The Learning Emporium

The College of Natural Sciences Learning Emporium is a one-stop resource center for assistance in introductory level courses in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, information & computer sciences, and physics. These courses are foundational to most STEM degrees on the UH Mānoa campus. Students join a community of learners and engage in conversations to strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the material covered in the first two years of the STEM curriculum. The Learning Emporium is staffed by undergraduate and graduate tutors and volunteer faculty. https://natsci.manoa.hawaii.edu/learningemporium.php

College of Natural Sciences Student Academic Success Center

Office for advising in the College of Natural Sciences. Important information for prospective students, incoming, current students, and alumni. The website provides events, key dates, and ways to get involved with student organizations, study abroad, and internship and research opportunities. https://www.hawaii.edu/natsci/advising/

UHM STEM Teacher Recruitment Events

Informational sessions on becoming a K-12 teacher are conducted on a bi-annual basis in partnership with the UHM College of Education (COE) and the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE). Guest speakers include HIDOE administrators, HIDOE science specialists, HIDOE teachers, COE faculty and academic advisors, and CNS faculty.

UH Mānoa Math Boot Camps

The UH Manoa Department of Mathematics will conduct intensive non-credit courses for students who want to review the algebra and trigonometry concepts covered in the math placement exam. The goal is for students who attend the Boot Camp(s) to strengthen their math skills through short lectures, group work, and practice problems. These Boot Camp courses are designed for students who want to bridge their high school and college math courses with a review, want to revisit math concepts prior to taking the math placement exam, or who have already taken the math placement exam but want to place higher on the exam by reviewing concepts and taking the placement exam again. For more info, please go to https://math.hawaii.edu/wordpress/boot-camp/.

Longitudinal Assessment: Our Project in Hawaiʻi’s Intertidal (OPIHI)

Our Project In Hawaiʻi's Intertidal (OPIHI) immerses undergraduate students in the research process by involving them in authentic, place-based ecological research—a longitudinal assessment of the Hawaiian intertidal—to describe changes in community-level patterns both temporally and spatially. Collaboration between UHM College of Education (Curriculum Research and Development Center – CRDG), UHM Biology, and Marine Option Program.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

CNS faculty serve as research mentors to high school students and undergraduates. This occurs through venues such as the State Science Fair, through directed reading/research courses, or through opportunities such as Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium fellowships, grants through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, and the Honors Program. CNS faculty have served as faculty mentors in the McNair Student Achievement Program and MARC U*STAR programs.

Examples:
- Undergraduate student helps discover new bacterium on way to Marine Biology degree
- Translating Oral Traditions into a Modern, Immersive, Interactive Virtual Reality Experience

GenCyber Hawaiʻi Program

The GenCyber Hawaiʻi Program is a summer cybersecurity camp targeting high school students and K-12 level teachers. The goals of the program are to help all students understand correct and safe on-line behavior, increase interest in cybersecurity, and to encourage students to consider careers in cybersecurity. In addition, the camp provides teachers with methods for delivering cybersecurity content in K-12 computer science curricula.

The GenCyber program also addresses the shortfall of skilled cybersecurity professionals and encourages high school students to direct their talents in this area that is critical to the future of our national and economic security, especially when we have become reliant on technology in our daily lives.

This program is a collaboration between the UH Mānoa Department of Information and Computer Sciences, the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training (PCATT), UH-Honolulu Community College, and UH Information and Technology Services Funding is provided jointly by the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation. https://gencyber-hi.org

Kukui Cup Project

The Kukui Cup Project (http://kukuicup.org)is an advanced energy challenge that combines real-time energy feedback, energy education, multiple forms of incentives, and gamification techniques to support positive changes in energy behavior. The inaugural Kukui Cup was held in Fall, 2011 for over 1,000 first year students living in the Hale Aloha residence halls at the University of Hawaiʻi. Primary support for the Kukui Cup project came from a grant by the National Science Foundation. Additional support was provided from UH Housing, the Center for Renewable Energy and Island Sustainability, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, and other sources. http://kukuicup.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/

Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Certificate in Mathematical Biology

Many modern advances in the life sciences, for example the Human Genome Project, medical imaging, modeling cancer growth and wound healing, require advanced mathematical methods. Advanced mathematics has become an essential component of biological training, and biological problems are replacing physical problems as the driving force behind innovation and development in mathematics. It is important for biological scientists and mathematicians to be trained to be able to work together. This Certificate and the courses associated with it were created by the joint efforts of members of the UH Mānoa Mathematics and Biology departments. The overall Mathematical Biology program also involves faculty in Microbiology, PBRC, HIMB and the College of Engineering. The purpose of the certificate is to induce students to pursue the interdisciplinary study of Biology and Mathematics together with research. As a part of the requirements for the certificate, students complete a substantial amount of research in addition to the coursework. Unlike for a minor or double-major, the majority of the coursework for the Certificate is interdisciplinary. Students having the skills to combine disciplines are especially attractive to good graduate programs.

Albert L. Tester Memorial Symposium:

Annual symposium of undergraduate and graduate student research papers in the Sciences every Spring semester. Organized by graduate students and faculty of the Department of Biology. Income from contributions to the Albert L. Tester Memorial Fund of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation is used to provide prizes for the 3 best graduate student and the best undergraduate student presentations, as well as best graduate and undergraduate posters. Judges include faculty members and previous year’s student award winners as well as a distinguished scholar from another university or research institution.

The Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP- Hawaiʻi)

STOMP Hawaiʻi is an effort started by Dr. Monique Chyba (Department of Mathematics) in order to provide children a direct hands-on learning opportunity and a chance to delve into the world of autonomous robotics. This outreach program focuses on developing children's creativity in problem solving. The program makes use of various robotics platform (including Lego's educational Mindstorm and Makeblock kits) creating a flexible means of building robots in a relatively quick and free manner. Targeted towards students in grades of K-8, this program brings together graduate students, undergraduate students and teachers in the classroom as well as Saturday workshops and summer camps at the University of Hawaiʻi. It is designed to introduce topics from computer science, engineering, mathematics and autonomous control to students using an exciting approach. Mentors are highly motivated undergraduate students at the college level who enjoy working with elementary and middle school age children, work alongside the classroom teacher, assist with the presentations and develop new lessons plans. The program has served hundreds of children over the last 10 years, few dozen of teachers and has helped developed robotics program at various middle schools. Funding for this program has been provided from Dr. Chyba’s research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Dr. Chyba’s NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) grant. http://math.hawaii.edu/stomp/STOMP/

Department of Physics and Astronomy Open House

The annual Physics and Astronomy Open House is oriented toward high school physics students and features presentations about current physics and astronomy research as well as applications. The presentations are by UH faculty and students at different sites in Watanabe Hall. The Society of Physics Students also participates. http://natsci.manoa.hawaii.edu/physicsopenhouse/

QuarkNEt

This project is housed in the Department of Physics and aims to increase knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of physics and astrophysics. The target audience is high school teachers and middle through high school students. Themed events include Quarknet Masterclass: Hands on Participle Physics; Cosmic Ray Day; and Expanding Your Horizons Hawaiʻi. Three high school teachers from Hawaiʻi have been nationally selected by the Quarknet Project to participate at the Fermilab Data Camp in Illinois, and the CERN ISE workshop in Greece in July 2016. Funded by the University of Notre Dame. https://www.phys.hawaii.edu/ams02/outreachnsf/index.html

Physics Olympics

The annual Physics Olympics, a program for high school students, is comprised of five hands-on events involving applications of physics. Faculty and students from institutions across Oʻahu design and build the events and judge them on the day of the competition. The event alternates between Kapiʻolani Community College and UH Mānoa.