Candide Krieger, who is earning her MEd from the College of Education Department of Curriculum Studies (EDCS), is designing dynamic and creative STEM lessons for elementary school students. A part-time STEM/STEAM resource teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, Krieger is in the college’s Interdisciplinary Place-based and Sustainability Education (Watershed – Ahupua’a) program.
Krieger is creating Hawaiʻi-focused, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Edukits for kids in Title I schools with support from EDCS Professor Pauline Chinn’s National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Transforming Scientific Practices to Promote Students Interest and Motivation in the Life Sciences: A Teacher Leadership Development Intervention.
Edukits are targeted for 4th grade teachers who teach Hawaiian Studies and would benefit from teacher tested, NGSS aligned lessons and supplies. Through the NSA grant, Krieger is also conducting research on the effectiveness of the kits for teacher and student engagement and learning.
“Candide’s students learn and retain so much when the lessons connect to their lives and interests, like using Oreos to study moon phases!” Chinn said. “She continues to seek funding opportunities through competitions and fundraising platforms in order to develop these hands-on lessons that students find engaging and fun-damental.”
Krieger recently won a $1,000 Kalo Grant from the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) for Edukits Hawaiʻi. This prize will cover a portion of her start-up costs, like non-profit filing fees, website development, and other resources for the kits. She was also awarded $5,000 in the semi-final round of PACE’s Venture Competition and is now competing for a $10,000 cash prize in the final round.
“Sometimes I put my own money towards my classroom because I want my students to do more than just worksheets,” Krieger said. “It’s really important to me that they have fun hands-on activities like clay, kinetic sand, pipe cleaners, construction paper. We even learned how to make pickles last year!”
Krieger started a Lāʻau lapaʻau (medicinal Hawaiian garden) at Jefferson where she volunteers on the weekend. In one project, her students used branches trimmed from a wauke (paper mulberry) in the garden to create a rainforest. And, before going to the Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds, they crafted rainforest birds to hang from the branches.
After graduating from Kaimukī High School, Krieger earned her BS in Natural Resource and Environmental Management as well as an AA in Hawaiian Studies, AS in Communication Arts, and a Certificate of Competence in Entrepreneurship.
“Place-based education was something I was doing naturally in my teaching by combining my knowledge from my multiple degrees and from my experiences being born and raised here in Hawaiʻi,” Krieger said. “I did not know placed-based education was an actual method of teaching until I took a seminar with Dr. Chinn. Her class sparked my interest in pursuing an MEd. Everything that we did in class was relevant to me and helped boost my confidence with starting my non-profit.”
See more examples of Kriegerʻs classroom projects on her crowdfunding site.
