Cory Lum/Civil Beat

What is an arts integrated school exactly?

It’s a question Civil Beat reporters started asking last summer, when Kamalani Academy opened its doors in Wahiawa.

And it’s the same question that a student at Pomaikai Elementary School asked his teacher, after Civil Beat loaned the Maui school audio recording kits and asked students to take a turn as reporters for On Campus.

Pomaikai, which served as the inspiration for Kamalani Academy, opened in 2007. It was the first school in Hawaii to open as an arts integration school, where teachers utilize a variety of art forms to teach core subjects like science and math. Since then other schools in the state have begun adopting arts integration as part of their curriculum.

After visiting Pomaikai Elementary, Civil Beat asked the students in the Pomaikai Media League to document their experience with arts integration by producing their own podcast.

The students learned how to record audio, came up with their own questions, and interviewed fellow classmates and teachers across their campus. This is what they wanted to share about their school.

On Campus is an ongoing project chronicling Kamalani Academy’s first year. Listen to Episode 9 of On Campus below, or download it on iTunes.

On Campus is supported by a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.