📝 Exit Ticket: More STEM Goodness!

As the school year glides ever so gracefully to a gentle and not at all sudden stop, we’d like to reflect a bit on a few of the positives from this school year!

Highlights from a Topsy-Turvy Year!

📈 While numbers aren’t everything, we’re proud to announce that STEM Pre-Academy initiatives have produced over 19,500 student interactions over the past school year. STEM Pre-Academy has always kept the focus on teachers, and it’s wonderful to see how much STEM goodness you have all brought to your students!

🌊 As a part of our goal to share the incredible work of UH research and innovation with teachers, in April we hosted the Waves, Reefs, and Resilience Workshop. Bringing together top-tier researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates, we explored some of the ways waves and reefs impact our islands. If you missed this fantastic collaborative event the first time, stay tuned!

🌞 Kapolani Community College’s own Dr. Aaron Hanai introduced teachers to the ins and outs of designing solar installations for schools utilizing easy-to-use online tools. Dr. Hanai’s own research and experience added an important local and scientific relevancy to the workshop.

🧑🏻‍🎓STEM Pre-Academy welcomed our new director, Lauren Kaupp! The highlights wouldn’t be complete without mentioning our fearless leader! Her experience, depth of knowledge, and her keen understanding of what makes teachers so incredible is truly a guiding light for the program.

Intern Congratulations

It’s never easy to say goodbye, but we are so excited to watch where the skills and talents of these three extraordinary interns take them! Congratulations to our graduating interns, Corey, Kailah, and Skyer! So much of what we have done this year was made possible (and made better!) by their incredible work.

And big congratulations to Team ʻĀina on their win at the international Farm Robotics Challenge. They took home 2025’s Excellence in Productivity (Air) award and a $10,000 prize! The entire team of students from the UH College of Engineering and College of Natural Sciences did fantastic work, but we are extra proud of our own STEM Pre-Academy Interns Rona Lei Duldulao and Erik Bendickson for their work! Watch the video about their entry and read more about their win from UH News.

Hooray to All of the State’s Science Fair Participants!

Congratulations to all the middle and elementary schools in the state of Hawai‘i that participated in the Junior Division of the 2025 Hawaiʻi State Science & Engineering Fair. And a special congratulations to the top winners who went on to represent Hawaiʻi at the International Science & Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio!

We would like to remind everyone that our lending library tools and resources are available for teachers to use for next year’s Science Fair projects!

C-MORE Updates

Even after over 10 years of most excellent service, the C-MORE Science Kits are still going strong! We’ve been working hard on some updates to the kits.

C-MORE Science Kits borrowing can now be done from the STEM Pre-Academy Toolkits for Teachers! The kits are still available to all educators around the state, but you will now need to be registered for our website if you aren’t already.

A big thanks to our C-MORE Science Kit hubs around the state! The kits are available for pickup at these locations:

O‘ahu – UH Mānoa (Mānoa Innovation Center)
O‘ahu – Waipahu Intermediate
Kaua‘i – Līhu‘e – Kaua‘i High School
Maui – Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary
Hawai‘i Island – Hilo – Mokupapapa Discovery Center
Hawai‘i Island – Kona – Hawai‘i Technology Academy

What’s Next?

It’s been a fantastic year and we are so very excited to dive into what comes next. There is so much incredible work going on at the University of Hawai‘i System, and we are excited to share how this work can inform your own teaching.

Do you have colleagues who would be interested in the work we do? We’d love to meet them!

Partner with Us!

If you’re UH faculty or staff and would like to collaborate with us, please send an email to stempre@hawaii.edu. Operators are standing by!

Upcoming Opportunities

Maui Ocean Science and C-MORE Workshop

Thursday, June 5, 2025
9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center
726 South Kīhei Road, Kīhei, Maui

Are you looking for a marine science education community on Maui? Would you like to gain access to free, engaging tools and resources for teaching about the ocean? We would like to invite you to our Ocean Science and C-MORE Workshop with STEM Pre-Academy, NOAA, and Oceania, our local chapter of the National Marine Educators Association! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to dive into marine education with your local colleagues!

Learn more and register now!

Science & Sustainability Festival 2025

Saturday, May 31, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Reduced admission – $5 Kamaʻāina and Military

Bishop Museum’s Science & Sustainability Festival brings together Museum scientists, educators, cultural practitioners, and community partners to highlight the ongoing work needed to protect biodiversity and build a sustainable future in Hawai‘i.

This one-day festival features keiki activities, workshops, exhibition highlights, special presentations, and interactive performances with scientists, cultural practitioners, and community organizers on the front lines of biodiversity research and conservation efforts in Hawai‘i. Visit activity and information booths that showcase the vital work of community partners and the interconnectivity between conservation initiatives across Hawai‘i. All day, enjoy music and performances with food and drink vendors on the Museum lawns.

https://www.bishopmuseum.org/science-sustainability-festival-2025/

State of the Science Address

National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will explore the current status of the U.S. research enterprise and strategies for navigating a rapidly changing scientific landscape in the second annual State of the Science address, to be delivered on June 3 in Washington, D.C.