SHINING STARS
UH professor picked for scholar program
University of Hawaii-Manoa College of Education associate professor
Margaret Maaka is one of 30 scholars selected to participate in the Agenda for Education in a Democracy Scholar program, the university announced.
Maaka is establishing Ho'okulaiwi: 'Aha Ho'ona'auao 'Oiwi (Center for Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Education) at the Manoa campus, to provide a graduate degree program of study in Hawaiian teacher education and curriculum research to raise the school achievement of native Hawaiians.
A Maui teacher has won a $2,000 award for launching a robotics program at Pukalani Elementary School.
Betty Brask is one of 100 recipients of the 2007 ING Unsung Heroes award. She developed a "Robotics Is Elementary" program to help organize Maui's first Junior FIRST LEGO League team with her fourth-grade students.
Brask plans to implement an after-school robotics club to spark interest in engineering and technology. The program also will focus on building students' self-confidence, leadership and life skills.
The club will have eight students who will work in teams of four and meet once a week for an hour. They will eventually work through 40 animated tutorials that will help them learn how to effectively build and program a fully functioning robot, according to ING, a global financial company.
Shining Stars appears several times a week in the Star-Bulletin