WFSJ, in collaboration with the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the International Polar Year Circumpolar Flaw Lead Project, announces a competition offering science journalists the chance to win a week aboard the Canadian Icebreaker Amundsen.
You could find information on the competition on www.wfsj.org
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The Science Club Advisers Association of the Philippines (SCAAP) will conduct the National Conference for Science Educators at the La Vista Pansol Resort, Calamba, Laguna on April 21-25, 2007
With the theme “Science Enthusiasts: Essential Partners for a Sustainable Future”, the five-day activity is being implemented in collaboration with the Department of Education-Center for Students and Co-Curricular Affairs (DepEd-CSCA), Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) and ABS-CBN DZMM.
The conference aims, among others, to unravel misconceptions and promote new trends in science teaching and learning and to strengthen cooperation and participation in worthwhile science and technology projects for a sustainable future.
Science clubs advisers, science teachers, principals, department heads, head teachers, coordinators, district, division and regional science supervisors, and science enthusiasts will participate in interactive course sessions, workshops, hands-on activities and technology lecture-demonstrations.
Topics of interest include, among others, New Trends in Science Teaching and Learning, The Challenge of Biotech to Human Economy, The Wonders of Beauty and Wellness in Science, Climatic Change and the Environment and technology lecture-demonstrations on beads and crystal accessory making, wine making, food processing, basic balloon arrangement, therapeutic massage and foot and hands spa.
Resource speakers and experts include DepEd Undersecretary Vilma L. Labrador, DZMM Station Manager Angelo B. Palmones, ABS-CBN Anchorwoman Cory Quirino, DILG-DLGD Dir. Manuel Q. Gotis, Biotech President Nina Barzaga, DOST-SEI Dir. Ester B. Ogena and PAGASA Supv. Weather Specialist Lourdes V. Tibig.
Interested parties must confirm participation on or before April 10, 2007. For more information, please contact SCAAP President. Aurora R. Catabona at 0919-2553201, SCAAP VP Gloria B. Joaban – 0919-6603195, Mr. Carlito A. Cacho ? 0921-4608059 or DepEd-CSCA Exec. Director Joey G. Pelaez at telefax nos. 631-8495 and 636-3603.
The Philippine Science Journalists Association, Inc (PSciJourn) is the 23rd member association of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) based in Canada.
PSciJourn, organized in mid-2001, with Mr. Angelo B. Palmones (Station Manager, DZMM) as founding President, envisions to be a trailblazer in science journalism by advocating science and technology policies and issues affecting the people and the economy. It also aims to promote public awareness, understanding and appreciation of science and technology as crucial tool in economic development.
One of the significant accomplishments of the association is the celebration of Science Journalism Week on the third week of July of every year by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 437 signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on August 11, 2003.
On April 16-20, 2007, PSciJourn, thru Mr. Palmones , will participate in the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia. Activities include, among others, a session on building and maintaining science journalists association, WFSJ general assembly and election of the new Board, where PSciJourn is a voting member. There will also be a bidding by member associations to host for the 6th World Conference of Science Journalists in 2009.
DOST fetes outstanding S&T researchers, technologists, journalists
Published July 26, 2006 News Leave a CommentThe Department of Science and Technology conferred various awards to 21 outstanding researchers, technologists, and journalists, including institutions and students, July 21 at the Philippine Trade Training Center, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City.
The awarding rites culminated the five-day celebration on the National Science and Technology Week that began July 17 and participated in by DOST’s line agencies, regional offices, and partners.
Dr. Eusebio Y. Garcia Awards
Dr. Rita P. Laude and Mr. Marni E. Cuenco of the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Baños received this year’s Dr. Eusebio Y. Garcia Awards for Molecular Biology and Molecular Pathology. The award is in recognition of outstanding research on molecular biology and molecular pathology. Criteria include originality, potential application, scholarliness, and uniqueness.
Dr. Laude and Mr. Cuenco’s pioneering research resulted to gene discovery, isoform discovery, and establishment of an ontogenetic pattern of expression in coconut. These discoveries are important in establishing molecular-based coconut standard for the improvement of current coconut technologies and in standardization of virgin coconut oil production in the country, according to the National Research Council of the Philippines, sponsor agency of the Awards.
Gruppo Medica Awards
UP Manila graduates shone this year in the Gruppo Medica Awards which recognizes undergraduate students who diligently and successfully completed significant and innovative research work on herbal medicine with potential practical or commercial applications. According to sponsor agency Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, criteria for selection in the awards include relevance – particularly on the appropriate use of medicinal plants, practical application, creativity and originality, scientific quality, and number of persons involved in the research process.
Two groups bagged the second prize for this year’s awards. Jerome dela Cruz and Jennifer Pineda, BS Industrial Pharmacy and BS Pharmacy seniors respectively during selection time, got second place for the study “Healing property of Portulaca oleracea Linne (portulacaceae) gel on excised wound.” The other winning group is composed of Jeanne Constantino, April Guevarra, and Rosenda Monette Samonte, all BS Industrial Pharmacy graduates of UP Manila, for the research “Burn wound healing property of cream from Portulaca oleracea Linne (portulacaceae).”
Winning third place are Dan Adriel Q. Ebona, Christine Marie L. Garcia, and Benedict E. Radoc for the research “Anti-inflammatory property of the tablet from Hibiscus rosasinensis linne (family malvaceae)”. The research was undertaken by the then senior BS Industrial Pharmacy students at UP Manila.
There are no first prize winners this year. Prof. Jocelyn Bautista Palacpac served as adviser of all winning groups.
Dr. Elvira O. Tan Memorial Awards
Dr. Elvira O. Tan Memorial Awards for best published paper is in recognition to outstanding fisheries publication, particularly in the area of marine fisheries and aquaculture or inland fisheries. Sponsored by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research Development, criteria for the Dr. Elvira O. Tan Memorial Awards include contribution to industry and science, technical quality, and sustainability.
The Awards has two categories, namely marine fisheries and aquaculture/inland fisheries. Bagging the best published paper in marine fisheries is the group of Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan of the Dela Salle University for the paper is entitled “A Decision Support Model for Determining Sizes of Marine Protected Areas: Biophysical Considerations”, which was published in The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, Vol. 89 No. 1 – March 2006. His co-authors include Dr. Porfirio Alino and Marie Antonette Menez of UP-Marine Science Institute, Dr. Wilfredo Campos of UP Visayas, and Dr. Gem Castillo of PEG.
Meanwhile, the 2006 Dr. Elvira O. Tan Memorial Awards for best published paper in aquaculture/inland fisheries went to Dr. Arnil C. Emata of the Aquaculture Department of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center. Dr. Emata’s winning paperis entitled “Reproductive Performance in Induced and Spontaneous Spawning of the Mangrove Red Snapper, Lutjanus argentimaculatus : A Potential Candidate Species for Sustainable Aquaculture” published in Aquaculture Research 2003, Vol. 34, pages 849-857.
Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Award
Bagging the grand Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Award for Aquatic Technology Enterprise is Paul Philip Cruz of the Cruz Aquaculture Corporation for his developed technologies that show big potential in making a significant impact to the economy and the society. Cruz developed the Kinetic Fish Feeder and Aquaranch Sea Cage, an all-weather sea cage that allows the growth of fish in the deeper seas. According to PCAMRD, the sea cage has higher carrying capacity, greater efficiency in feeding and harvesting. Aside from having low maintenance and depreciation costs, it is also more environment-friendly than other sea cages.
DOST Media Awards
Excellence in science reportage was also given distinction in print, radio, and cyber media in both professional and institutional categories.
In the professional category, winners include Melvin Calimag of Manila Bulletin Online for cyber, Julieta Cruz and Meliza Maluntag of DZEC’s “Una sa Lahat Pinoy!” for radio, and Maria Matilde Sabater of Manila Bulletin for print.
In the institutional category, the awards were clinched by Manila Bulletin Online for cyber, ABS-CBN’s DZMM for radio, and Manila Bulletin for print.
Given special citations were Marou Sarne, host of DWIZ’s “Womantalk”, and People’s Balita.
Future science champions
Gil Anthony E. Aquino of the Ateneo de Manila University bagged the championship in The Great Science Debate held during the NSTW, besting debaters from UP Diliman and Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Meanwhile, Kan Louise Nielsen P. Tejada of the Quezon City Science High School emerged as grand champion of the Pinoy SciTek Challenge, winning against quizzers from five other schools. His coach is Mr. Isal Kulong. (Framelia V. Anonas, S&T Media Service)
Information on science and technology in the Philippines is now more accessible via a single portal called science.ph. Located at http://www.science.ph, the dotPH-registered domain is the first online S&T information search service in the country.
“This service is very vital in providing integrated scientific information to researchers, teachers, students, businessmen, and other users,” DOST Undersecretary for S&T Services Fortunato dela Peña said.
“As a centralized search facility, science.ph greatly facilitates access to information needed in research and development and other activities,” he added.
The new portal was developed by the information technology team from DOST’s Science and Technology Information Institute led by Donna-Ruth Montalban. It was borne out of DOST’s desire to provide S&T information faster and easier. As a portal, science.ph is essentially a gateway to consolidated S&T-related information gathered from various institutions in the science community.
Before the system was put in place, DOST clients and other information seekers used to browse and access several sites of the department’s 21 agencies before finding the information they need.
Through the portal, users can now access databases on the library holdings of DOST called the Science Information Network (ScINET), as well as bio-bibliographical information on Philippine scientists, profiles of S&T institutions in the country, and profiles of DOST-funded or assisted research and development projects.
The site also contains abstracts and indices of Philippine S&T publications, including theses and dissertations, and indices of foreign publications on S&T.
STII manages most of these databases. Other DOST agencies are also involved in the project, includingTechnology Applications and Promotion Institute, Science Education Institute, Philippine Council for advanced Science and Technology Research and Development, Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development, and Philippine Council for Forestry, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Research and Development.
The portal includes other functions such as default integrated search, category search, thesauri data entering, directory service for Uniform Resource Locator (URL) link collection, recommendation/suggestive system, collaborative filtering, search within a category, personalization and customization, and semantic web integration. These features make searching for scientific data much easier and faster.
According to Montalban, science.ph is more versatile than some popular search engines because it uses S&T-controlled vocabulary and thesaurus, which hastens the information search.
The team adopted the open source development concept and used open source technologies in developing science.ph, Montalban said.
As content development progresses, STII will include other features such as additional databases, e-commerce support for full text documents and other resources, user personalization and customization, full semantic Web support, and collaborative filtering system.
Other members of the project team are Enrico Florencio, Rosie Almocera, Maribel Palafox, Rodel Offemaria, Mona Montivirgen, Sherry Sarmiento, JJ Esguerra, Junjie Roasa, Edgardo Catorce, Efren Jamolod, Carmi Dometita, Marievic Villanueva, Robee Cruz, Domingo Tamayo, Louella Santiago, Alfon Narquita, Rhea Salim, and Leonor Arcilla.
Letter of World Federation of Science Journalists to PSciJourn
Published February 2, 2006 News 1 Comment16 December 2005
Angelo B. Palmones
President
Philippine Science Journalist Association (PSciJourn)
c/o Victoria B. Bartilet,
Bicutan, Taguig Metro Manila, Philippines
Dear Angelo B. Palmones:
Please accept-from the World Federation of Science Journalists-our best wishes for a festive season and a rewarding and successful New Year. These are the sincere wishes of the members of the Board, and its Program and Finance committees as well as the Executive Director.
Since its beginnings as a series of conferences-in 1992 in Tokyo, then Budapest in 1999 and Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil) in 2002, the WFSJ elected its first Board. In Montreal, a new Board was elected and two committees created.
Montreal was also a financial success. It generated a surplus of C$ 135,000 which was split between the hosts-the Association des Communicateurs Scientifiques du Quebec (ACS), the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA)-and the WFSJ. Thanks to its share of the surplus (C$45,000), the Federation can now put in place an embryonic secretariat, manage a web site (www.wfsj.org), hold meetings and make plans.
In November 2005, at the United Nations backed World Science Forum in Budapest, the Federation’s Board, Program and Finance committees all met in person for the first time. The enclosed package reports on the proceedings and and outcomes of Budapest.
We are also enclosing a questionnaire that, hopefully, you will fill out and return to us, so we can better understand what you think the Federation can and should achieve. The Federation appreciates that eight of its 23 members have resolved to make their voluntary membership contributions, and we encourage them to continue doing so, and others to follow.
The next World Conference of Science Journalists will be from 16 to 20 April 2007, in Melbourne, Australia. We are looking forward to a very exciting conference and a strong participation from member associations.
In the meantime, the Federation is poised to initiate some challenging projects to help colleagues in the developing world. These will be designed to make maximum use of the talent and resources of its member organizations. These activities will also contribute in a major way to establish the Federation on firmer footing. The focus of these programs-which will be extensive and well-funded, and about which you will hear much more in the future-are aimed at Africa and the Arab world. They represent the beginnings of what the Federation can do, and the first of- we hope- many such initiatives around the world, for both developing nations and those in the industrialized world. We invite you and your members to look at how you might contribute to:
– Peer-to-peer training activities
– Mentoring
– Developing online courses
– Developing training matrials
– Developing a ‘traveling’ Narrative Science Journalism Workshop
– Twinning with and helping nascent associations
– Developing a guide on how to create an association
– Provide legal assistance in registering associations
– Setting up and managing International Science Journalism prizes
– Developing international ethics and standards in Science Journalism
We are also eager to hear from you, about your challenges and achievements as an association — news that we can share with other associations. We will start communicating more regularly in 2006 as our Secretariat is established, and we are looking forward to sharing news, information and other interesting material you might send us. The sharing of information will be done through the website and a newsletter.
We look forward to hear from you and working with you.
Best regards,
Wilson da Silva
President
The PSciJourn and Science Journalism
By Rafael R. Castillo, MD
I humbly accept this mandate to lead the PSciJourn this year. Angelo and the previous board of directors have done an excellent job in paving the way for the PSciJourn. The task of the new board is equally challenging to further strengthen the Association.
The PSciJourn, which is already one of the active members of the World Federation of Science Journalists, hopes to be able to answer some specific needs of science journalists and science journalism in the country. The Association shall remain steadfast in its mission to promote professional excellence in science journalism by providing educational resources, and opportunities for professional networking and collaborative undertakings among its members.
The PSciJourn shall promote standards to further improve the quality of science reporting in the country. The members individually and collectively in the PSciJourn shall help advance the reach of science journalism in the Philippines so it may serve as a bridge between our scientists and the public. The Association shall continue to strengthen the role of science journalists, not only as writers, editors or broadcasters, but as key players in civil society and nation building.
I think we all agree that science journalists can no longer be mere reporters of science or spokespersons of scientists, but rather, we must be thoughtful critics and commentators, translating the relevance of science and technology in layman’s terms to the daily life of ordinary persons, bringing the processes of research and discovery to the understanding of ordinary people, and making the public aware of the social, economic, and political context of science and technology, and its impact on society.
For this year, we hope to achieve the following:
1. Mission and Vision campaign: For an association to become more relevant and dynamic, all the members must know by heart what the mission and vision of the association are. Our mission, which I’ve stated at the outset, is the very core or foundation of our association. This is our reason for existence.
That is why it is explicitly expressed in our constitution and by-laws. We shall try to effectively communicate this to all members so it will be inculcated in our hearts and minds.
The vision, on the other hand, is what we want to achieve in the long term. It sets the direction of where we should be headed to, so we don’t run around in circles and ending up where we started.
Depending on what vision an association sets, one can determine how ambitious or passive an association is.
The leadership of the PSciJourn shall try to get everyone’s inputs on what we want to set as our vision. We can set the vision arbitrarily, but unless the individual members are also committed to the vision, then it becomes meaningless and will likely not be achieved.
2. Secondly, we shall have all amendments to our constitution and by-laws ratified within the year. Our constitution and by-laws form the backbone of our Association. We all swear to protect and defend our constitution and by-laws. If there are flaws or loopholes in our constitution and by-laws, then, that can drastically affect the growth and direction of our Association.
3. Thirdly, we will establish our own website ASAP. The Association shall maintain a website to share information about advances and trends in science journalism, to announce opportunities for training and networking for science journalists. The website shall also be a venue for the members to communicate with each other and share insights and ideas on how else we can make the PSciJourn more relevant to its members and more effective in the furtherance of science journalism.
4. Annual Convention: A major regular activity of the PSciJourn is the convening of all members annually which shall serve as a venue for educational programs and professional networking, and a forum for disseminating information about advances, achievements, opportunities, and trends in science journalism, as well as current issues, problems, and threats to the field and its practitioners.
5. We shall continue our annual Science Journalism Awards. We congratulate once again our first batch of awardees this year. The awards are aimed at promoting excellence in science writing.
Meritorious original articles written and published during the year will be duly recognized and the most deserving ones will be given an award. The awarding ceremonies will be one of the main highlights of the annual convention.
My dear fiends and colleagues, I have no doubt that the PSciJourn shall emerge to be a major force to reckon with in the field of science journalism in the country.
We hope that the general membership of the PSciJourn can wield a collective power and influence to encourage publishers and broadcast producers to dedicate more space and time to science and technology coverage and to lend support to the professional training of science journalists, especially our young provincial colleagues.
It is envisioned that the PsciJourn can play a role in promoting a new culture of science journalism, one that can cope with the challenges of the 21st century and live up to the science journalists’ shared responsibility in nation-building.
Only well-informed and educated people can understand the consequences of scientific issues, or the applications of research, so they can make an intelligent decision to support or reject them.
The PSciJourn shall be at the forefront to provide this kind of information to the public. And with our concerted effort, dedication and commitment, we can effectively play our role in bridging the gap between science & technology and the general public. May God’s blessings be upon us all as we undertake this mission.
Note: Speech delivered during the PSciJourn Board of Directors Oath taking last December 20, 2005 at GA Towers, EDSA Mandaluyong City.
Hello, this is the official home of PSciJourn or the Philippine Science Journalists Association, Inc. Please visit this site for updates on our organization.
To PSciJourn members who have their own websites or blogsites, kindly post your addresses in the comments section or email them to melvsgc@yahoo.com so we can put them in the Links section that you see at the right side of your computer screens. Thanks.
