Historical Context
In order to understand the effects of my project and the significance that it would have, I had to understand the surrounding area's historical context to learn from it's environment and utilize some of the solutions that worked in the past and implement it.
What factors influenced the chosen subject?
Food sustainability and self-sufficiency is one of Hawaii’s problems that needs to be addressed. Hawaii imports most of its food from the mainland, which is detrimental to the environment. Many organizations and schools already implemented hydroponic and aquaponic gardens (Leilehua High School and Waipahu High School). In Mililani High School, Mr. Yamaguchi (agriculture teacher) has a small aquaponics systems for demonstration purposes located at the agriculture department. Mr. Vaughs (biology teacher) also had parts for an aquaponic system that I used.
Describe the location, climate, environment, and physical context
Mililani High School is located in the Mililani area, which is situated between two large central O’ahu gulches of Waikele and Kipapa. Mililani as a whole is located on the Central O’ahu plane of the extinct Waianae and Koolau volcanoes. Mililani sits on the ancient lava of Ko’olau (which dates back to about 2 million years ago) and receives water from the Ko’olau streams of Waikakalaua and Kipapa. Mililani is also apart of the O’ahu Central region watershed, more specifically the Waikele watershed. Mililani's climate is considered to be warm with an annual average temperature of around 77.2° F. In addition, the precipitation rate is around 24 inches of annual rainfall. There are about 94 days of rain and 269 days of sun. Mililani recieves northeasterly trade winds that are about 11.4 mph. Regarding the soil quality in Mililani, soil is made up of Wahiawa silty clay, Helemano silty clay, Manana silty clay, and Lahaina silty clay. It is considerablly arable. Lastly, Mililani's is part of the Waikele watershed which is split up for various uses: 4.8 percent is high intensity developed (urban areas), 11.7 percent is low intensity developed, 17.5 percent is cultivated lands, 11.3 percent is grassland, 34.6 percent is shrub lands, 19.1 percent is evergreen forest, .3 percent is estuarine forests, .6 percent is bare land, and .1 percent is water. The watershed also hosts a perennial stream 134.7 miles in length.
Summarize key information about the inhabitants of your habitat
The population of Mililani Town consist of 27,629 people, specifically 14,165 males and 13,464 females with a median age of 39.9 years old. The racial makeup of Mililani Town includes Asians alone at 42.2 percent (12,016), White alone at 15.6 percent (4,433), Hispanic alone at 9.4 percent (2,683), Black alone at 2.5 percent (698), American Indian alone at 0.07 percent (19), and two or more races at 27.4 percent (7,812).
Regarding aquatic species, there are 6 species of native crustaceans, 9 species of native fishes, 3 species of native snails, 6 species of native sponge worms, and 17 species of native insects. There are 3 species of introduced amphibians, 1 introduced clam, 4 species of introduced crustaceans, 19 species of introduced fish, 7 species of introduced snails, and 19 species of introduced insects.
Identify social, political, cultural factors, and indigenous knowledge related the the population or place
Social: Mililani High School is a public high school located in a suburban community in Central Oahu. The school’s population comprises of 2,450 students from grades 9-12, coming from military and local backgrounds and diverse socio-economic levels. Mililani Middle School is the main feeder school to Mililani High School and elementary schools
in close proximity includes Kipapa Elementary, Mililani Ike, Mililani Mauka, Mililani Uka, and Mililani Waena. The ethnicities of the students are very diverse, however the predominate ethnicities include Japanese at 24.6 percent, Filipino at 20.1 percent, White at 16.7 percent, and Native Hawaiian at 16.9 percent. All the other ethnicities are less than 4.0 percent.
Political: The current representative for District 36 (Mililani) is Beth Fukumoto-Chang.
Cultural/ Indigenous Knowledge: The ma’ohi came to Hawaii in 2-3 waves about 1500 years ago from other islands in the pacific. To survive they burned lowland forest for agriculture (taro), homes, gardens, they developed sophisticated, sustainable water management strategies that kept water flowing and went from mountain out to the sea, Hawaiians managed the land in an ahupua’a system, now a modern and successful idea called a watershed, Hawaiians had a sophisticated kappa or regulation system of planting, fishing, and harvesting that was based on observation and knowledge of local ecosystems, the mountain forest were considered sacred and few went into them.
