One Day. One Community.
Real Solutions.
Nalukai’s 1-day Moku Design Challenge brings high school students face-to-face with Hawaiʻi's most pressing challenges – from housing to water, energy to food security – through expert dialogue, site visits, and hands-on problem solving.
The Moku Design Challenge is a place-based educational experience that tackles one major issue confronting Hawaiʻi communities. Each program focuses on a specific moku (district) and brings together approximately 30 high school students with subject matter experts, site visits (huakaʻi), and a design challenge that asks: What would you do?
Unlike traditional field trips or lectures, students engage directly with the complexity of real community challenges. They hear from stakeholders with different perspectives and priorities. They visit sites where solutions are being implemented. And they work together to design their own responses – whether that's a public awareness campaign, a policy proposal, or a community engagement strategy.
The experience includes:
Expert panels featuring community leaders, industry professionals, and policymakers with diverse viewpoints
Huakaʻi (site visits) to see solutions in action and understand challenges firsthand
Design challenges that ask students to synthesize what they've learned and propose tangible solutions
Community connection with local political champions and corporate sponsors invested in the issue
How can your school participate? Contact us.
How It Works
Morning: Understanding the Challenge
Students begin the day with context. What's the history of this issue? What are the competing priorities? Who are the stakeholders? Through expert panels and facilitated discussion, students develop a nuanced understanding of a complex challenge – and learn how to engage productively even when perspectives differ.
Midday: Seeing Solutions in Action
Huakaʻi take students to sites where innovation is happening. A modular housing development. An agricultural hub. A renewable energy installation. These aren't passive tours – they're opportunities to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and see how theory translates to practice.
Afternoon: Designing Solutions
Armed with context and real-world examples, student teams tackle a design challenge. The deliverable varies by topic – it might be a public relations campaign to build community support, a walkable neighborhood design, or an energy mix proposal that balances cost, environmental impact, and community needs. The goal isn't perfection; it's critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.
Close: Call to Action
The day ends with concrete next steps. What can young people do to engage with this issue? How can they continue learning? Who can they connect with? Students leave not just informed, but empowered.
Focus Areas
Each Moku Design Challenge tackles a different challenge facing Hawaiʻi communities. Programs rotate through critical topics like:
HOUSING
The Challenge: Hawaiʻi's lack of affordable housing drives families from the state. Restrictive land use policies, limited construction capacity, and community opposition (NIMBYism) create a perfect storm. Different stakeholders – developers, unions, community members, policymakers – hold competing priorities.
Students Explore: What are the hidden costs of housing? How do zoning and land use policies affect affordability? What does it take to build community support for development? How do we balance growth with community character?
Example Huakaʻi: Master-planned communities, modular housing developments, multi-use zoning projects
FOOD SECURITY
The Challenge: Hawaiʻi imports 80-90% of its food. Despite broad support for local agriculture, economic realities – land availability, water access, distribution infrastructure, consumer preferences – make food independence challenging.
Students Explore: What would it actually take to grow more food locally? What are the trade-offs between food security and economic viability? How do farmers, retailers, and policymakers navigate these tensions?
Example Huakaʻi: Agricultural parks, local food brands, distribution centers
WATER
The Challenge: Aging infrastructure, changing rainfall patterns, competing demands from agriculture and development – Hawaiʻi's water systems face mounting pressure. In some districts, drought and infrastructure failure threaten both communities and ecosystems.
Students Explore: Where does our water come from? What happens when systems fail? How do we balance residential, agricultural, and environmental water needs?
Example Huakaʻi: Watershed restoration projects, irrigation infrastructure, water treatment facilities
Why Moku-Based Learning?
Issues are local. While Hawaiʻi faces statewide challenges, solutions play out differently across moku. Water scarcity looks different in Kohala than in Lahaina or Moanalua. Housing pressures manifest differently in urban Honolulu than in rural communities. By focusing on students' own moku, we make abstract policy concrete and personal.
Expertise is accessible. Each moku has leaders working on these issues like developers, farmers, water managers, energy innovators, elected officials. Students don't need to imagine stakeholders; they meet them.
Student voice matters locally. Young people can engage most effectively in their own communities. Understanding local context and building relationships with local leaders creates pathways for ongoing civic participation.
Modeling productive dialogue. By bringing together experts with different perspectives and priorities, we show students how to engage constructively across disagreement – a critical skill for addressing complex challenges.
Partner With Us
The Moku Design Challenge brings together schools, community organizations, industry sponsors, and political champions to create meaningful learning experiences for Hawaiʻi students.
Schools & Educators
Interested in bringing Moku Design Challenge to your school or district? We partner with schools to deliver programs aligned with community priorities and student needs.
Sponsors
Corporate and organizational sponsors make these programs possible. Sponsorship includes program costs, curriculum development, and student materials – and connects your organization with the next generation of community leaders.
Political Champions
Elected officials and community leaders provide critical context, connect students with resources, and demonstrate civic engagement in action. We seek champions who can commit time, expertise, and authentic dialogue with students.
Contact us to learn more about partnership opportunities. aloha@nalukai.org