Kiln Building on Hawaii

Volcano Kiln Workshop

Monday, March 24, 2008 - Friday, March 28, 2008

Kowalke Residence
53-4177 Akoni Pule Highway
Kapaau, Hawaii 96755
Peter Kowalke
Phone: 808-937-7556
Email: peterantrim@gmail.com

http://www.regonline.com/volcano_kiln

Yesterday my friend John Southworth, invited a group of us to meet and participate if we can in his 'holiday' at the Volcano Kiln Workshop held on the northern point of the big island called Hawaii. This is the island where there is an active volcano. I 'google earth' to find out where they were and did a 'print screen' on my computer, so that I could insert it into a slide show.

John introduced me to Hugh Jenkins and Peter Kowalai, who are running the workshop.

"Hugh works with Ohio Valley Creative Energy www.ohiovalleycreativeenergy.org on sustainable equipment design and is a founding member of the BioGlass Group www.bioglass.org . For more information on Hugh, please visit: www.bigislandglass.com " from Hugh's bio.

Peter Kowalke, a local artist originally from Oahu, now resides on the Big Island and is a painter, sculptor and ceramicist. Young students and community members work together learning about local ecology, history, culture, science and much more as they create public works of art. Each project and resulting artwork emphasizes the island ecosystems and a holistic psychology based in the belief of "interconnectedness." For more information about Peter's fine art and community works go to www.artinsight.us and www.artinsight.us/hiddenjewels (community work).

A young university student from Hawaii, who is an artist, who hopes to learn how to blow glass more sustainably. This is because of the new way of re-capturing the heat from the kilm. Each participant will be helping in building the kiln. I wonder if they will also create a pot with the volcanic earth, and then fire them in the kiln?

John is hoping to be able to document the process in nicenet, using digital photos and individual stories. Maybe I can write a few ideas for schools on sustainability.

What an unexpected invitation to participate via the webcam. I am so thankful.

Update: John and I did a powerpoint presentation with is uploaded into
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2374440/HawaiBigIsland

Julia

World Water Day March 22, 2008

Dear friends

Yesterday was World Water Day, but we know that 'water day is everyday'. In this picture you can see the results of the drought, on the River Murray at its Mouth in South Australia. All this part of the river is usually covered with water. The situation is very serious. I have created a slideshow using Helen and Scott Irvine's photos. Thank you to David Morton for flying in his new helicopter around the Lower Lakes and the Murray River's Mouth. Also thank you to Frank Refchange for your important photos.

First open the Port Elliot Flyers song "Let the Murray Flow" written by Shane Howard and Anne Todd in 2004. It was sent to me by Carol VanDalen and goes well with the slide show of the River Murray situation below.

http://ihtec.podbean.com/

Here is the slide show

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2518860/MurrayDarlingBasinAust

Do hope you can see and understand the differences from Granny's photos taken in 1987and Scott and Helen's photos in 2008.

Here is another slide show about water in South Australia.

http://www.savethemurray.com/facts_coorong_lower_lakes_and_murray_mouth.php

We all need to listen to the Ngarrindjeri Sea Country Plan. It is found here

http://www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/publications/pubs/ngarrindjeri-scp-2006-1.pdf

I am planning an online Water Round Table for young people during the year. Also IHTEC will participate in the 'Global Issues Water Round Table' in November 2008.

Do hope you will study the water situation where you are and join us.

Cheers
Julia

More WEB 2.0 Tools

Dear friends

I have spent more time finding more useful tools for you to try.

For Schools

edu20 - http://www.edu20.org/
they will be adding virtual worlds soon.

Schoopy- a new platform for schools to communicate with each other.
http://www.schoopy.com/

Uploading ppt's and pdf

Scribd www.scribd.com upto 1 GB of free room

http://yousendit.com

http://www.slideshare.net


Mind Maps

Mind42 - http://mind42.com/
a collaboratry mind mapping tool for two people - this is a Beta mode and is new but looks interesting it let me sign in, but didn't send me confirmation.


Bubbl.us http://www.bubbl.us/
online collabortory min mappin tool for more than two people


NEWS - Press Releases

http://www.instablogs.com/

http://opencalais.com/

pipes.yahoo.com


Virtual Avatar Creation Fun

http://www.fix8.com/


Invitations to Events Create an event

Pingg http://www.pingg.com

EventWax http://www.eventwax.com

Eventsbot http://eventsbot.com/

Love Julia

Spring Time - Bees & Honey

Hallo Sam

Hurray. It is Spring Time again. The snow is beginning to melt here and soon the birds will migrate back for the summer. The winter silence causes me to be sad. Triple glazed windows protect us from the environment outside. So I welcome the sounds of life as spring approaches.

In Spring the bees start their outside work again, when the flowers bloom. Bees don't hibernate in the winter, they snuggle together in a ball, constantly moving their bodies to keep the temperature at 90o F or 32.2o C. A beehive has between 20,000 and 30,000 bees.

Did you have honey for breakfast? Well this morning I ate the lifetime work of several dozen worker bees. What I eat in 1 year takes bees 55,000 miles or 8,8513 kms. They visit about 2 million flowers a year. One worker bee produces 1/12 teaspoon in its lifetime.

The queen bee lays 1,500 eggs a day and is the only bee to lay eggs.

How many times does a bee flap its wings in a minute? 11,000 times.

How fast does a bee fly? Ans: 15 miles per hour while it visits between 50 - 100 blossoms per trip.

How much honey can a hive create in a day? 2 lbs of honey.

So please look after the bees. They work hard for all of us.

Love
Julia

Didgeridoo

What fun we had yesterday, learning how to play a Didgeridoo. Do you know how to do circular breathing?

Here are some lessons for you to try.... have fun.

http://www.aboriginalarts.co.uk/howtoplaydidgeridoo.html

Here are some YouTube videos for you to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9w4KWEgJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_Hw8l01LI&NR=1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g592I-p-dc&NR=1

Have fun
Julia

Professor Helmut Burkhardt 75th Birthday 2008

My dear children

In our lives there are people who help us to be better than we are at present. I have had some important people help me. Professor Helmut Burkhardt is one of these people. It is Helmut's 75th Birthday this week and so to celebrate, Granny Julia has created a slide show of some of the events that we have shared. Helmut is a Physics and System Scientist. He especially is interested in Solar Energy, and works for Peace and Sustainability. The slide show is on


http://www.scribd.com/doc/2330718/Helmut75Birthday

Love
Julia

United Nations Information

My dear children

You will study the United Nations at school. This organization leads the world and try's to keep peace on earth. If your country is a member of the United Nations (we use UN for short) then YOU are a member of the UN. This will help you to do your best and keep the peace where you are.

I found a new UN link that lots of infomation for writing about global issues.

http://data.un.org/

Granny Julia has been to the UN in New York, for a couple of meetings. The best meeting was to the UN Special Session on Children. The photo is of the concert where they had 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners, and children performing from all over the world.

I have also spoken at the Students Human Rights Conference for 1 hour in one of the Conference Rooms. There were children from Canada and Mexico. It was a great honour, as I had the Canadian Ambassador on one side, and a senior advisor to UNICEF, Newton Bowles, on the other.

Julia was at the UN again in September 2005 for a meeting with the other US and Canadian Women as part of the 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.

Cheers
Julia

Google Earth has Google Sky

Good Morning

I did a seach for more information on Web 2.0 tools. I am amazed at how many there are. Here is the link I found when I asked for a "List of Web2.0 tools'

http://www.go2web20.net/

While I was there I found that the new download of Google Earth has Google Sky.

www.google.com/sky

If you go back to an earlier blog on Science of the Planet and the Cosmos, this will help you as you learn about where we live in the cosmos.

Although space is very large, it is important to keep 'Peace in Space'. It we have too much space junk above the earth, we will not be able to leave the earth. Already NASA has had to move space junk so that they don't hit it.

IHTEC has created a project for you called 'MEETS' Mountains on Earth Expansively Touching Space. When you stand on the top of a mountain then you are the closest to space. See
http://www.ihtec.org/index.php?id=72

Cheers
Julia

iGoogle

Dear young people

Have you found that there are so many good things to use on the web? Well there comes a time when I had to find a place that I could organize myself. As you will see in the Web 2.0 tools there are two that I know of. The one that I use is called igoogle. It is important to have all your main tools in one place.

iGoogle

Have fun.

Julia

WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Good morning

Have you tried the Web 2.0 tools? Do you know what they are? I have been working on them daily so I can learn how to use them. Here is a list of the ones that Granny has found. Do you know of any others that I can try? Have you begun a blog? If so let's link together.

Web 2.0 Tools

If you would like to spend time looking for all the Web2.0 tools use

http://www.go2web20.net/


Portal - this can be linked to a website and shows main links that you are using.
Protopage www.protopage.com
igoogle www.igoogle.com

Blogger www.blogger.com
Granny Julia’s Children www.ispg.blogspot.com

Radio
Blog Talk Radio www.blogtalkradio.com

Photos
Bubbleshare www.bubbleshare.com
Flickr www.flickr.com

Brainstorming and organizing
Cmap http://cmap.ihmc.us/


Marketing & Individual Newsletters
Constant Contact www.constantcontact.com ($)

Conference Rooms online
Talking Communities www.talkingcommunities.com ($)
WebHuddle www.webhuddle.com

Courses Structure & Schools interactive input
Moodle www.moodle.com
Nicenet www.nicenet.org
Wikispaces www.wikispaces.com Free & ($)
WiserEarth www.wiserearth.com

Podcasting
Gcast www.gcast.com
Podbean www.podbean.com
Podsafe www.podsafe.com

Video Casting
Screencast www.screencast.com
YouTube www.youtube.com

Survey’s
SurveyMonkey www.surveymonkey.com
Zoomerang www.zoomerang.com

Publishing
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.com

Video Conferencing
iVisit www.ivisit.com
Marratech www.marratech.com

Training through games
Thiagi www.thiagi.com

Love
Granny Julia

International School Peace Gardens Slide Show

Hi again

We have made the ISPG slide show and recorded the sound in Audacity. Next we linked the MP3 file to the slide show in Talking Communities, followed by uploading the file into the TC archives, so that we have a .url

Look for ISPG Slide Show as an audio mp3 file on

Just audio
http://ihtec.podbean.com


With slides
http://talkingcommunities.com/wm/archives/rsa90853355ad1/Ispgbasic1/


Cheers
Julia

EARTH DAY MARCH 20, 2008 - CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

Hallo dear children

This year IHTEC is encouraging children to celebrate Earth Day, in 2008 on Climate Change and Energy.

John McConnell, was the founder of Earth Day. Granny Julia has met Mr. McConnell, he is over 90 years old. The original date was March 21, 1970, on the Equinox each year, but as schools became involved the date was changed. The flag above is the original Earth Day flag.



School Earth Day April 22, 2008
http://ww2.earthday.net/~earthday/

I have found you some interesting ecological games to play with your family members. They are online calculators. Let me know what your footprints are today.

Earth Day Footprint http://www.earthday.net/footprint/ has a map of the world with many languages to choose from.

Global Ecological Footprint Calculator http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/Global%20Footprint%20Calculator/GFPCalc.html

Australia Ecological Footprint Calculator http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/default.asp

New Zealand Ecological Footprint http://www.mfe.govt.nz/withyou/do/footprint/

UK Carbon Footprint http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html this is a fun picture for you.

ZeroFootprint Calculator http://zerofootprint.net/profile/sign_in

Safe Climate Calculator http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/

List of Carbon Calculators http://www.earthfuture.com/climate/calculators/

Wikipedia on Footprints http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint

Have fun. I will let you know mine when I have calculated it out. I do hope you copy this and take it to school.

Love Granny Julia

Sacred Trees in Goolwa, South Australia

I did some research for your peace garden in Goolwa for the State or Sacred South Australian Trees. It seems to me that the Canoe Tree, on the Currency Creek Road, a River Red Gum Tree, is the closest that I found for your area. On the Famous Australian Trees website, I found the following and I quote:

Famous South Australian Trees
http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/trees.htm

"Canoe Trees.
Whether alive or dead, canoe trees are the remnants of an important Aboriginal industry. Most of them can be found along Lakes Albert and Alexandrina, the Coorong and the River Murray and its tributaries.

It was mainly the river red gum, (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), from which the Aborigines cut and peeled long sheets of bark to make their canoes.

The art of making these rafts was practised by most Aborigines in Australia from the rivers to the coasts. "


I also found some other 'Famous Australian Trees' web links

http://www.touringaustralia.de/Trees/Licuala-ramsayi.php

http://www.mdavid.com.au/trees/unusualtrees.html

http://www.mdavid.com.au/trees/bigtrees.html

http://www.touringaustralia.de/trees.php

Cheers Julia

Peace Arch Park Sculpture and Art

A school I was teaching in is creating a peace garden in Goolwa, South Australia. I am so proud of their drawings, paintings, ability to compose such wonderful songs and sing them yourself.

Some gardens have sculptures in them. Have you tried that art form? Christina Alexandra who lives in Washington State, nurtures the Peace Arch Park, on the border of Washington, USA and British Columbia in Canada. They have an annual 'Art in the Park' sculpture competition. There is a lot of information on their website. Christina stayed with Granny Julia in February 2008, and has given us the song she wrote about the Peace Arch called "Children of a Common Mother" which are the words on the Peace Arch. She also gave us a video with the history of the Peace Arch. Here is their website:

http://www.peacearchpark.org/

Cheers

Julia

Manoa Heritage Center - Hawaii

Have you every visited the Hawaiian Islands? Do you know where they are on the map? Go to Google Earth from your home, and find the Hawaii & the Manoa Heritage Centre. http://www.manoaheritagecenter.org/

You can visit their website to see the photos of their biodiversity - trees and flowers that grow on the Hawaiian Islands. Their Native Hawaiian garden is called 'Kuka'o'o Heiau. Granny is asking them to help talk about the International School Peace Gardens. If you visit a park or a Heritage Centre, you can also plant these ideas into your school peace garden.

Do you know what the word 'culture' means? Hawaiian's have many great cultural things that they do.

1. A Hawaiian feast is called a Luau (say: loo-au). http://kohalacoastweb.blogspot.com/2007/06/best-hawaiian-luau-show.html
2. Can you dance the hula? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huFf0uZGKEg&feature=related
   
3. They use their beautiful flowers in their designs for making quilts. Have you folded a piece of paper in quarters and then cut design's in the middle? When you open it out you have matching patterns in each section. They do the same with material. You back the flower with wonder under, and sew the patterns onto a material square. They sew all the squares together to make a quilt. Here are some free patterns to try. http://nvo.com/poakalani/nss-folder/freecushionpatterns/
4. Can you find the words for hallo, goodbye, in Hawaiian? http://www.aloha.com/~hvguides/HwnGlossary.html
5. Their sacred tree is a Kukai.
   
6. Look for their flower names http://www.alohafriendsphotos.com/
7. Learn how to make a new plant out of a living plant.
8. Find out how to plant a tree. You will need a spade and a bucket of water.
9. What else do you need to keep the tree alive?

Julia