West Hawaii Explorations Academy PCS High School

This year, WHEA has started a robotics program. This project is comprised of both High schoolers and Middle schoolers, and was originally started under Mrs. White’s guidance. The students use VEX Robot kits to create and program robots with a specific task: to compete in the VEX Robotics game Clean Sweep. The first competition for the team was on November 21, 2009 in Hilo. The team allied with great people, and with much help, we came out on top. The team won first place, and got a slot in the World Championships in Dallas, Texas. But after the competition the students had to worry about the next competition in line, the Honolulu tournament on December 3-5, 2009. The students decided to redesign the robot, and with the help of a little fundraising, the students where able to get new parts and improve the robot. The robot took four days to build, and during the competition there were still things that the team was rushing to finish. Unfortunately the team did not make it to the finals. The team has taken this loss and decided to create another robot, using the extra time and money the team hopes to have to perfect the robot. The competition in Texas is in spring, and the Robotics project will start new fundraisers before then to try and raise money for the World Championships. If you would like to donate to the high school Robots team, please call WHEA at (808) 327-4751.

The robotics team had won first place in there previous Hilo competition when allied with former state champions. On December 3rd through 5th the robotics team went to there second competition on Oahu. The team members that went were Ben Purelle (programmer) from WHEA’s middle school vertical projects, Cameron Atsumi (designer, assembler and team leader) , Bruce Leanio (designer, driver and assembler), Taylor Anderson (assembler and driver), Jason Kaua, (the Muscle and reliable assistant in all fields), and Taylor Legler ( designer, driver and assistant when needed). Also Liana White (project advisor) and Tamari Atsumi (chaperone) attended this event.

By Michael Bell and Stephanie Vancil
This May we the seniors of West Hawaii Explorations Academy will all be going our separate ways. Even though we may all end up in different places in the world we know one thing for certain- we will use the lessons learned at WHEA throughout our lives. No matter what career fields we decide to enter or what we decided do, each one of us will aspire to make a positive change in this world.

Several of the seniors have decided to pursue an engineering career. Elai Dankner hopes to attend a UC school such as UC Berkley or UC Santa Barbara. He hopes to study mechanical engineering. Benjamin Plaut also plans to study engineering on the mainland and is currently applying to schools like Stanford, USC and Oberlin. David Sylva plans on studying sustainable engineering but does not know yet whether he will remain in Hawaii or move to the mainland.

Some of WHEA’s other seniors plan on attending college in the mainland, but will pursue other careers. Dylan Ressler is currently applying to UH Manoa, University of Iowa and Harvard but has not decided what he will major in. Stephanie Vancil has applied to several schools in Washington and California including University of Washington and Occidental College. She plans on studying international relations and environmental studies.

Now if you’re a junior or even a sophomore reading this, maybe a parent of the aforementioned grade levels, it would be good to get started now on preparing for college. Now everyone says, you should start in your junior and senior years, but it doesn’t hurt to start by 10th grade. The question is what can I do to help prepare for college or to help prepare my child for college? Well, parents and students have to do their parts in preparing for college.

In your 10th grade year, it doesn’t have to be rushed but, you can maybe start thinking about your career interests or even colleges. At this stage it’s all beginning, to get your classes in order, check out what you need to graduate with and what some colleges require. Most mainland colleges have different entry requirements than the Hawaii Department of Education does for graduation. For example, in Hawaii you don’t need two language credits to graduate, although almost all mainland colleges require at least 2 years of language in order to get in. For both students and parents, it may be time to start educating yourself about financial aid, admissions, types of colleges, locations, campus tours, etc. Parents, your knowledge of colleges can greatly help influence your child’s success.

The SAT – Registration and Planning

G.E.M.S stands for Girls Exploring Math and Science. It’s an event that happens each year, which is like a math and science fair for elementary student girls. Math and science are usually male dominated fields so the purpose of G.E.M.S is to create interest and confidence in math and science for girls. This year the event took place at the Keauhou Outrigger. Kyra Boyle, Mahea Traub, Mrs. Chinery, and I were able to be a part of G.E.M.S this year on October 29. We were able to present some of the projects at WHEA to 5th grade girls. The projects included Robotics, Clownfish Breeding, and Deep Sea. There were other stations set up by other groups that the girls explored such as Reef Teach. The girls were very interested and excited about G.E.M.S and it was obvious that they learned a lot that day. Next year WHEA should definitely be a part of such an empowering event once more.

This quarter has been a great one for WHEA. There have been many ups and some

downs, but WHEA has grown from all of these experiences. There was the Halloween Dance

back in October. This gained the school money to use for other things such as building or

construction(?) The Halloween dance was a fun experience for all who attended. For the occasion, because of the drug and alcohol awareness focus of the event, a video was made by students.This helped the students to see the outcome of what alcohol can do to you. The students involved in this were Kainoa Candelario, Makena Lee, Nick Jordan, Seldon Hoefner, and Michael Gore. They did an excellent job in making this video.

Reef teach is an experimental project that educates the beachgoers at Kahalu'u Bay about the importance of the coral, in hopes that they will be more aware of their effect on the reefs. The project's problem statement: Is Reef Teach effective in educating people on the importance of coral? The hypothesis was “Yes, reef teach members will be successful in educating beach goers, which will result in a decrease in human impact on the coral.”

2012, a date that has held similar stigma to the Y2K incident. Many people now believe that 2012 is the time of the apocalypse. However the calendar was not specific beyond that point that that ends the current age and we enter the age of Capricorn, a time of great change. During Y2K many people believed that the computers of the world would go offline and with the world so heavily entwined with computers the planet would regress to a pre industrial era. However during the age of Capricorn it is described that the perspective of reality would change and the world would “enter a great stage of change”. The change in many eyes constitutes the end of the world with fire and earthquakes and tsunamis. However, this change is believed by some to be one of good fortune that will bring the world into an era of renewed wellbeing and peace. However, this change was non-specific whether it would be for the better, it would be for the worse, or it could be bloody Aliens for how specific the Mayan inscriptions were. This is a continuing trend with Ancient Mayan literature; they tend to: A) Not leave instructions with their technology B) Be ludicrously non specific when they do leave instructions C) tend to have cryptic messages with their technologies. Therefore it is up to the readers to contemplate the Age of Capricorn, however I do NOT advise panic or worry, it is out of humanity’s hands

Look to the future with wonder

Signed,

Substrictus Flumen