Monday, July 02, 2007 Checkers used as science teaching strategy By Nancy R. Cudis Sun.Star Correspondent
TO PROMOTE academic excellence and get the students interested in science, the Department of Education (DepEd) has come up with an indoor table game that will now become a national contest.
Called Sci-Dama, each move of this game of dama (checkers) involves scientific figures and formulas that students must solve.
“We have had Science Dama or Sci-Dama for the last three years, but this year will be our first time to have a national contest. We are encouraging public and private high schools to join,” said DepEd 7 secondary division chief Marcial Degamo.
“Sci-Dama will be a test to check if the students really absorbed their learning in class. They are expected to learn how to think, calculate and make the right move,” he added.
Sci-Dama was conceptualized by DepEd’s Information and Communication Technology National Coordinator Jess Huenda, who also introduced Damath, a game involving mathematical formulas.
Degamo said they expect a good number of secondary schools to participate in the contest, which runs from August to September. Its four categories are integrated science, biology, chemistry and physics.
Just last week, some 180 education supervisors, science coordinators and teachers from 15 Central Visayas school divisions convened to discuss ways of promoting excellence in science through competition, camaraderie and sportsmanship.
In the 2005 National Achievement Test (NAT) taken by Cebu City’s grade six students, the lowest score was in science, with 46.77. The highest was in Filipino, with a mean percentage score of 59.35.
The DepEd, though, said that the NAT is just a diagnostic test aimed at gauging how the schools are performing.
