Continuing education despite the summer vacation, a total of 90 high school teachers and students from all over the Philippines will undergo a two-week training on electronics at the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)– Diliman Campus.
Dubbed “Digital Electronics Design Summer Camp” or “DED Camp 2008,” which started last April 24, the training aims to introduce students to real-life electronics applications leading to competencies in many fields including product design, programming and embedded systems.
DED Camp 2008 is a joint project of the PSHS System, the Science Education Institute (SEI) and the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), both from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
Dr. Ester B. Ogena, Director of DOST-SEI, said the training would also empower teachers in assisting students’ research projects and update school curricula.
“We also foresee that this training will be a great chance for our teachers and students to interact and share ideas for the projects,” she said.
The training would involve one teacher and two students who could either be incoming juniors or seniors for school year 2008-2009 per school.
Ogena said participants will be exposed to digital electronics and microcontrollers in a blended learning environment that focuses on project/problem-based situations.
She said the curriculum combines video lessons and demonstrations, on-line curricula, quizzes and exams, and real time environment in an e-learning environment.
Ogena noted that the DED Camp 2008 would also provide guided experiments for teachers to enable them to teach difficult concepts such as electronics to third and fourth year high school students.
“Since some of the concepts are very challenging, and usually taught at the University level, the introduction of these concepts in the curriculum needs innovative teaching-learning activities both for the teachers and for students,” she said.
Ogena pointed out that with the advances in the fields of information, communication and technology and their pervasive application in our daily lives, digital electronics is an area where continuous enhancement and enrichment should be done.
She said that the use of digital electronics has become diverse and its practical applications, like robotics and embedded systems, are growing areas of interest among students.
“An integration of digital electronics into the high school curriculum will provide a stimulating environment for the science-inclined students as well as to keep pace with the current developments in science and technology,” she stressed.
