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The National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), an advisory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) presented several policy recommendations to make education more attuned to the needs and personalities of today’s generation of young learners. Called the Alpha Generation, today’s learners are products of early schooling programs and tutorials, and weaned on advanced information and communication technologies such as the Internet and social media.

These modern environmental factors have helped reshape the psyche of these learners, thus requiring necessary changes in teaching and learning methods.

“There is no denying that today’s generation is very different from the one that we knew several years ago,” stated NAST President, Academician William G. Padolina, in his welcome remarks during the “Round Table Discussion (RTD) on Educating the Alpha Generation” recently organized by NAST’s Social Sciences Division at the Hyatt Hotel Manila. The RTD drew insights from respected members of the academe who presented the latest trends and research findings on educating Filipino youngsters aged 6-16.

Shifting to process-induced learning
One of the proposals was to shift from the more traditional teacher-induced learning methodology to process-induced learning or PIL.

The Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF), a secondary school in the remote municipality of Jagna, Bohol has been implementing PIL since 2002 under its Dynamic Learning Program (DLP).

In her talk on “Experiences and Insights on Educating Generation Y and Z: A Springboard for Educating Generation Alpha,” Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido, CVIF principal, said that the school’s PIL program is anchored on improving learner disposition among its high school students.

This entails biological conditioning and habit formation activities, among others, according to Dr. Bernido. In CVIF, these are achieved by requiring students to record their activities and learning targets in their Activity Sheets every day.
“This is a daily protocol which serves as internal motivation for the learners. It is habit forming and their brain starts telling them that it’s time to learn. This will make them more prepared for the more rigorous work ahead in college,” explained Dr. Bernido, a renowned physicist and a 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

CVIF’s parallel classes scheme with limited teacher intervention likewise helps improve learner disposition. This means all sections in each year level are having the same subject periods at the same time. For example, all First Year classes are having Science subjects at the same time in the morning to conform with the students’ biological cycles.

In the case of Science being a difficult subject, scheduling the class in the morning would be ideal because at this time of the day, the students still have the physical and mental energy to deal with a complex subject.

During classes, expert teacher intervention is limited to only one-third or one-fourth of the whole subject period. The expert teacher refers to the subject teacher. For the rest of the period, only a facilitator is present. A facilitator could be a teacher of another subject.

“This strategy will give students more time to do independent work on standardized tasks and increase their attentiveness as well,” Dr. Bernido remarked. She explained further by saying that by the time the expert teacher comes in and takes over the class, the students will be more eager to listen to her discussion and therefore be more attentive.

Classes in CVIF have no introductory lectures for 70 to 80 percent of the time as well. Instead, independent learning activities – exercises and problem solving tasks, among others – are held immediately. This is opposed to common classroom practice where lectures and class discussions are held for 70 to 80 percent of the time.

The school also implements strategic study-rest periods and prohibits students from bringing home their projects. Homework is also not given in all subjects for all year levels. The reason for this, Dr. Bernido explained, is for the parents to make sure their kids are in bed early, instead of having them in front of their computers and pretending they are doing their assignments and school projects.

“If they are in bed early, they don’t have any reason to be sleepy in school. Instead, they will have enough energy for schoolwork the whole day,” said Dr. Bernido.

Aside from CVIF, 156 other public schools in Bohol have adopted PIL in their curriculum as well as in various primary and secondary schools in Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Davao, Leyte, and Manila, among others.

More attention on science, math
Aside from addressing the unique needs of Alpha Generation, the program also hopes to achieve a more specific and localized objective: produce more qualified teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related disciplines or STEM, and increase the number of students enrolling in these courses.

“STEM have been observed to play a very dominant role in the economic development of countries,” said Dr. Bernido. “Government is focusing on these disciplines, but the reality is that there is a decline of qualified teachers as well as a decline in the number of students in these disciplines. So we go back to the question ‘Why is there a decline?,’” she elaborated.

One of the reasons, according to experts, is the general perception that these are difficult subjects. “Hence we try to address this through the curriculum that we implemented under the DLP which will improve the learner disposition, combined with a good STEM curriculum,” explained Dr. Bernido.

The need for kids to be resilient
Dr. Queena N. Lee-Chua, associate professor of Ateneo de Manila University’s Psychology Department, added that children need to build their resilience. “We need to develop them today. They also need at least one positive role. On the other hand, parents should challenge their kids to meet high expectations, find their individual strengths, encourage them, while avoiding hyper or under-parenting.”

Equally important, she said, is for parents to set goals with their kids, instead of setting their own goals for their kids without asking the latter about their plans.

“The challenge now is to guide learners situated in diverse local and global conditions to superior levels of performance in disciplines of their choice,” said Dr. Bernido.

“Being in the early years of the generation, many of the current trends are unprecedented. If we are expecting a better future, then something must be done in the education system of the Alpha Generation to properly guide the youth in their journey,” Padolina declared.

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Mandaluyong City, Philippines - 16 May 2013: The Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the University of the Philippines (UP) and IBM announced today, that the world-renowned IBM Blue Gene supercomputer has been chosen to support the Philippine government’s priority R&D projects focused on reducing poverty, improving government processes and tools and enabling smarter weather management, as based on the National Economic Development Authority’s Medium Term Development Plan. A priority initiative around weather prediction will be the pilot project to use the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer as its platform.


A milestone among government-private-academe endeavors, the supercomputer soon to arrive in the country will provide high performance computing capabilities to help develop practical solutions to address the country’s basic problems. The IBM Blue Gene supercomputer is set to be the platform for select R&D projects that are aligned with the country’s strategic growth initiative to advance poverty alleviation; transparency in the government; rapid, inclusive and sustained economic growth; peace and order and environment and climate change mitigation.


“This is a direct result from the agreement between the DOST and IBM in May 2012, to jointly build a Philippine Systems and Technology R&D Lab to help accelerate national economic growth,” said Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, President and Country General Manager, IBM Philippines. “It is IBM’s response to President Aquino’s call for help to support research and development projects to enable transformation and progress in the country. The IBM Blue Gene supercomputer is our concrete contribution to advance R&D initiatives in the country.”


A priority R&D project, the DOST and IBM will collaborate on how the supercomputer can complement DOST’s Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards or Project NOAH, the government’s flagship program and integrated information system for disaster mitigation and climate change. The IBM supercomputer will enable local scientists to process and gain insights from the massive data collected, to produce faster, more accurate forecasts and improve localized weather prediction for the country. Prone to natural disasters, the country will benefit greatly once this projected is completed, as citizens and various government agencies can better prepare and plan what to do and what emergency response programs to activate, if and when a weather-related disaster occurs.

“The IBM Blue Gene supercomputer will be most applicable to DOST’s major programs such as NOAH and Smart Agriculture, “said DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo. “First we will work toward Blue Gene’s integration to Project NOAH to provide more advanced seven-day local weather forecasts. We can also use it to run various weather models and validate the accuracy of results almost real-time.”

“Smart Agriculture, the newest flagship program of the DOST, will also gain from our newest supercomputing capability in modeling climate change scenarios, building database for agricultural land use, and computing for monthly irrigation requirements per province,” Sec. Montejo added.

Other possible projects to be aided by the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer include flood management and genomics.

The announcement was one of the many highlights of the 2013 IBM Technology Conference and Expo, wherein IBM showcased new Smarter Computing solutions which forms the foundation of a smarter IT infrastructure that powers a Smarter Planet. Smarter Computing is an approach that leverages cloud technology to speed time to market and improve efficiency; that unlocks the power of data to deliver more actionable insight; and that secures critical information to reduce risk and enhance compliance to enable organizations to transform, innovate and grow their businesses.


About IBM
Since establishing its presence in the Philippines in 1937, IBM has evolved to become the leading information technology partner in the country, providing hardware, software, and IT-enabled business services to domestic and global markets. IBM in the Philippines has grown exponentially in terms of business portfolio, talent growth and geographic reach.


For more information about IBM in the Philippines, please visit http://www.ibm.com/ph


About DOST
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is the premiere science and technology body in the country charged with the twin mandate of providing central direction, leadership and coordination of all scientific and technological activities, and of formulating policies, programs and projects to support national development.


For more information about the DOST, please visit http://www.dost.gov.ph


About Project NOAH
Project NOAH is the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) response to the call of President Benigno S. Aquino III for a more accurate, integrated, and responsive disaster prevention and mitigation system throughout the Philippines. The program harnesses technologies and disaster management services offered by DOST agencies Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and the Advanced Science and Technology Institute. The program runs in partnership with the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS) and the UP College of Engineering.

NOAH’s interactive website can be accessed at http://noah.dost.gov.ph

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The Department of Science and Technology Regional Office VI is now accepting local inventions and research entries for the coming 2013 Regional Invention Contest and Exhibits (RICE) to be held September 2-6, 2013.


The RICE is a biennial invention contest for students and professional inventors that puts the spotlight on various home grown talents in the field of science research and inventions. The event is organized by DOST Regional Offices in cooperation with the Technology Application and Promotion Institute.


The 2013 RICE Region VI leg will be held in Iloilo City and is expected to bring many invention enthusiasts to show their wares and compete for the honor of being the region’s best in their respective categories.


This initiative supports the development of science research and inventions from the grassroots to help produce a very competitive pool of inventors and researchers who are capable of developing practical applications that spur national economic development.


The invention contest will feature categories on Creative Research (Likha Award), Student Creative Research for High School (Sibol Award), and Student Creative Research for College (Sibol Award).

Winners in the Iloilo leg of the 2013 RICE will advance to represent the region during the national invention contest next year.

Just last year, Ydsan France Dungon of Negros Occidental National Science High School bagged the Sibol Award for High School with his research “Manually Operated Extruder Machine: Prototype in Making Leaf Briquettes”. He also placed second during the National Inventions Contests and Exhibits.


Meanwhile, DOST Secretary Mario Montejo urges more students to participate and develop smarter science research and inventions that spur economic development and improve the quality of life in the country.

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Developing countries in 2012 marked a biotechnology milestone in global agricultural history when farmers in said countries, including the Philippines, produced more biotech crops than their counterparts from highly developed and more technologically advanced nations.

Dr. Randy A. Hautea, global coordinator and Southeast Asia Center director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), announced this amazing news during the international conference on the “Adoption of Biotech Crops in the Developing World” held recently at the Hyatt Hotel Manila. The conference was co-organized by the National Academy of Science and Technology, an advisory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-NAST).

Dr. Hautea termed the milestone development as a “crossover” from economically developed nations to the developing world, allowing farmers in Asia and other less developed nations to reap the benefits of biotech crop cultivation: less use of pesticides, safer farming practices, reduced costs, better crop yield, and higher income, with more extra time spent for other activities.

Biotechnology is the process of creating or modifying a product or process through the use of living systems, organisms, or their derivatives, to render the product or process more useful for medical, agricultural, and nutritional applications, among others.

“The potential of biotechnology to increase agricultural productivity is one of the reasons why we at the DOST believe it is a cause worth pursuing,” said DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo, corroborating the gains offered by biotechnology. Moreover, the DOST supports a science-based method of evaluating both the benefits and risks of GM crops, he clarified.

The conference mainly presented key findings of the research project by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) titled “Adoption and Uptake Pathways of GM/Biotech Crops by Small-scale Resource Poor Asian Farmers in China, India, and the Philippines.”

China and India have been identified as frontrunners in the biotech crop arena in Asia. In fact, 98 percent of biotech crop adopters, or those who have embraced biotechnology in farming, in the developing regions, are from China, India, and the Philippines. Globally, there are 17.8 million farmers from 28 countries who are into biotech crop cultivation. Of this number, 85 percent are from the three countries, with China and India having 7.2 million biotech crop farmers each and the Philippines accounting for .375 million.



Biotechnology: Philippine scenario
According to the study, biotechnology in agriculture reached farming communities in the Philippines by way of seed suppliers and seed company technicians who introduced local farmers to the mechanics and benefits of biotech crop farming.

Now, the Philippines has a total of 370,000 small farmers growing more than 750,000 hectares of genetically modified corn called the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt corn. The first Asian country to approve a Bt crop for commercial cultivation as both food and feed, the Philipines is also the first ASEAN nation to initiate a regulatory system for biotechnology via the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines established in 1990.

As the Philippines’ central hub for science and technology (S&T), DOST fully supports biotechnology-driven projects, systems, and infrastructure in the country. Last January 2013, Dr. Amelia P. Guevara, DOST undersecretary for research and development, led the inauguration of a biotech pilot plant at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Complex in Laguna—the only biotech facility to cater to researchers, members of the academe, as well as start-up entrepreneurs. The project is funded by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development, a DOST sectoral council.

Bt cotton in India, China
Seed companies likewise played a key role in introducing Bt cotton technology in China during the late 1990s. The Institute of Cotton Research under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences boosted their efforts by educating local workers and agricultural traders to introduce Bt cotton to the farmers. In 2012, 7.2 million farmers in the country planted 4 million hectares of Bt cotton.

In India, large-scale farm demonstrations helped propagate the technology and popularity of Bt cotton. Last year, farmers in India planted 10.8 million hectares of Bt cotton.

The said conference aimed to help formulate policy recommendations on biotechnology including biosafety regulatory systems. Among the attendees were scientists, researchers, farmers and other workers from the agricultural sector, policymakers, and members of the media. DOST-NAST co-organized the international conference with the John Templeton Foundation, ISAAA, SEARCA, and the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II.