By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

STUDENTS from Grace Christian High School and the Philippine Science High School will lead the Philippine contingent for the upcoming 2007 World Robot Olympiad to be held in Taipei, Taiwan.

The students from the two schools were the top winners during the recently held 6th Philippine Robotics Olympiad at the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City. They beat 69 other schools to become the country’s representatives for the 2007 WRO.

Winning in the elementary level is Grace Christian High School “Team A” composed of Carlos Cheng, Jordan Chua and Kyle David Dee, with their coach Warren John Ong. They won the Best in Robo Rally category, as well as the Best of the Best category.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology (DOST) recently announced the 33 beneficiaries of the Grants for Educational Assistance on Technology and Science Teaching Courses in Mindanao (GREAT-M) Project, which provides college scholarships to poor but deserving high school students in Muslim communities.

The annual GREAT-M Project was created to address the problem of poverty among Filipino Muslim and indigenous communities.

The new batch of GREAT-M beneficiaries were selected from the pool of high school graduates belonging to the upper five percent of the graduating class who took the Science and Technology Scholarship Examination administered by the DOST’s Science and Education Institute (SEI) last December 2006.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IN 1994, then US Vice President Al Gore and several high level government officials started the Global Learning and Observations to the Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, whose goal is to encourage scientists worldwide to share their research with students through an online community. It was part of the Earth Day Celebrations for that year.

The GLOBE Program’s main goal is to provide information in the protection and conservation of the earth’s natural resources by encouraging current and future scientists to work together. Its founding members include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

But what sets the GLOBE Program apart from other scientific communities is that it allows students to directly contact scientists on specific topics in a sort of mentorship system. Likewise, students and their teachers can follow up on projects with their own researches, then upload the information they gather so as to contribute to the pool of knowledge on specific topics.

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THE COUNTRY held its first ever online ozone layer protection quiz, and two students from Philippine Science High School emerged victorious in the finals, earning the right to represent the Philippines in the Asia Pacific sub-regional quiz in Bangkok.

Here’s an excerpt from the PNA article that came out in Bayanihan.org:

This victory gave the tandem of Paulo Miguel Manzanilla and Lawrence Medina the right to represent the Philippines in the Asia-Pacific sub-regional ozone layer quiz in Bangkok, Thailand tentatively scheduled on June 30 this year, the DENR said.

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STUDENTS and professors from De La Salle University are aiming for the next international event to conquer. This time it will be the prestigious World Solar Challenge in Australia, a competition that pits developers of solar-powered vehicles from around the world.

Forty people from the DLSU and their corporate partners have been developing the first Philippine-made solar-powered car, which has been christened “Sinag” (”sunshine” in Filipino), that will be entered in the competition, which will be held in October 2007.

In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Merritt Partners chairman and former energy secretary Vincent Perez said the development of the first Philippine-made solar-powered car that will be entered in the competition is one of the biggest undertakings related to energy development that brings together various private firms and an academic institution.

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