About Wild Hawai'i

Wild Hawai'i is an Environmental Education program that provides Maui's intermediate and senior high school students with Meaningful Outdoor Experiences focused on exploring Hawai'i's traditional and present-day watershed management (ahupua'a) techniques and their impact on the nearshore environment.

What Wild Hawai'i Provides:

• Experienced instructors
• Transportation between the school and the program site
• Lunch & bottled water
• Backpacks, rain ponchos, stream shoes, mask & snorkel

A "New" Way of Learning

• Teaching Science in Maui's Living Classroom
• Hands-on, experiential environmental learning that complements classroom education
• Meets Hawai'i Department of Education Curriculum Standards
• Year-round 1-day field study programs tailored to the school day – in a variety of habitats (rainforests, coastal areas, wetlands, streams)
• Ho'ike, Project Wild & Navigating Change curricula adapted to our hiking areas

Through the program, students apply their understanding of historical Hawaiian culture, values and lifestyles, as well as their increased appreciation for the island's delicate ecosystem, to design a proposal for future sustainability. Wild Hawai'i collaborates with Hawai'i Wildlife Fund, Hike Maui, and the island's top environmental educators and naturalists. This collaboration creates a unique learning environment that engages students in active learning while using National Park and NOAA-designed classroom and field curriculum that meets Hawai'i's Department of Education (DOE) content standards.

A Peak Experience Not to Be Missed

• The Living Classroom: Guided Instruction in a variety of ecosystems
• We help teachers & students prep for field study as part of curriculum
• Interactive, fun programs: hiking, swimming, hands-on exploration, personal challenges, active participation
• Journal writing, creative & cultural expression of their reactions
• New perspectives, beliefs about the world AND themselves

The curriculum shows students that the health of our island's streams, pools and nearshore/coastal ecosystem can be affected by human uses and land-use practices that ultimately impact our island as a whole.

Students learn about the history, beliefs and social structure that served as a foundation for the traditional Hawaiian watershed management techniques based on the ahupua'a system. Ahupua'a focuses on creating sustainable communities through realizing the interconnectedness of mountain and nearshore ecosystems and having individuals act as stewards of those areas.

Teachers and program naturalists will teach students identification of both the native and non-native flora and fauna as well as the roles of each.

Forest, stream, riparian and nearshore ecosystems serve as our “living laboratories” outside the classroom. Our program's outdoor element exposes students to the most direct learning experience available. Students spend the day hiking on established nature trails along Maui's beautiful system of streams, waterfalls, pools and coastal areas.

Hands-on activities may include propagation and planting of native plant species in coastal areas, water testing, dune restoration, riparian habitat restoration and study, and/or pollution control measures.

Contact Wild Hawai'i:
Wild Hawai'i Learning Adventures, Inc.
PO Box 1378
Kihei, Hawai'i 96753
Office: 808-874-1256
Fax: 808-875-7536
info@wildhawaii.net