Luke Austin '20

We started the day today by going to NELHA and learning about how their building works without using energy, but it still has air conditioning. The building has a copper roof with space between and it heats the air. The air is pulled out through exhaust pipes which leaves space for cool air to fill. The cool air comes...

Today we woke up bright and early so that we could go on the zodiac tour. On the zodiac tour we saw so many different types of animals. First we saw pilot whales. Pilot whales are sexually dimorphic which means that they can change their gender depending on their size and other attributes. We also observed a baby pilot...

Today we woke up at 6:30 to bagels and cereal. After eating, we went to our houses to pack for the upcoming dive. I made sure to pack my snorkel, mask, and fins. We crammed into our two vans and went to the docks. When we got to the docks we lugged our things to the boat and...

First we stopped at NELHA (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii of Authority) and learned about conservation efforts such as OTEC (Ocean Energy Thermal Conversion). OTEC works by using warm surface sea water, cold deep sea water, and ammonia. The warm surface sea water boils the ammonia because it has a low boiling point, capturing the gas of boiling ammonia...

After two long flights, we arrived in Hawaii at 2:00 pm and drove to the Homes over Kona. We had a great dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and had cake for dessert. After dessert, we went over our activities for the week. The black water dive and the manta ray dive seemed the most interesting. We dive at night...

I look forward to diving in the ocean rather than a murky lake or a pool. I look forward to seeing turtles. I also look forward to the hiking because I will be able to see wildlife on land.