Nurturing excellence in Science with the Arts

The Science Month activities close with VIDO Awards.  The name comes from Vidal A. Tan,  eighth president of the University of the Philippines.  He was the first Filipino to acquire a doctorate in Mathematics.  He was also an accomplished essayist and playwright who authored plays like “Souls in Torment” and “The Husband of Mrs. Cruz.”

The award also honors Bienvenido Ma. Gonzalez, who is recognized as outstanding educator.  He completed his doctorate in science from John Hopkins University and became the youngest president at the age of 46.

Prof. Mae Cristina V. Bugash who explained “VIDO” declared: “These exemplars who valued not just Math and Science but also love of the arts, love of education, love of country, and yes, also love for trees and the environment are the exceptional persons for whom this award is named, and our VIDO awards are given in recognition of students who have excelled in our Math and Science Technology Week and as a call for all of us to see the world around us, and to celebrate life to safeguard life on earth.”

The students worked on a variety of challenges that stimulated their various intelligences.  III Benton and III Palma students awakened their interpersonal and organizing skills as they worked with their teachers to prepare for the yearly Interschool Math-Science Quiz Bowl.

Kinesthetic intelligence was further stimulated in the Science Olympics.  After years of having the radio quiz, there was a shift to online streaming of the web-quiz via the Internet.

The closing program and awarding ceremonies called Vido Rockoustics was full of joyful excitement.

The focus of the evening was original compositions on the forest and with advocacies for supporting Mother Nature.  Aside from the creative presentation of the songs, visual displays accompanied the performance.

Students modeled clothing  made of reused materials, inspired by endangered species endemic to the Philippines—the Philippine fruit bat; Philippine swallowtail butterfly; Cebu flowerpecker; Jade Vine; waling-waling; Philippine crocodile; Visayan spotted deer; Palawan peacock pheasant; Tridacna; green sea turtle; king cobra; and yellow ringed cat snake.  The design of Shaera Marie Rosales and Cricelle Rose Cobre of clothes inspired by the Philippine crocodile and the Visayan spotted deer and modeled by Ansel Jason B. Cadao and Syrel Gin C. Fajardo got the third prize.  Second prize went to the design of Ray Francis Pacaldo, Leslie Dayanan, and Lyn Ann Limoran; inspired by the Palawan peacock pheasant modeled by Deither A. Abilong and Maryglie Angelie H. Delicano got the second prize.  The Vido was awarded to III Palma; designers were June Francis Monge, Daniele Astrid Nazareno, and Genie Marie Togono.  Wendy Jamero and Ember Jhon D. Sabsalon modeled attires inspired by the king cobra and yellow ringed cat snake.

The winning love song for nature and the forest was: “Kalikasan Muling Pagyamanin” whose lyrics were from Emely Barte and the melody by Joanna Pido and Terence Michael Cuyos .

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UP Cebu Central Visayas Studies Center presented the reports of completed researches.  Hazel Avergonzado-Trapero discussed “A Prototype Context-Driven English-Cebuano Machine Translation System.” The researcher hoped that the machine translation system would assist students in understanding English texts.

Prof. Lilia Tio had a fantastic multidimension presentation of her research report on the Balitao, Daygon and Pasyon.  Aside from showing how our heritage is  in danger of disappearance, she invited the involvement of the young in their conservation through a powerful performance of the Balitao with Prof. Alfredo Montaño.

Prof. Belinda Flores Espiritu’s research, “Young Women’s Readings and Reflexive Meanings on Korean Television Dramas” is full of provocative issues and points. We share some of these.  It is about cultural imperialism.  It explored how young Filipinas relate to the Korean television dramas.

The young women were critical of the violence in Philippine dramas—“having intense negative emotions, sampalan, iyakan, sigawan, sakitan.”  They felt they learned by being exposed to Korean culture.  There was sense of “cultural affinity with Asian values.”

Western values absorbed by Korean society are projected in the television dramas: individualism, liberalism, materialism, consumerism, and patriarchal values.  But there, too, are opposing values with female characters, “hardworking” and determined “to achieve their dreams” and “possess good values and concern for others.”  The Western influence on Korean television dramas have gotten across to the young people—“liking the luxurious lifestyle.” There was also the acceptance of divorce, but a rejection of mechanically resorting to it; the sacredness of marriage was also asserted. There was rejection of getting a rich boyfriend to get out of poverty; the females said “the rich boy-poor girl romance rarely happened in reality.” They wanted success through their own efforts. In fact they identified with characters who were “career oriented”. But this was not for the self alone, there was commitment to the family and even for the disadvantaged in society.