{"id":215632,"date":"2025-05-12T13:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T23:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=215632"},"modified":"2025-05-12T14:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:16:18","slug":"uh-hilo-ag-fair-symposium-plant-big-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/12\/uh-hilo-ag-fair-symposium-plant-big-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Hilo Agriculture Fair, symposium plant big ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"People
Lilia Frey, an adjunct faculty in agricultural economics, selects plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From native limu studies to hydroponics and horse therapy, University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo students showcased the power of learning by doing at the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management<\/a>\u2019s (CAFNRM<\/abbr>) Ag Fair and Student Symposium on April 24.<\/p>\n

Held in the college\u2019s campus breezeway, the fair featured student-run booths, plant sales and interactive exhibits. Attendees explored locally grown produce, honey and starter plants, all cultivated by students at the UH<\/abbr> Hilo farm in Panaʻewa<\/span>.<\/p>\n

“The event was to showcase what the College of Agriculture has to offer and what students have learned through their courses and applied to the farm by way of production,” said Jake Rodrique, manager at the UH<\/abbr> Hilo Agricultural Farm Laboratory<\/a> in Panaʻewa<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Garret Bones and Luca Vergara present at the symposium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hands-on learning<\/h2>\n

Inside UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s classroom building, students presented research and projects as part of CAFNRM<\/abbr>\u2019s 5th annual student symposium. Topics ranged from in vitro orchid germination to the effects of compost on pole beans to the cultural significance of Native Hawaiian limu varieties such as palahalaha and ʻeleʻele<\/span>. Some teams explored food security; others tackled virus spread in bananas.<\/p>\n

The event was started in 2018 by CAFNRM<\/abbr> director and horticulturist, Professor Norman Arancon to help students build presentation skills. Today, it\u2019s a hallmark of the college\u2019s hands-on learning model.<\/p>\n

\"Person
Matthew McGuire’s project focused on sustainably cultivating vegetable and Hawaiian staple crops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Experiential learning is not just a teaching strategy, it\u2019s our way of life,” said Arancon. “We don\u2019t just teach you what to learn, we help you discover how to learn by doing,” said Arancon.<\/p>\n

More than 20 student groups presented oral and poster projects. Some built community gardens, others studied plant pathogens or upcycling techniques in small-scale gardening.<\/p>\n

For more on student research and projects go to UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Susan Enright<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s Ag Fair highlighted student research in farming, food systems and native ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,593,14,907],"class_list":["post-215632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-agriculture-forestry-and-natural-resource-management","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215632"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215717,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215632\/revisions\/215717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}