Update on the School Partnership Project in Science

The partnership between the UP NISMED and San Vicente Elementary School and Balara High School was officially closed with the distribution of Certificates of Appreciation/Participation to the principal and science teachers of the two schools in June 2009.

At the elementary level, the project was plagued by snags in terms of heavy workload and hectic schedules both on the part of NISMED and the teachers. As part of Phase 2 which started in August 2008, however, the NISMED staff were able to provide water plants and print instructional materials on coral reefs and small animals to science teachers, serve as lecturers on “Action Research” and”“Collaborative Lesson Research and Development” during the school-based INSET on interventions to achieve teachers’ peak performance, and observe one teacher’s demonstration lesson. The teacher partners of the two schools were also invited to attend the International Conference on Science and Mathematics Education held on October 27-29, 2008 free of charge. NISMED likewise extended the invitation to participate in the conference to mathematics teacher-partners and the other partner schools. A paper on forging school partnerships was presented by NISMED staff during the conference. Another paper based on the Chemistry Group’s experience in the project was presented at the International Conference on Lesson Study in Hong Kong on December 1-4, 2008.

The High School Biology and Chemistry Groups are set to begin a second phase in Balara High School in October 2009, following the same procedure as in Phase 1. The procedure then was for a cycle of collaborative planning, implementation, discussion of changes (if any), revision, implementation, and finalization to be carried out. The output will be written lessons that may be taught by others and/or taught again the following school year by the same teachers.