Natural Resources is one of the only electives at Kalani High School where students learn hands-on with teacher Mrs. Jinbo-Doran. The class helps the campus and environment, as they also help work on the garden outside J building. Natural Resources is a science-based elective that involves independent skills.

Several students explained that the course teaches practical life skills and involves hands-on work outside of the classroom. 

“We’re almost outside all the time,” Ayaka Yoshii (10) says. 

Gallery • 2 Photos

Yuna Otsuka

Ayaka Yoshii (10) and Ronny Bui (10) are installing drip irrigation for a row of planter boxes. The Year 1 students will get to plant their own boxes.

Natural resources hardly consist of any tests, unlike other classes. Instead, students work on projects.

“It’s a project-based class that we need to plan ourselves,” Yoshii says. “There’s an entire year project that we need to do every year of this class called the SAE. It’s a big project.” 

The students in this elective also spoke highly about the teacher, Mrs. Jinbo-Doran.

“The teacher is fair, understanding, and lets us work outside and finish tasks 2x a week,” Rony Bui (10) says. 

The teacher is loose, Yoshii explains and lets students work on assignments and homework at their own pace.

Yoshii also says the learning environment differs from most other elective classes, as students are outside. Natural Resources students from previous years have worked on building brick pathways, maintaining a cotton bush, planting wheat, and composting. 

This year specifically, the students in Natural Resources are making a greenhouse and will make tea to sell. Other students are trying to make pottery. 

Since the class contains different subject matters, such as making money, growing plants, and drafting speeches, students experience different lessons that may or may not apply to their futures but can give them direction and point them toward exciting career paths. 

“I think all of the different skills related to both projects and management and just like the little things you pick up from this class might be helpful,” Kristina Nakahara (12) says.

Students say that Natural Resources encourages people to take initiative, and most who take this elective for a second or third year are independent.

Natural resources is the class to take if you’re looking for a fun, easy-going, hands-on way to learn!