Krizyl May B.

Alda Ma’am Chatty Maano

Understanding the Lesson

1. What other government projects and programs are available for science education in the
Philippines?

DOST-SEI rides online wave with robotics, innovation trainings

27 December 2020

The pandemic put face-to-face interactions to a halt, which means student competitions are
practically ill-advised. However, given the effectiveness of competitions in building
competencies among students, the Department of Science and Technology – Science
Education Institute (DOST-SEI) banked on the online platform in pursuing its annual robotics
and engineering projects—the Tagisang Robotics: Design. Build. Play. and imake.wemake:
create. innovate. collaborate. Competitions.

The former, which is a varsity-type robotics competition, aims to sustain the development of
robotics competence among junior and senior high school students. Last year, it returned from
five-year hiatus to introduce a new basketball-based game presenting more complex challenges
from the previous derby grounded on soccer and sepak takraw.

The DOST-SEI, aside from administering scholarships in science, technology, engineering

and mathematics (STEM), believes in youth competitions as effective means in developing
STEM professionals.

“The pandemic affected out youth programs but we believe by trying out new things in our
regular projects we can still make the same impact,” said DOST-SEI Director, Dr. Josette Biyo.

The competitions kicked-off its online technical trainings in November and December after
months of developing modules and producing video sessions for students to access live and on-
demand.

For both competitions, DOST-SEI will still provide kits to participating teams containing key
technological components that shall be used in developing the robots and the prototypes. The
teams are given a few months to design and build their robots/prototypes.
 2. Are there private schools with outstanding science education programs? Identify and
compare their science education programs with public science schools.

Some schools have their different way of educating or different way of teaching their students.
But the private schools have more complete facilities such as laboratory and more compared to
the public schools. It depends on the way of their teaching quality.

Ateneo de Manila University

The Chemistry Department provides the student an excellent environment for scientific
inquiry and discourse. The faculty offers expertise in the most relevant fields of chemistry,
having been trained in well-established scientific institutions around the world. They are actively
engaged in research and extension work funded by the university, the private sector, and the
government. 

The Department is among the best-equipped in the Philippines today and is home to the
National Chemistry Instrumentation Center (NCIC). The Department is housed in Schmitt Hall, a
three-story building offering lecture halls and laboratory space for teaching and research.
Additional teaching laboratories are also available on the second floor of the third wing of the
Science Education Complex.

The Department houses several instruments, some of which are listed as follows:

 Atomic Force Microscope

 FT-Infrared Spectrometer
 Thermogravimetic Analyzer
 Differential Scanning Calorimeter
 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer
 Universal Testing Machine
 Hall Effect Apparatus
 Hot and 4-point Probes
 Optical Microscopes
  Refrigerated Ultracentrifuge
 400 MHz JEOL Lambda Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer
 1D & 2D Gel Electrophoresis Apparatus
 Voltammetry Apparatus
 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
 UV-VIS Spectrophotometers
 Fluorometer for Microwell Plates
 Scanning Densitometer
 Freeze Dryer
 Gas Chromatographs (GC-FID, GC-MS)
 Liquid Chromatographs 
 Vacuum Ovens
 Modeling and Simulation Softwares
 Graphite Furnace

Public schools could give as good an education as private schools can. In fact, since this
country is made up of poor people mostly, and the wealthy are just a small percentage of the
entire population, the young generation have better chances of making it in the outside world
than those pampered few.