Our fellow, Matt Solt, visited our host site in the Philippines last month. He has shared with us his experience becoming a Science Corps Fellow, teaching a robotics workshop at Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF), attending a physics conference, and exploring the Philippines outside of the classroom.

Learn more about Matt’s adventures below! If Matt’s experience piques your interest in becoming a fellow yourself, apply here!

Why did you become a Science Corps Fellow?

Like most Science Corps fellows, I was looking for a break between defending my PhD and the next adventure and I stumbled on Science Corps. I was accepted as a Science Corps Fellow back in 2019 with a plan to spend about 6 months at CVIF in Jagna, Bohol, the Philippines in the fall semester of 2020. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans and I was forced to do the fellowship remotely, becoming the first remote Science Corps fellow. Between finishing my thesis and starting my postdoc, I was able to develop a curriculum for a computer programming and data analysis course through the so-called Dynamic Learning Programming (DLP) described below. Despite being a remote fellow in a very unique situation, Science Corps was always committed to sending me there in person, albeit on a shorter time scale since I have a full time job. I was able to complete my fellowship in person in July 2023.

What do you think about the Dynamic Learning Program?

CVIF is the center of the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP), originally developed and implemented by Chris and Marivic Bernido who are both theoretical physicists. It puts emphasis on students actively learning as opposed to teachers lecturing. It is a well-defined curriculum through individual worksheets called LAS where students work individually or in groups to learn themselves. I found it interesting how similar it was to my time as a teacher’s assistant (TA) in the Stanford Physics Department when I was a graduate student. Pushed by Nobel laureate, Carl Wieman, this method is now becoming more popular at physics departments at elite universities in the U.S.

In addition to a similar method at elite universities, this method of teaching has several clear advantages. First, it is scalable as the curriculum is developed centrally at CVIF and can be used by other schools in the area. In fact, the material developed by CVIF is used by 500+ schools in the Philippines! Second, it is resistant to disasters. Geographically, the Philippines is prone to natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes in addition to, of course, a pandemic. Recently, on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Visayas (the central region of the Philippines) was hit with a major typhoon. Because of the reliance on student independence, the DLP program which had already been fully implemented at CVIF and other schools enabled students to continue with their learning with minimal interruption. This method could also be resistant to violent conflict.

What did you accomplish at CVIF?

My main task while at CVIF was to plan and run a robotics workshop for the ICT and STEM students at CVIF which was a natural extension of the course material I had developed as a remote fellow. The workshop utilized a Raspberry Pi micro-controller that the students needed to connect electrically and program in order to run. I chose a Raspberry Pi because it was originally developed for educational purposes focused on student’s learning, the Python language (which was used in my course) could easily be used, it could be used as a personal computer with its own operating system (for students who may not have their own computer), and a variety of other potential uses.

The workshop lasted three days and went very well. The students were incredibly excited to work with the robot, many never having done so before. Before the workshop, the students had a pre-workshop to learn the basics of Python programming which is a necessary prerequisite for operating the Raspberry Pi. The students were enthusiastic, learned quickly, and covered a lot of coding material in three short days. After the first session, the students were already making memes about the workshop and sharing it in the group chat with instructors. The workshop consisted of about 20 students. I was impressed that every student was able to individually achieve the three milestones of the workshop – code a blinking LED on the Raspberry Pi (their first robot by our definition given at the workshop), connect and guide a robot through an obstacle course, and analyze public data taken from a Raspberry Pi on the International Space Station. The workshop concluded with a competition of who could guide the robot through the obstacle course the fastest and the top five students were given rewards. The students enjoyed this part the most, taking lots of pictures and videos to share on social media, cheering their classmates on, and even playing soundtracks like the Mission Impossible theme song as the classmates guided the robot through the obstacle.

What is the future of this robotics workshop at CVIF?

The goal of the workshop was not to just train the students who attended the workshop at this time, but to be able to transfer this knowledge to instructors to run future workshops and to make it easily transferable to other schools in the region. In order to have continuity of knowledge, it is important to implement material that can be used in the future. Because of interest in furthering knowledge of both the students who were at the workshop as well the instructors, the CVIF instructors will start a robotics workshop at CVIF where students can continue to work with the materials supplied by Science Corps and learn more of the capabilities of a Raspberry Pi. These are skills that can be utilized in any STEM field in college courses and beyond in their careers.

What were your thoughts on the physics conference you attended?

The timing of the workshop worked out perfectly so that I could also attend the Physics Society of the Philippines (SPP) conference in Del Carmen, Siargao. I was privileged to be able to give an invited talk on my personal research which involves exploring low mass dark matter at particle accelerators. The conference contained almost 300 people. When the Bernidos received their PhDs in the 80s, there were only about 10 physics PhDs in the entire country.

This conference attendance is a testament of the commitment of a few dedicated physicists who chose to devote much of their careers to improving the physics literacy of their country. In addition, most of the conference population was very young, being mostly undergraduates and graduate students (the first conference where I have been over the median age). This indicates that the future of Filipino physics is bright as the number of physics PhDs will continue to increase in the near future.

At the conference, I enjoyed conversing with many of the Filipino physicists. I was also able to meet the mayor of Del Carmen, and he complimented the DLP program and how it has impacted the students by increasing their scientific literacy in his region, especially with the most recent typhoon just two years ago.

To date, the Philippines has approximately 100 PhDs in physics, and with a population of about 100 million, they like to refer to themselves as “one in a million.” I was amazed at how many physicists were willing to stay in the Philippines to help out their country. Many were trained in other parts of the world such as Japan, Europe, and the U.S. and had opportunities to do world leading research in those parts of the world. However, many accepted their social responsibility to remain in the Philippines to increase the scientific literacy in their country.

How was your experience beyond work?

Outside of the robotics workshop and the physics conference, there was plenty of time to explore the beautiful nature within the Philippines. I was able to visit 5 different islands (of the 7200+ islands in the Philippines) in my short visit there. I snorkeled with whale sharks and jumped off waterfalls on Cebu. I also saw the Chocolate Hills and exotic animals on Bohol. This included holding a Burmese Python which, of course, we joked that I was deceived about the meaning of running a “Python” workshop. Lastly, I was able to surf on Cloud 9 on Siargao known as the surfing capital of the Philippines (though I am a beginner to surfing).

In addition, the Filipino people are very welcoming and generous. The faculty of CVIF were essential to running a smooth workshop and the success of the workshop. They were willing to show me around town and went on many adventures. They took me to the best food place in Jagna and I enjoyed every variety of Filipino food, though I had my limits as I politely declined to eat the local delicacy known as “balut”.

Apply for a Fellowship!

If Matt’s experience as a fellow and his adventures in the Philippines have inspired you, apply for a life-changing fellowship! Our current deadline for applications is September 30th, however, we review applications on a rolling basis throughout the year. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information about our fellowships and application process!

The post Fellow Update! Matt’s Robotics Workshop, Physics Conference, and Adventures in the Philippines appeared first on Science Corps.

Our fellow Swastika Issar has been working on a seminar series together with CVIF. Hear more from her on the series:

Senior High School teachers with backgrounds in environmental studies, chemistry and earth sciences have come together at the JAZC Marine Sciences Laboratory of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation, Jagna on a DOST-supported project to study marine mollusc diversity in Jagna Bay. Keeping their varied educational backgrounds in mind, I’ve designed the CVIF- Science Corps Seminar Series as an interactive resource to aid everyone in interpreting, understanding and communicating findings from the project. The series comprises seven lectures starting in September 2022 and going into January 2023. In the introductory seminar we discussed mollusc ecology and evolution in the light of fundamental concepts in biodiversity, genetic variation and natural selection. Next we discussed how variation in mollusc morphology could result from environmental variation, such as the effect of substrate. The ‘methods’ and ‘results’ modules of the series are focused on tools and techniques for quantifying mollusc diversity (DNA barcoding) followed by a crash course in sequencing data analysis. The seminar series will culminate in our connecting findings from data analysis to the larger conceptual framework discussed at the beginning of the series.

In photo from the left to right:

• Dr. Christopher C. Bernido (CVIF President)
• Ms. Mary Dored Ann Cadeliña (Science Research Specialist)
• Ms. Jodivine A. Navarosa (Science Research Specialist)
• Dr. Janneli Lea A. Soria (JAZC Marine Science Laboratory Project Head)
• Ms. Kimverly Ranoco (Science Research Specialist))

The post Fellow Update!: CVIF-Science Corps Seminar Series appeared first on Science Corps.

Over the course of Patti’s time at AST she got involved with the school and community in many ways. Here she shares her time working with girls in Girl Up to get them more involved in science:

A group of my amazing teacher colleagues at AST started a chapter of an international club called Girl Up for grades 7-12. The goal of the club is to promote girls as leaders by developing their skills and protecting their rights. They roped me in because we had been informally discussing ways to elevate more Moroccan girls into leadership roles at the school for many weeks. The decision to exclude girls in younger grades was tough, but we decided to start the club with older girls who could then design their own activities for their younger counterparts. I wanted to make a dedicated space for even younger girls to participate, so I started a science club for grades 2-4 with a Girl Up theme. The idea was that we would learn about awesome science through hands-on activities, and then use the science as a lens to focus on gender – for example by learning about female scientists or gender issues related to the scientific topic. I was so lucky that nine of the smartest and most thoughtful little girls signed up: three 2nd graders, two 3rd graders, and four 4th graders.

Our first fun science activity was centered around microscopes. I asked each of the girls to bring in an object that they wanted to see under the scope. Before we got started, we learned some basic rules and briefly discussed how microscopes make things bigger. I had already taught both second grade classes about lenses and how some of them can bend light to make things appear closer (aka bigger), so they were ready to help explain the mechanism to their 3rd and 4th grade friends. Then I set the girls loose to look at their objects under the scopes. Working in pairs, they got a close up look at table salt, leaves, hair, gummy snacks, and flower petals. One of the girls even brought prepared slides from home. The most interesting of these was a housefly wing. All of the girls took turns looking and sharing their excitement over the wing’s tiny blood vessels – you could make them out under the microscope, but they were virtually invisible to our eyes.

But the POINT of this activity was not the magnified samples or the microscopes, let alone how they work. My real agenda was to discuss perspective. I wanted the girls to understand that how you look greatly affects what you see. To drive this home, I made a worksheet. I had the girls draw their sample based upon what they could see with the naked eye. Then, before they were allowed to look under the microscope, I had them make a hypothesis: what did they think their sample would look like under the microscope? Finally, after they took a look, they had to draw what they really saw under the microscope. Everyone quickly realized that things looked quite different than expected under the microscope.

We segued from this to talk about how just because you don’t see something, that doesn’t mean it’s not there. It could mean that you’re not looking in the right place or in the right way. I next asked the girls about female scientists. Did they exist? How could we be sure? What if we don’t see them? What are the possibilities? “They’re hiding!” one of the girls said. This was my opening. We talked about hidden figures. I told the girls that throughout history, female scientists often contributed to huge discoveries, but their recognition, if any, was buried in the Acknowledgements section of seminal papers. We talked about what it means to be an author of a scientific paper and how important it is to recognize everyone on a team for their hard work. The girls tolerated this for a full 10 minutes before they politely asked if they could go back to looking at their samples under the microscopes. Of course, I said yes.

One thing that kids understand well is fairness. They can easily see that it is unfair to give less recognition to a person’s work just because of their gender. I didn’t learn about hidden figures until I was in graduate school. I was lucky that not knowing didn’t deter me from trying to become a scientist, but learning when I did made me look around and wonder whether some hidden version of the same thing might affect me. I now know that there is still widespread gender disparity in scientific publishing, both in terms of the number of papers published and in how often those papers are cited. There are important ongoing efforts to address this and other related issues at the university level, but it is equally important to have open discussions with K-12 students about gender equality in science, even if only for 10 minutes at a time. The sooner and more often we tell them about instances of injustice in science, the more likely they will be to mitigate these issues when they grow up to become scientists.

Want to try out this activity with your own students? Contact us for the lesson plan!

The post Fellow Update: Patti’s time with Girl Up and Microscopes! appeared first on Science Corps.

“The Science Corps site CVIF has set up Learning Activity Sheets distribution centers all across the island. These are set up such that the previous week’s assignments can be submitted by students and the following week’s learning material can be picked up in a COVID-safe manner. The learning sheets are designed such that they don’t require any other reference material which students might not be able to afford. These centers are not just in Jagna, the location of the school, but also in other towns. This means that students and guardians don’t have to travel far to acquire the learning materials. This system takes a lot of effort but ensures that students without devices such as laptops or smartphones aren’t left behind.

You can find more information on their website: https://www.cvifbohol.com/news-and-events“

The post Fellow Update! CVIF Adapts to Remote Teaching and Learning appeared first on Science Corps.

The Science Corps team has been looking back at all of the amazing work that our fellows have done over the last few years and we’d love to share this with all of you! Each fellow has wonderful stories about their work as science teachers, curriculum developers, and community members during their time at our beautiful host sites. From now on, we’ll be posting memories from our former fellows every few weeks!

Our first flashback is from Science Corps co-founder and founding fellow, Ben Rubin. One of his favorite experiences was a field trip to the Jagna Intertidal zone where students conducted various observation-based studies.

Stay tuned for more flashback posts!

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Remote learning has been challenging for students throughout the world, including those at our host site CVIF.

Here is a little update and news article that our fellow Tanvi wanted to share with Science Corps followers – “The students continue learning, despite challenges. About 20% of the students in the STEM class at CVIF are able to submit assignments online. The school makes a lot of effort in collecting written assignments from other students as well: no one is left behind.”

The post Fellow Update! appeared first on Science Corps.

She also shared an article that describes the benefits of gaining research experience early and ways that high school students can look for opportunities.

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The post Photos from Gaby’s Fellowship at Aavishkaar appeared first on Science Corps.

Doug has also had a chance to engage with the community through sports and church. Additionally, he was given the opportunity to give a talk and specialized discussion at a physics conference in the Philippines, sharing his thesis work with an audience of about four hundred members, including students, researchers, and professors across diverse physics disciplines.

The post A Summary of Doug’s Fellowship appeared first on Science Corps.

Her contributions to the science curriculum at Aavishkaar will without a doubt be beneficial to future students. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication, Betsy!

The post Updates from Fellow Betsy appeared first on Science Corps.