I joined a team of three other students and partnered with Hui o Koʻolaupoko (HOK), a non-profit watershed management organization, to design educational resources for Kaha Garden, their garden of native hawaiian plants in Kailua, Hawaiʻi. We designed our own research methods, interviewed community members, delivered graphic educational resources, an online interactive map, and a virtual walkthrough video, along with guides to maintain all posted resources.
Our finished resources are featured on the Kaha Garden webpage.
4
2 Months
(Oct 19, 2025 - Dec 13, 2025)
Canva, ArcGis StoryMaps Online, DaVinci Resolve
Researched 6 native hawaiian plants and 2 invasive weeds for resources.
Designed and executed a plan for interviewing garden volunteers and local community members.
Organized and led meetings with student team, and with HOK sponsors.
Helped design information and ID cards in Canva.
Edited a Virtual Walkthrough Video with DaVinci Resolve.
Helped create ArcGIS StoryMap.
Contributed to our team's research paper.
We collectively researched 25 species of native hawaiian plants, documenting biological information like physical features and ecological role, cultural information, and information on growing these plants. Many of the plants we researched are featured at Kaha Garden.
We also researched 12 invasive species of weeds, collecting information on what they look like, the harm they cause, and how to remove them.
We also attended garden volunteer days to help out with garden maintenance, and during this time we interviewed 7 volunteers and local community members to understand how they use the park, and what information they would have liked to see in educational resources.
We used interview data to inform what types of content we should include in our resources, and used the data on plants as the content itself.
We used Canva to design three varieties of graphic resources, each with a different use case. We used Canva because it was a tool that our sponsors were familiar with using.
These were the first of the resources we designed, and they had the most detailed information. We used them in our online resources.
Adapted from 16:9 Cards, smaller, better for reading on the web.
Adapted from 16:9 Cards. Best for printing out double sided on paper with more space for images and text.
This online map tool offers an overhead tour of Kaha Garden, and labels the locations of native plants in the garden. Each marker shows more detailed information about a plant in the garden with pictures, videos, and an information card.
A non-narrated video that shows off the plants of Kaha Garden in an order similar to a real walking tour. Edited in DaVinci Resolve, it also features information cards and music.
Our sponsors were less familiar with ArcGIS StoryMaps and DaVinci Resolve, so before we left Hawaiʻi, we wrote manuals for how to use both to edit and maintain the StoryMap and Walkthrough video.
We also delivered the editable Canva project files to our sponsors so they can make edits in the future.