Questions? Email Joanna Philippoff (philippo@hawaii.edu)
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What is OPIHI?Our Project In Hawai‘i's Intertidal (OPIHI) is a participatory/citizen science program where
secondary school students (Grades 6–12) monitor rocky intertidal areas in Hawai‘i. Students learn marine ecology conservation and are trained in field methodology, species identification, and sampling techniques.
OPIHI teachers and students contribute to scientific publications! Twenty years ago, OPIHI student data resulted in the first description of community-level patterns at intertidal sites across Hawai‘i. Ten years ago student data formed the basis of a paper examining change over time in the Hawaiian intertidal.
OPIHI Purpose
The main purpose of this professional learning opportunity is to train teachers to teach their students to rigorously monitor Hawai‘i’s intertidal to determine if and how the organisms have changed since the original OPIHI surveys 20 years ago and the surveys 10 years ago. You will be surveying one of 3 rocky intertidal sites on O‘ahu's south shore: ‘Ewa Beach, Lēʻahi (Diamond Head), and Mauliola (Sand Island).
Workshop Dates
You are required to attend all four online workshop sessions, a two-day in-person workshop, and a one-day in-person workshop. All dates are in spring 2026.
In-Person Workshops
- Jan 24 & 25 (Sat & Sun; 9-5 pm): AM in classroom at UH Mānoa, PM in field at intertidal site
- Feb 8 (Sun; 9-5 pm): AM in classroom at UH West O‘ahu, PM in field at intertidal site
Lunch and snacks will be provided each workshop day.
Online Workshops
- Jan 12 (Optional; Monday 4:30-5:20 pm): National Geographic Pristine Seas educator resources
- Jan 14 (Wednesday, 5–6:30 pm): Introduction to project and logistics (**if you miss, watch recording)
- Feb 4 (Wednesday, 5-6:30 pm): Data entry and planning
- Feb 18 (Wednesday, 5-6:30 pm): Data visualization and planning
- April 29 (Wednesday, 5-6:30 pm): Ho‘ike and sharing session
Between the workshops sessions you are expected to complete homework tasks.
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Benefits
Participate in an authentic research project with UH faculty who have been monitoring Hawai‘i's intertidal for over 20 years with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students!
- Classroom set of curriculum supplies (same-school teachers will be asked to share durable supplies; schools within reasonable driving distance of UHM may be asked to "check-out" durable supplies from STEM Pre-Academy)
- Bus transportation for one class to go on one OPIHI field trip (if needed, reimbursable to school)
- Substitute for field trip day (if needed, reimbursable to school)
- $400 stipend upon implementation of OPIHI curriculum and field trip (aka, expectations met).
- *Funding dependent—attend a local conference to present about your OPIHI experiences.
Expectations
- Attend all online and in-person workshops.
- Implement OPIHI curriculum with at least one class (or club) of students.
- Take one class of students (up to one bus full) on a field trip to an OPIHI site (‘Ewa Beach, Lēʻahi, or Mauliola) to monitor the intertidal using standard protocols.
- Share collected monitoring data with program facilitators.
- Complete all program evaluation forms (e.g., pre- and post-surveys).
- Distribute and collect photo waivers from students, and share pictures of students engaging in OPIHI.
- Stay in contact and complete asynchronous homework and check-ins as needed between sessions.
Field Trip
On OPIHI field trips students will not get wet above their knees, thus, you do not need to have a lifeguard present. OPIHI field trips need to be held on dates with low tides. We will work with you to choose a good date for your field trip based on your location and the tide. OPIHI field trips are ~3 hours; you can choose to add on additional activities and stay in the field longer. Weekday low tide dates in spring are:
- February 19–20
- March 2–6
- March 30–April 2
- April 16 & 17
- April 20 & 21
You can see low tide dates in spring
highlighted here in yellow. Your field trip will need to straddle the low tide time. The lower the tide, the better (e.g., -0.3 ft is better than -0.1 ft).
We will help you choose the best date and time for you and your students upon acceptance to the program.
OPIHI Curriculum
- The OPIHI curriculum includes "pre-field-trip" activities that cover the following topics: Introduction to project/intertidal, introduction to sampling, sampling for abundance, and species identification. Classroom implementation of pre-field trip activities takes at least a week of class time (traditionally scheduled).
- "Post-field-trip" activities include inputting data into our database and analyzing data. Classroom implementation post-field trip activities generally takes an additional 2-3 days of class time.
- Implementation times will vary based on school and class characteristics.
OPIHI is aligned to NGSS. Teachers have successfully implemented OPIHI in a wide variety of STEM classes (e.g., biology, marine biology, earth science, life science, chemistry, agriculture, natural resource management, math, and integrated science).
Support and Funding: This project is supported by National Geographic. OPIHI facilitators are faculty from the School of Life Sciences and Sea Grant at UH Mānoa and UH Leeward Community College.
