THE 2010 Science and Technology Fair will kick off this month to pick the country's representatives for Annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
Education Chief Armin Luistro said the holding of the event is based on Department of Education (DepEd) Memo 310, series of 2010, which aims to promote science and technology consciousness among the youth.
"A strong orientation on science and technology among the citizenry is the foundation of highly-developed economies all over the world, this is why we open avenues such as this fair to encourage our youth to immerse themselves in scientific pursuit," said Luistro.
The fair has four different levels namely: school, division, regional and national.
The school level competition shall be conducted on August 28-29; division level, September 18-19; regional level, October 2-3; and national level, October 27-30.
Participants to this activity are students from both public and private secondary schools. Students from all Special Science classes are expected to join the competition.
Registration fees not exceeding P2,000 at the division level, and P4,500 at the regional level are required from all participants (including advisers and supervisors).
These fees will cover the expenses for honoraria of the members of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC), Board of Judges, prizes, board and lodging of regional level student-participants and their advisers, Science and Mathematics supervisors, and the materials needed relative to the conduct of the Science Fair.
For student researchers, prizes will be P2,500, P1,500, and P1,000 for first, second, and third places, respectively, in each category. Likewise, teacher advisers/coaches will receive P1,500 for all winning categories.
There will be clustering of science research projects of the different fair divisions and fair categories. Cluster 1 is composed of students from regular high schools of both public and private and laboratory high schools of colleges and universities.
On the other hand, Cluster 2 is composed of students from science high schools of both public and private schools, and laboratory high schools of universities and colleges.
Both clusters will have Biological Science and Physical Science divisions, with individual and team categories in each division.
But Luistro reminded participants that science research projects should conform to international rules published by the Intel International Rules for Pre College Science Research and the Guidelines for Science and Engineering Fairs.
Each project is expected to have a Research Adviser and an Institutional Review Board or a Scientific Review Committee.
Previous Philippine representatives to the Intel ISEF have garnered several awards.
In fact, two grand winners of the May 2010 Intel ISEF competition were from the Philippines.
Marc Arthur Limpiado with his Science Research Adviser, Janeth Morata Fuentes, won for his "Microbial Inhibitory Activities of Extracts from Seven Philippine Seaweeds" in the individual category.
For the team category, Maria Clara Isabel Sia, Jean Reni de Guzman, and Marc Mapalo with their adviser, Janeth Norata-Fuentes, won for their "Use of Natural Flocculants in Mitigating Harmful Algal Blooms (Red Tide). Both winners were from the Philippine Science HS, Eastern Visayas Campus
The Fair was held at San Jose, California, USA. ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college science fair competition attended by 1,611 high school students from over 59 countries. (AH/Sunnex)