Hawaii students make music at STEM conference

Melodies composed by students from every island, with help from singer-­songwriter Henry Kapono, are expected to be carried across the Pacific on future voyages of the sailing canoe Hokule‘a.

Students who participated in the voyaging song challenge at last week’s 10th Annual Hawaii STEM conference at the Hawai‘i Convention Center created original songs about unity while gaining insight into the songwriting and producing process.

They also got to record their songs in Mana Mele’s mobile, solar-powered Airstream trailer studio that was parked on Kalakaua Avenue. The Mana Mele Project is an educational program that brings youth into contact with professional musical artists.

The song challenge was one of three “hackathon” competitions offered during the event, which attracted about 1,000 high school and middle school students. The others focused on citizen science and coral reefs.

Kapono, a 14-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner, said the purpose of the activity was to get students to think globally.

“It’s better to confine yourself to the universe than to confine yourself to a little spot,” he said. “I think it opens the world up to everyone to understand music is all around you, so you just have to let it in.”

Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, which includes the Hokule‘a, told the students, “If we want to protect the lives of humanity, we’re gonna have to protect the Earth. And if we want to protect the Earth, we’ve gotta protect the ocean.”

Maui Waena Intermediate School student Shairene Mei Bayle smiled broadly and bounced in her seat at the thought of meeting Kapono and Thompson and competing in the challenge.

“To me, music is what helped me through tough times,” Bayle said. “It’s my way of an escape, in a healthy way.”

All eight groups that participated were declared winners and will have a chance to work with Kapono during the summer and join a one-day workshop at MELE Studios at Honolulu Community College.

In the citizen science hackathon, students had to create a phone app whose purpose is to help native species. The coral competition involved students designing 3-D structures for coral to grow on as climate change affects the ocean.

“It’s critical work,” said Mark Loughridge, incoming director of the Case Accelerator for Student Entrepreneurship at Punahou School. “If the corals die, then whole ecosystems collapse. So this is bringing the kids on the cutting edge to use their creativity … to build a better future.”

The two-day conference, held Wednesday and Thursday, offered other science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities and the latest technologies for students to explore. Speakers included Sabari Raja, CEO and co-founder of Nepris, which offers a technology platform that connects teachers and students with professionals at different companies, and Shah Selbe, a conservation technologist with National Geographic.