HCAP WEEKLY February 13, 2023

Fatherhood in February
The STEM Student’s Tower Dilemma
The Kūpuna Independent Life Series’ Full First Day
The Kūpuna Independent Life Series is back in full swing serving those 55+ in the Waiʻanae community. The series continues its tenth year of providing services at the HCAP Leeward District Service Center with a record number of attendees on the first day of the spring session. HCAP has a longstanding partnership with the Hawaii Pacific University – School of Nursing to lead the health education portion of the series. Volunteers from HPU’s senior nursing class are joining the kūpuna over the next ten weeks to teach a curriculum centered on dangerous infections that attack the immune system.
Other community organizations joining the kūpuna for workshops this semester are, the UH SNAP-ED Nutrition program, Eye Foundation of Hawaiʻi, National Kidney Foundation of Hawaiʻi, AARP – Waiʻanae Chapter, Kūpuna Aikido Waiʻanae and LCC Waiʻanae Moku Music workshop with Professor John Signor and Star Kalahiki. The Kūpuna Independent Life Series will run through April 14th.
The Kūpuna Independent Life Series is held twice a year, in the spring and fall. This free program provides kūpuna (age 55+) with health education and support to maintain their independence. For more information, contact HCAP’s Leeward District Service Center.
Fatherhood in February
This week at Head Start classrooms across the islands, fathers engaged in various activities with their keiki. Some fathers and their keiki played educational games or read stories. Others created posters together or spent time outside planting something to grow in the garden. Having these positive role models visit the classroom added more excitement and fun to the day. HCAP wants to thank all fathers for volunteering. Your presence within the classroom makes a lasting impact on our program, staff, and the keiki. Mahalo nui!
Click Here to learn more about Head Start & Early Head Start Programs.
The STEM Student’s Tower Dilemma
Students from the Hā Initiative: Creative After-School STEM Program explored the question, “Is newspaper a strong or weak material?” by completing some engineering challenges. In the tower-building contest, teams were given only five sheets of newspaper and an arms-length of tape to build the tallest, freestanding tower. Once the timer stopped, group members were not to touch the tower or else they would be disqualified.
In the end, there was a dilemma. One team at the Lincoln STEM Exploration center asked, “can we tape our tower to the ceiling fan?” The instructor just said, “the rules state at the end of the 30 minutes you may not be touching the tower.” After the time was up, their tower was undoubtedly the tallest, measuring at 2.5 meters, but another team claimed that their tower was better because it stood at 1.8 meters without being taped to the ceiling fan. The students had fun problem-solving situations like an engineer might face at work and had some friendly competition. But, there still has to be a winner! Who would you vote for?
Click Here to learn more about the Hā Initiative.