5.2

I have made contact with Katrina Shum Miller who is invoked with the CEFPI conference in Portland this up coming fall. Through emails we planned and performed a call where I explained to her who we are and what we're doing as a group in the energy lab while she described the conference and it's focal points. She showed great interest in our environmental building designs done last year in APES and thus we began a presentation campaign that centered around our designs. I wrote a formal proposal outlining the project to Katrina and her colleagues as shown below:

Throughout the previous year students within the Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Lab, with various interests and backgrounds, developed an educational building initiative. This project installed architectural and environmental concepts into planning as students designed an “eco-friendly school”. This included both practicality and simplicity as high school students debated what necessities were promised to have a learning space that promoted student happiness, growth, and developed learning styles. Following the traditional Ossipoff and Hawaiian designs of the campus, the students also combined up and coming environmental design scenarios without risking the culture of the academy. Later the project was brought to its peak as students explained their ideas through 3D models, poster presentation, computer designed floor plans and simple sketches of the campus. This project illustrates the capabilities of school learning spaces, having taken place at Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s LEED Platinum Energy Lab, while also showing promise for the design of new academic classrooms through the eyes of students.

This project could be of great value in the conference as it provides a walking example of what environmental learning buildings are doing while also illustrating how students can voice their opinions on the future of environmental design. While the campus is located in Hawaii, the four students hoping to present would be doing so via video chat. This both cuts down on our carbon footprint while not limiting the presentation experience. We have done this with prior conferences and it has worked quite well to overcome our isolated geography. We are humbled at the interest in the project thus far and hope to expand upon the potential of high school designs across the country. Please feel free to inquire about any questions or concerns you might have.

Katrina is currently on vacation but will contact us about the possibility of doing a Skype presentation from the energy lab into the Portland conference to present our ideas and environmental designs.