Kihei Charter School

Reef Canvasing Project

Emma Wilczynski and Isabella Troxell

Junior Projects

Amanda Wilson

18 October 2019
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PREFACE

A major problem on Maui right now is the worsening of coral health and its effects on the

ocean animals that inhabit them. The coral that resides in Maui faces many plights including

coral bleaching, disease, predation, human waste, and competition with others. In an effort to

help this ongoing situation, our project, the Reef Canvasing Project, is focused on aiding Maui’s

reefs and the ecosystems that reside in them.

This project personally connects to me, as it should to you, because we live right near the

ocean. As a child I’ve spent several days at the beach and I’ve snorkeled since I can remember.

Clear sandy beaches with crystal blue water and colorful ocean animals fills most of my

memories of the beach. But recently I was faced with the fact that the ocean conditions are

worsening and I’d have to see my perfect memory of Maui’s beaches turn into the harsh reality

that many other beaches around the world have already faced. Soon the coral all throughout the

world will be bleached leaving 20% of all known ocean life without shelter, food, and

community. Eventually human waste like plastics and micro plastics will harm the ocean animals

and wash up onto our prettiest beaches. The worst part of everything is once the animals and

coral are dead and the beaches are littered with trash, there is no way to restore them. With this

in mind we decided we needed to help make a change with our project opportunity this year in

Junior Projects class. We plan to canvas the reef, note important variables, and present it as a

report or presentation.
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DRIVING QUESTION

The driving question behind our project is, “how can we aid and participate in helping

Maui’s overall reef health?”. With this inquiry in mind we decided to take an active role in

helping Maui’s reefs by canvassing one at Makena Landing and recording our findings.

PROJECT GOAL

The goal of our project is to gather useful information about the reefs health and then find

a way to distribute the info to others around Maui. Variables we will record include water

temperature, coral conditions, fish populations, trash, and the weather at the time of the data

collection. We plan to canvas the reef a total of at least five times and possibly more if time

permits it once or twice a week for several weeks. With all of the data we collect we plan to

compile a presentation including what you need to know about the reef ecosysem’s health, what

our data means, and how you can help with the issues we address. The overall goal of our project

is to inform the public effectively so they understand the dangers the reef ecosystems face.

Our goal is to reach primarily those primarily who would attend the presentation, which

will ultimately be those who are most interested in ocean health. It will also be a great

opportunity for those who are less involved or aware to learn more about Maui’s current

situation.

KEY CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

The content our project will cover will be basic information about reef ecosystems.

Further in depth, we will cover diseases, predation, human waste, and competition in the coral.

We will also cover the health of the local fish as well as their populations. To be able to present
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this information to others as best as possible, we will have to have a vast knowledge of not only

the content on our slides but also some other basic knowledge so we are able to answer questions

and inquiries.

21st CENTURY SKILLS

Some 21st Century Skills we will address in this project include global awareness,

communication, and thinking and problem solving.

We will use the 21st Century Skill of global awareness in the sense that it is the purpose

of the project as a whole. By doing the project on the current state of Maui’s reefs we are able to

recognize that the plights facing Maui’s reefs are no different from those facing other countries

around the world. We also decided to present this information because we feel others could

benefit from some global awareness themselves.

We will use communication skills in our project not only to communicate with each

other, but by communicating our project ideas to our teachers and peers and by presenting our

data to an audience.

Finally, we will use the 21st Century Skill of thinking and problem solving as we

continue with the project and move forward. It is inevitable that something will not go as

planned and we will need to deal with the situation accordingly as this not only involves Kihei

Charter but also professionals who are giving us their time and expertise for free and out of the

kindness of their hearts.

LIMITATIONS

Some limitations we may face include scheduling interviews and presentation

opportunities due to our busy schedules, as well as getting permission to do a presentation at the
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Maui Ocean Center. To combat these problems we may face, we just have to stay on top of

scheduling and be sure we show the Ocean Center our best work and hope they see the validity

in our work.

METHODOLOGY

As our final demonstration of our knowledge we plan to take our presentation we

compiled with all of our data and turn it in. As of now we also have the possibility of a typed

report that describes in detail what the data we collected means because slideshows are typically

just talking and for some it is hard to remain information just by hearing and looking at bullet

points as well as pictures.

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Junior Project Works Cited

Chesley, Paul. "Find out about the world's ocean habitats and more." Oceans-facts and

information. 22 Mar. 2019. 13 Sept. 2019

<​https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/ocean/​>.

The main focus of this video is to give basic information about the world’s oceans. Some

facts are more interesting than helpful but it was really just about getting a solid understanding of

the basic information, especially because some of my sources are very advanced.

I believe this source to be very credible because National Geographic is a very well

known site and distributor of information and I don’t believe they would risk their reputation by

uploading a factually incorrect video.

We can use this information to build upon our basic knowledge of the ocean and use it to

fuel our questions for both our faculty and expert interviews.

Gauthier, Jason. “Data Collection - History - U.S. Census Bureau.” ​Data Collection - History -

U.S. Census Bureau​, ​www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/data_collection/​.

This article is very focused on the different types of collecting data from the most precise

to the most broad ways. It also has several links to more information about data collection, all

government-approved ideas and strategies.

Quite simply, this source is very credible as it is a government funded website, if

everything wasn’t fact-checked and 100% correct and factual the government would never put

their seal of approval, so to speak, or the ``.gov” at the end of the url.
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Lastly, Isabella and I can use this website to aid us in our own data collection. This helps

answer out driving question because by collecting data about the reefs we are finding a way to

help Maui’s ecosystems, thus answering our driving question.

“Marine Life Research Tools & Methods.” ​MarineBio Conservation Society,​ 8 June 2019,

marinebio.org/creatures/tools/.

This article is not actually super informative about any particular ocean related topic

pertaining to our project, however it lists the best and most reliable sources to get that

information from, something that would be very useful when collecting data about Maui’s reefs.

After reading through some stand-outs include: “Articles@PubMed” which is an archive of

biology-based essays/informative pieces, “Global Invasive Species Database” which outlines a

regions most prominent invasive species’, and finally “ReefBase” which provides high-level

information on the Earth’s reefs.

I have since checked some of the links that this website offers and many, if not all, of

them are very useful and often have urls that end in ``.edu” or ``.gov”, indicating that they are the

most reliable forms of website on the internet.

Isabella and I can use this information going forward with our project to compare data

and even the use of the data websites to compare the data we’ve collected.

“Maui Underwater Life: Ocean Animals Found on Maui.” ​Pride Of Maui,​

www.prideofmaui.com/about/underwater-life/.
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This entire website is going to be very helpful to us with insights to the reef initiative and

the ocean life of Maui as well. Specifically the reef information will be helpful because it's

tailored specifically to Maui. It highlights why Maui’s reefs are so important, what coral

bleaching looks like, reef-safe sunscreen, and where you can find it.

Overall I would say this source is pretty reliable, though they do not provide an author,

the articles are all well written, with grammar and spelling in mind, and there are very little ads,

indicating that they may be a successful enough non-profit to not force ads on their page viewers.

Finally, this website will be most useful to Isabella and I to build our knowledge on coral

reef bleaching and how sunscreen plays a huge role in it. When we go snorkeling we will be sure

to wear reef-safe sunscreen and share this information with others.

Parsons, E C M, Brett Favaro, A Alonso Aguirre, Amy L Bauer, Louise K Blight, John A

Cigliano, Melinda A Coleman, Isabelle M Côté, Megan Draheim, Stephen Fletcher,

Melissa M Foley, Rebecca Jefferson, Miranda C Jones, Brendan P Kelaher, Carolyn J

Lundquist,

Julie-Beth McCarthy, Anne Nelson, Katheryn Patterson, Leslie Walsh, Andrew J Wright, and

William J Sutherland. "Seventy-one important questions for the conservation of marine

biodiversity." Conservation biology : The journal of the Society for Conservation

Biology. Oct. 2014. BlackWell Publishing Ltd. 13 Sept. 2019

<​https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4264944/​>.
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I believe the main idea of this article/question and answer page is to inform viewers of

some unanswered questions in the marine world as well as offer educated and informed

answers/overviews of their perspectives.

This source is very credible because it is a ``.gov” site and has several authors with

degrees and copious amounts of knowledge in marine science. I don’t believe the government

would support something without knowing it was 100% true and factual information, therefore,

everything on the site should be credible and factual.

Finally, Isabella and I can use this source as our expert interview because it is experts

answering frequently asked questions in the marine research community. They also offer

unanswered questions which I believe will be very helpful when coming up with valuable,

thought provoking questions for both our expert and faculty interviews.

Riegl, Bernhard, et al. “Coral Reefs: Threats and Conservation in an Era of Global

Change.”

The Living Oceans Foundation,​ 2009,

www.livingoceansfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Riegl_CoralReefThr

eats.pdf​.

The main idea of this report is very clear, that the oceans reefs are being treated horrible

and we, as the prominent species on Earth and the origin of the problem need to do something

about it. However the report does state that the reefs have survived about 600 million years,

longer than most species alive today, and during that time period they have beared ice ages, heat

waves, overpopulation of other species causing underpopulation of theirs. It is noted in the report
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that these previous threats to the ocean were naturally occurring, instead we’ve now created a

man-made problem, bigger than the reefs ever seen. Finally, there is a lot of info about coral

bleaching and how it relates to climate change. Coral “bleaching” doesn’t actually occur do to

bleach or a harmful man-made chemical, but rather from one that is exposed when the oceans get

too warm. This harmful chemical kills the living algae in the reefs (which gives them their bright

color) and therefore “bleaches” them.

This source is both useful and reliable. I know this because it has been published by Nova

Southeastern in Florida, an established biological studies school. According to

collegefactual.com NSU is, “a dynamic research institution dedicated to providing high-quality

educational programs…”.

Isabella and I can apply this scholarly article to increase our basic knowledge of coral

reefs and their destruction before we continue even finding other sources as we can use this as a

baseline for all of our information, knowing it is all factual and edited.
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RESOURCES AND MATERIALS NEEDED

The financial aspect of our project is pretty simple. We will need transportation, people’s

time, permission from the Maui Ocean Center, and snorkel gear, as well as other materials we

discover we need while doing the project. To create the presentation we need access to a

computer, our own data as well as other professional’s, and pictures and diagrams to make the

presentation interesting and easy to follow.

BUDGET

It doesn’t appear as of now, October 17th, that there are any pertinent expenses for our

project. However, if the issue arises we plan to use our own funds and possibly do a fundraiser

by going door to door explaining our project and asking for donations.

TIMELINE

Week Of Plans and Goals

September 29th Complete faculty interview and have questions prepared for expert.

October 6th Begin canvassing, complete two to three sessions, apply interview info to
data collection.

October 13th Complete another one to two sessions of data collection, first blog post.

October 20th Complete final data collection, blog 2 complete., check in with advisor.

October 27th Analyze essay and thesis, blog post 3, contact Maui Ocean Center.

November 3rd Begin compiling data into presentation, rough draft of essay, blog 4.

November 10th Continue compiling data, blog 5, progress presentations.

November 17th Continue compiling data, blog 6, check in with advisor.

November 24th THANKSGIVING WEEK

December 1st Continue compiling data, persuasive essay, blog 7, check in with advisor.

December 8th Continue with presentation, check in with Maui Ocean Center, blog 5.
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December 15th Continue working on presentation, check in with advisor.

December 22nd NO SCHOOL

and 29th

January 5th Complete presentation, blog 9, final check in with advisor.

January 12th Practice presentation, blog 10, possibly deliver.

January 19th Practice presentation, blog 11, possibly deliver.

January 26th Practice presentation, blog 12, possibly deliver.

February 2nd Practice presentation, blog 13, deliver.

February 9th Blog 14 and final reflection.

FACULTY INTERVIEW

As of now we haven’t completed our faculty interview but we plan to do so tomorrow,

October 18th. Unfortunately, Mr. Holmgreen has conflicting schedules with ours so he told us to

meet with us during his lunch break in his office. Last week we tried to meet with him on Friday

but he wasn’t in his office. We plan to meet tomorrow during lunch and following that we will

update this section.