ScienceTeach Hub

I hate to admit it but it's true. Sometimes, when we are used to facing students who would eat up all what we give, we ran out of reasons when few good students dared to ask questions, particularly when these are very basic information that we have already overlooked or forgotten. Let me share with you some basic questions thrown by students which confused me. Let us have a throwback of my science classroom boos when I was only starting as a retooled biology teacher 10 years ago. Why is bamboo a grass? My Answer: Bamboo is not a tree, it is a grass because... well, what is the difference between a bamboo and a tree? (A student said bamboo does not bear flowers). Me:I don't think so. There are many grasses that bear flowers. Scientists say: The bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen (except for certain temperate species) plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Grass is the common word that generally describes monocot...

While the Philippines is greatly alarmed by the falling-off of its performance in science and mathematics, it is surprising that other seemingly invincible  nations are likewise hit by the very issues that are crippling our basic science education, issues that are trending worldwide! Such include the declining interest in science, indifferent social perception of science, drastic reduction in science career options, poor primary science, low performance in international assessment studies, lack of qualified teachers, overcrowded curriculum, lack of quality textbooks and instructional materials, low student’s motivation, high drop-out and repetition rates, lack of time for planning lessons and evaluations, poorly defined learning objectives, and lack of teachers’ training. Common Issues, Varied Approaches Despite communalities of issues, several countries approached the same problems differently. For example, France has its LAMAP (La main a la Pate) that focuses on inquiry p...

Human anatomy class. A student who reported about the reproductive system made mention that among males the passageway both for urine and semen are the same. And that when the pe*is is supplied with blood, a flap of tissue partly closes the bladder which explains why it is impossible for males to urinate while having an e*ection. A student raised a query. Morning E*ections Student 1: Why is it that the pe*is gets erect every morning? Student 2 (Girl): Is it really always in the morning? Student 1: Yes! I really wonder why. You told us that sensual stimuli can cause an e*ection but what about this one? There are no stimuli yet in the morning. No magazines, videos or whatsoever. Me: Are you speaking of wet dreams? According to psychologists this is the signal that you are already reproductive, which means that you can already make babies. It happens during puberty. Student 3 (Young Mom): But I have observed sir that my baby boy is also having an e*ection in the morning....

Just like most of our curriculum planners, I envision a basic science education that will make our learners scientifically, technologically and environmentally literate. These have been termed as the ‘key goals’ of science education. Efforts towards the attainment of this vision are rather captured by jargons that popularized the thematic goals of science education in this time and age like Delors’ pillars for learning to know, to do, to be and to live together and UNESCO’s education through, in and for science. So much has changed in science as it goes along with the change in social landscape. There has been observed modification in its practice, the nature of public engagement with it, post-modern criticisms about its certainty, knowledge explosion, nature of schooling, population of students, nature of youth and the like. Change has become the central driver for goal refocusing. To reach a full circle, these goals are expected to congruently respond consistent to these changes...

More often, the approach in introducing our science students to a field of scientific discipline is to acquaint them of its historical development first. This I usually do in my cell biology and genetics classes. My purpose is simple. I want to honor the men and women who laid the foundation of scientific knowledge whose fruits we currently enjoy. What is a second or two, like just mentioning their names and notable contribution plus their pictures, in comparison to a life dedicated to the passionate pursuit of their works? I currently came across with an article entitled The Value of History of Science as a Medium for the Integral and Specific Education of the Individual . The article answers the question: “What is the value of teaching history of science?” The original version of the translated article was published in 1935 in Spanish. Fast forward to 2019, it still makes a lot of sense in the context of science education in the Philippines particularly here in Romblon. The ...

Tissue culture is one of the asexual methods of massively propagating banana plants. Banana demonstrates the so called parthenocarpy, a condition wherein a fruit develops even without prior fertilization. They reproduce through suckers that grow around the mother plant. A ground tissue is usually extracted from the source plant in an aseptic environment. They are then placed in a bottle with gelled phytohormones and incubated. Overtime, the cells will dedifferentiate, reinitiate cell division and could even regenerate the whole plant, hence, totipotency. In animal cells however, differentiation is irreversible. But there's more to this video than itself. We always have our first time in everything. I made this video after my Biotechnology class and I received a quick training from the technician at the Banana Tissue Culture Laboratory of the University. But this was almost eight years past.  Back then, Movie Maker was the most friendly and handy editing software at hand. And...

Discussing 'Action Potential' is one of the most challenging topics in human physiology. When I was still learning the concept back in the University, I had a hard time figuring out the influx of ions into the axon and how this action at the cellular level can produce voltage and electrical signals. So, when we were assigned to do a learning material, we chose the topic on the generation of action potential. Here's the script I made for the above video clip. Enjoy learning. The body’s information system is built from billions of interconnected cells called neurons. A nerve cell or a neuron consists of many different parts. The cell body or soma is the life support center of the neuron. The dendrites are branching extensions at the cell body. They receive messages from other neurons. The axon is a single extension of a neuron which is covered with myelin sheath to insulate and speed up messages through neurons. The terminal branches of axon are endings that transmit...

We have been hearing in the education circle the fad about Teacher 4.0. At first, I thought 4.0 was just about an indication of an upgrade similar to the versions of the softwares we have been using. But in 2016, a group of researchers from Germany defined Teacher 4.0 as a name or concept to be adapted for future teachers who are able to handle new technology and who implement it efficiently in their classes. The term has its origin from Industry 4.0 which has expanded to cover wider areas other than just the industry such as higher education and the current teaching methods. Meaning that education has to adapt to new methods to follow up with the changes happening in technology. These researchers posit three major challenges and requirement for Teacher 4.0, the teacher of the future: human-based and didactical or teaching challenges, organizational challenges and technological challenges. For example, the following scenarios depict teaching activities to cope with the cur...

It came to me as a news, although I was saddened by the fact that news came to me too late because her achievement was way too many years back. I shared this story to my environmental science class in 2006. Just like me, their views about science education were changed by this very moving and powerful speech. Dr. Biyo is a public school teacher from the Philippine Science High School in Iloilo who won the Intel Excellence in Teaching award in the US, besting 4,000 candidates from all around the world. During the panel interview in the U.S., one judge asked her, "You have a Ph.D. in Biology; why do you teach in high school?" She answered, "And who will teach these kids?" Another judge asked how much she was paid for all her pains. They were shocked when they were told she is getting a net pay of not more than $300 a month. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Boston named a minor planet in her honor. Read the rest of her story belo...

When I first read her story in the book “In Love with Science” which she herself edited, I got interested with her. There is a feeling of awe and amazement as to how she reconciled mathematics and psychology. I didn’t know exactly where and when did the name become familiar but for sure it was about a certain article, half sure whether it was on-line or in the dailies. But I bumped on her name a couple of times already in science news/columns in the internet, which she authored. Her name was also mentioned in a valedictory address of a girl I dreamed to meet: the extraordinary gifted blind Filipina, Roselle Ambubuyog.  So when I learned that she would be delivering one of the plenary talks in the international conference in science and math education, I was very excited. In fact, not so long ago, my student in the graduate school cited her works in his thesis proposal and I kept on telling, “I know her,” as if she also knew me. As if we met already. But because of her ...

The first time I heard the terms Industry 4.0 was when I attended the National Science and Technology Week in July 2017 at the World Trade Center in Manila. The resource speaker walked us through the various revolutions in history that gave rise to our modern society. All that I understood was that the degree of automation increased with time, highlighted by a dominant technology per era, giving rise to industry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and Industry 4.0. In the national convention of the Philippine Association of Research Managers (PHILARM) that I attended in Cebu last year, one of our speakers introduced us to a rather easy-recall term, FIRE for the 'fourth industrial revolution.' Early this year, I was invited by the researchers from the Philippine Normal University on a workshop about their national CHED funded research project on Technological Pedagogical Assessment Content Knowledge (TPACK) in the fields of science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics (STEAM)....