The HDOT Maui Highways team headed over to Hoʻokele Elementary on April 2nd for an awesome Engineering Night! We set up shop to show students how we can use smart design to protect our watersheds.

The Challenge: Stop the Sprinkles!

We challenged the students to become engineers for the night. Their mission? Design a “Best Management Practice” (BMP) to keep our roads from polluting the sea.

Using a mix of sponges, rocks, and pipe cleaners, students built miniature filtration systems. We then tested them using rainbow sprinkles to represent pollutants. It was a race to see who could design the best way to catch the “pollution” before it washed off the roadway and into the storm drains!

The kids learned how hard surfaces like roads carry runoff directly to the ocean, and more importantly, how clever engineering can help filter that water first.

Mahalo to all the young engineers who stopped by to build, test, and learn with us!