The Best Method: Teaching by doing

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I received an e-mail from a UP NISMED staff. Apparently she was surprised that this is a pioneering work in biology education in the Philippines. So far, I don't know of any Filipino teacher blog of this content. As I reviewed various blogs in education around the world, there was not a single mention of a Filipino blog. There was one named siyensiya (see my blogroll) but it is managed by an American teacher.

The picture above was taken two years ago. It was a mini-forest project initiated by my brothers and me in support of education for sustainable development. For knowledge of content will be futile if this will not be put into action. The simple idea of planting trees is almost preached by many teachers (particularly those in the biology stream) but how many of them are taking this sermon by heart?

We did not own a piece of land. My parents are tenants of a mountainous area and that is where we are planting trees since 1990s. So far, we have already harvested a number of paper trees, and replaced them with new one. Only if all our teachers will be passionate enough in believing on the values of what they teach, then greening the world is not an impossible task.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello Mr. E. Thank you very much for your message and I'm glad that you are able to use some of the resources available in my wordpress account. Actually, the account is not really intended to address lots of people. I made the account to address the needs of my students in the Philippine Science High School. I am also very interested in Biology Education, but since my background is in pure biological sciences, I don't have the skills that you have like making a detailed educational rubrics etc. Although, I am very active in BIOTA (Biology Teachers Association of the Philippines), my presentations are mostly the innovations being done here in our Pisay classrooms and not the typical educational research of an education major like you. My interest is a bit intimidating?Yes, probably I agree. Even my colleagues freaked out upon seeing my wordpress description. But, I guess, it's time for Filipinos to become specialists. Biology educators should be in a way a specialist in one of the myriads of biological fields. How do you compete or update yourself with all the information available in this world? Be a specialist. You can always contact me for any queries or help. I firmly believe in the value of sharing. Again, thanks!By the way, I commented in this post because you might be interested in instituting a Field Biology Program for your school. A copy of the article on how to create your own program will be available in the BIOTA journal which will come out in the next few months. For copies and other inquiries as well, especially joining the BIOTA Conventions please email Dr. Jessamyn Yazon jyazon77@yahoo.com.

Nino
November 5, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Unknown said…
Thanks, Eddie, for inviting me to your blogsite. And welcome to the UP Diliman campus. Are you here for your Ph.D. in Science Education (Biology)?

Do drop by NISMED whenever you can.

Risa L. Reyes, UP NISMED
December 5, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Kiran Budhrani - Faculty, DLSU-M said…
Your blog is quite a good effort to unite and inform Science teachers.

I dropped a note asking if you would know where I could find the most recent "BIOLOGY learning Competencies" of DEPED?

Would you have a copy? If ever, please do email me at kiran.budhrani@delasalle.ph. thankyou!
April 14, 2009 at 1:28 AM
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