A SCIENCE teacher from Murcia, Negros Occidental recently received the Shell Urban Science Educator Development Award in New Mexico, USA.
Roy Basa from Barangay Lopez, Jaena, Murcia is the only Filipino teacher to be given such an award.
He is a science teacher at Twin Buttes Cyber Academy in Zuni, New Mexico.
Basa's classroom activities are student-centered and hands-on.
He believed in a "learning by doing kind of philosophy."
Most of his science activities are project-based, such as making fatty acid methyl esters from selected plant seeds as an alternative biofuel, which won the 2022 New Mexico Governor's STEM Challenge. His students also make motors and generators, solar panels, simple robots, and windmills.
During these projects, students feel ownership and become inspired to do more and learn more, as Shell stated in the citation given to Basa.
Shell Urban Science Educator Development Award provides support to outstanding diverse educators in pursuit of professional development with active participation at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), which has more than 40,000 teachers and committees that transition into leadership roles, and serves to increase the science educator talent pool of minority educators to meet the education work force challenge of the future.
Basa also collaborated with authorities in his community by bringing science students to the Indian Hospital Service to undergo training and a hands-on workshop with medical doctors and nurses.
Students learned about first aid, basic radiology, ophthalmology, nutrition, dietetics, etc. He helps students make career connections by inviting resource persons to train them on emergency response procedures.
Basa is a product of the Metrobank Foundation's Outstanding Filipinos 2016.
He completed his elementary education at Lopez Jaena Elementary School and his high school education at La Consolacion College-Murcia.
He went to America in August 2019.
He graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy major in Educational Management with a High Academic Distinction Award and an Outstanding Dissertation Award at the University of Negros Occidental–Recoletos, along with his Master of Arts in Education major in School Administration and Supervision and his Bachelor in Secondary Education major in General Science. He completed another degree, such as a Master in Education major in Natural Science at the University of St. La Salle and a Bachelor in Secondary Education major in Biology at West Visayas State University, Iloilo City.*