DepEd supports 28th National Quiz Bee

The Department of Education (DepEd) expressed its support for the 28th National Quiz Bee organized by the Quiz Bee Foundation where a number of public school students have qualified to compete with their counterparts from private schools late this month.

The 28th National Quiz Bee will be a two-part tournament, with part 1 of the grand finals set on Dec. 30, 2007 and part 2 slated for Jan. 6, 2008.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the DepEd is ready to extend its support to the tournament.

“This is a perfect venue where our students can engage in healthy competition and productive interaction,” Lapus said.

“This is also an excellent way for our students to imbibe discipline and sportsmanship,” he added.

A presidential trophy, a gold medal, P100,000 worth of insurance, P70,000 worth of educational plan, a 32-volume encyclopedia set, a multimedia computer system, mobile phone, and gift packages will be awarded to the winner of the National Grand Finals.

Categories include: Elementary Makabayan (Philippine History, Culture, and Values), Elementary Mathematics, Science and Technology for high school contestants, and General Information and International Affairs for college students.

“The department is grateful for such initiatives which provide venues to showcase the talents of our students,” Lapus stressed.

“This also proves that our students in public schools are very capable of competing with their private school counterparts in spite of resource shortages in public schools,” he added.

The competition is part of the four-day Summit of the Super Quiz Bee.

The 136 regional champions and teacher coaches from 17 regions will congregate in a live-in camp with tours, seminars, and fellowships.

The Philippine National Quiz Bee was started by a young couple – Rasty and Gay Tayag – in 1977.

It grew from a small-scale tournament into a forum for outstanding Filipino schoolchildren. Private sector groups have since been financing this yearly endeavor.

Any enrolled student from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels can join the quiz bee. At the primary level, pupils 10 to 13 years old are qualified to join.

Students from 14 to 17 years old are qualified in the secondary level, and college students aged 18 to 22 years can join the tertiary level.

Meanwhile, a Filipino student has won second place in the recently held 3rd Water Rocket event in India, the Science Education Institute (SEI) reported yesterday.

John Lorenzo Yambot of the Rizal National Science High School and coach Engr. Matthew Dimal, a faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Engineering, ranked second among 24 student participants from 11 countries in the 3rd Water Rocket Event of the 14th Session of the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) held at the National Aerospace Laboratories Central School, Bangalore, India last Nov. 21 to 23.

The objective of the three-year-old contest is for the competitors to design a rocket that would travel within 56 to 59 meters from the launch point.

The team that reaches the zone gets a full 100 points for the feat. Going beyond or below this zone would mean lower points for the contestant. Contestants are provided two-liter PET bottles, tools, nozzles and launchers for the construction of the rocket.

They are given two launches and the contestant with the most number of points will be declared winner.

SEI director Dr. Ester Ogena said this achievement is “a sure booster to Philippine science education.”

“We are happy that the Philippines is improving its standing before the international community in the water rocket event. This shows that we could be more capable and prepared for next year’s competition,” she said.

The Philippines ranked fourth in last year’s water rocket event.

Ogena said the international competition is a good venue to sharpen the skills of Filipino students and enable them to withstand pressure in competitions.

“The contest provides the environment for the student to develop logical thinking, math and science adeptness and logical reasoning. These are actual experiments that provide the application of science theories students learn in school,” she stressed.

Ogena said the development of space education is one of the regular programs of SEI where schools convene every October for the World Space Week (WSW) celebration. This year marks the Golden Space Age as the world celebrates the 50th year since the first man-made satellite “Sputnik 1” was launched into space.

Yambot won the WSW rocket launching for the Distance Category competition held last Oct. 4 to 10 in Manila. Their roundtrip tickets to India were provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which serves as the secretariat of the APRSAF.

The host organization, Indian Space Research Organization, provided the room, board and local transportation of the contestants.

The 26-member APRSAF was established in 1993 in response to the declaration adopted by the Asia-Pacific International Space Year Conference (APIC) in 1992.

It aims to enhance the development of each country’s space program and to exchange views toward future cooperation in space activities in the Asia-Pacific region.

It intends to ensure wider participation of space agencies, government officials, regional and international organizations and institutions responsible for applying space technology, as well as space agencies from outside the region and private sectors as observers.

The SEI, an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology, is mandated to develop a critical mass of highly-trained S&T workers and professionals.  – With Helen Flores