. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed watching the movie. It was thoughtful, heartfelt, and presented a deeper meaning to the audience. Throughout the movie, the main character Ted, searches for the Once-ler to learn about what happened to the "real trees". He first tries to find this information in order to bring back a real tree for the girl he is falling for, but instead learns that bringing back a real tree has a bigger purpose than just impressing this girl. He is the only one with enough information in this movie to speak up and make a change. The moral of this movie relates well to what we are trying to do with this project. Ho‘oulu iā Kamehameha is a project which work towards urging students to stand up and care about more than themselves. It works towards forcing students to raise their voices and make the changes they wish to see in the world (in this case, our school) Just as the Lorax said:

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. Itʻs Not."