Developing A Platform to Centralize Educational Resources on Hawaiian Native Plants
Partner organization: Laukahi Network
Team members: Greta Achenbach, Jack Garabedian, Abigail Mansour, Preet Patel
Background
Laukahi: The Hawai‘i Plant Conservation Network is a group of 41 organizations and individuals working together to improve native plant conservation in Hawaii. The Laukahi Network’s mission is to spread awareness and increase education on Hawai’i native plant conservation, restore and conserve damaged and endangered ecosystems, and unite individuals and organizations to fight for their cause. The organization plans to accomplish this by acting in alignment with the Hawaii Strategy for Plant Conservation (HSPC). This strategy consists of five primary objectives and twenty deliverables within those objectives. Our main focus was objective 4, spreading awareness on Hawaiian native plant conservation through outreach and education. Through a preliminary survey done by the Laukahi Network, teachers have shown an interest in teaching Hawaiian native plants but lack the educational resources to do so. We worked to fill this gap between the Hawaiian native plant conservation community and educators.
Methodology
The goal of our project is to design a wireframe for a digital platform that centralizes existing educational resources on native plant ecology and conservation. The platform will be easy to use and effectively share these resources with teachers for them to access and use in education. We planned on accomplishing this through the following objectives:
Objective 1: Learn what types of educational resources teachers prefer and need to teach Hawaiian Native Plants.
Objective 2: Collect, categorize, and evaluate the appropriate educational resources to place on the digital platform.
Objective 3: Draft an informed design for the digital platform that is user-friendly and fits educator needs.
Results
Through surveying and interviewing current and past educators and people involved in public education, specifically in native Hawaiian species, we gained valuable feedback on the types of resources educators preferred and recommendations for the digital platform to provide a user-friendly experience. We summarized our survey results into different visuals such as charts and graphs. For our interview results, we transcribed and coded the interviews to summarize the main takeaways.
Discussion
Starting with the survey, the team found that there was a strong desire from educators for more native plant resources, as well as a surprising demand for native plant educational resources in disciplines outside of science. Responses also indicated that field trips are an effective and favorite activity for education, while there is a great demand for improvement in curriculum. Educators reported that the largest roadblocks when implementing native plant education is that the resources are irrelevant to the teacher’s educational group or the resources simply do not exist. Finally, an important finding that will help increase the accessibility of our platform was the desire for a multilingual platform.
Based on our interviews, it was found that teachers prefer resources that are STEM-based and project-based learning as they find it most effective in teaching students. These resources can include hands-on activities, field trips, fun games, puzzles, and many more. This was important in determining what types of educational resources we collected and evaluated for the platform. In regards to the design of the wireframe for the digital platform, teachers wanted the platform to be easily navigable, filterable, and organized. They also recommended features for community interaction where they could provide feedback, submit new resources for the platform, and leave reviews on different resources. All of these preferences were taken into account when designing the platform wireframe.
Implementation
Taking into account the educator preferences from our findings, we compiled and provided the Laukahi Network with a list of 272 appropriate educational resources. For each resource, it was first determined if it was within the platform scope. To be in scope, the resource must mention specific native Hawaiian plants or why native plants are important. The native Hawaiian plant educational resources that were determined to be in scope were then organized primarily by their type, grade level, topics covered, and the organization they were obtained from. These resources will be among the first to be added to the digital platform when it is ready to be populated.
In addition to the list of resources, a wireframe of the proposed digital platform, “Hua o ka ʻIke,” is provided, and created with Figma. The site’s design aims to provide a user-friendly, organized platform that enhances the accessibility of the Hawaiian native plant educational resources we collected and fits educator preferences. The Home page serves as a welcoming entry point, offering quick navigation to the Resource List page and a Weekly Highlights section, where site managers can spotlight particularly useful educational resources and events relating to Hawaiian native plants. The Resource List page provides brief descriptions and key information on each resource and allows users to easily filter and find exactly what they are looking for. The Resource Details page provides in-depth information for each resource, including details, key downloads and links, relevant media, and user feedback and ratings. The Resource Submission page allows users to contribute their own resources by entering key details, attaching all relevant files and links, and submitting them to the site managers for approval. Finally, the Contact Us page allows for seamless communication between users and site managers about questions, concerns, and other site-related messages.
Conclusion
In collaboration with the Laukahi Network, we addressed the gap between the Hawaiian native plant conservation community and educators. To achieve this, over the course of two months, we surveyed and interviewed current and previous educators around the islands and people involved in public education, specifically native Hawaiian species. From this, we gained valuable feedback on what types of educational resources educators prefer and need to teach about native Hawaiian plants. We also received input on the design of the wireframe for the digital platform to provide a user-friendly experience and fit educator needs. After analyzing the results from our survey and interviews, we collected and categorized the appropriate educational resources for teachers and drafted an informed design for the digital platform. We then designed a wireframe for a digital platform to effectively share these educational resources with teachers on native plant ecology and conservation in a centralized location.
Recommendations
Following the completion of our work, we have several recommendations for the Laukahi Network to continue to grow the collection of educational resources and further develop the digital platform.
- We recommend bringing in a web designer to continue with the development of the platform.
- We recommend bringing in a design expert to drive more user traffic to the platform.
- We recommend bringing in curriculum specialists to further evaluate the curriculum alignment of the educational resources and create new resources to fill in any gaps.
- We recommend making the platform multilingual to reach more people and further spread awareness on Hawaiian native plant conservation.
- We recommend obtaining feedback from educators on the platform before its launch.
- We recommend looking into a partnership with the Department of Education (DOE) to spread awareness to teachers of the available resources on the platform.