“The most beneficial part of working on this project has been the opportunity to work with practitioners and experts who hold deep knowledge and have been crucial in the sharing of the practices with folks like us.” — Sanoe Marfil, Chief Programs Officer at INPEACE

What do Hawaiian culture and STEM learning have in common? Both are on display and open for exploration via a mobile, hands-on science exhibit created by the Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture (INPEACE).

The Native Hawaiian nonprofit organization in Kapolei, Hawaii, fosters an interactive learning environment to encourage interest and engagement in science and math for students from preschool to eighth grade. Thanks to grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), science experts, teachers, students, and cultural practitioners collaborated to design the 'Ike Hawai'i Science Center Exhibit using a culture-based educational approach that links indigenous knowledge and practices with scientific theory.

INPEACE serves communities with a high concentration of Native Hawaiian individuals and focuses on education for the entire family. All of their programs are grounded in Hawaiian culture and span from early childhood education to family economic education.

For example, when discussing concepts about saving money and planning for the future, they used fishing as their teaching model. That is, when you are fishing, you don’t take more fish than you need at once—instead, you leave the smaller fish, which will grow and be harvested at a later time.

Sanoe Marfil, Chief Programs Officer, oversees the daily functions of all the programs at INPEACE and said that several areas of expertise had to combine to provide such an enriching and multilayered exhibit offering. “For the 'Ike Hawai'i Science Center Exhibit, I worked with a team of individuals including a project manager, a cultural specialist, and a scientist to achieve our goals,” she said.

Based on the outcomes from this project, INPEACE is working on two additional mobile exhibits—one about mahina (the moon) and another about lawai’a (fishing practices). These exhibits—which will again combine science and culture—are in the creative design phases, and the team plans to complete them by 2023.