1. Description of Our Community
Baguio City has always been known for its cool climate; the forests of green pine trees surrounding it; and the pine scented sleepy charm it generally possesses. Known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, one can say that the city is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in Northern Luzon. Through the decades our community has gone from being a small village, and then called Kafagway, to being a highly-urbanized city. Even so, the development that took place had done little to dampen the brilliant flame that was Baguio’s soul.
Despite being a small city with a total area of 57km2, it surprisingly has an exploding population, with its citizens reaching up to more than 450 000 just last 2011, compared to the 300 000 that was recorded 4 years earlier. Near one of the 129 barangays of Baguio City, Balili River is located. Trancoville, the community around the said river, already has a population of more than 3 000. The river is not safe when it comes to cleanliness, in that it already has a barangay of more than 3 000 members surrounding it.
During our visit to the river, we have seen that the houses are just adjacent to the river bank, and that there was a large amount of garbage that was being disposed of in the river; most of them consisted of plastics.
2. Summary of Our Project
Our project focuses on the environmental problem faced in our community, Baguio City. We have chosen the problem on the water pollution found in one of the biggest river in the Cordillera Administrative Region that flows in our city because it is one of the major problems that the government of our city and another province is solving together. Last July 2011, La Trinidad’s government confirmed that the Balili River’s condition is worsening mostly because of the wastes coming from Baguio City. The river flowing down La Trinidad causes problems to the people like diseases, foul smell, and it also causes clogging which causes floods on the different parts of the province. During one of the workshops, La Trinidad challenged the City of Baguio to reduce, if not totally eliminate, waste disposal into the river. One of their ways in promoting the “Save the Balili River” project is through competitions in the different schools. They have logo and poster making contests, jingle competitions, song writing contests, mascot designing contests, and many others. This only shows that students from elementary to college are actually helping in promoting the said project. Different government, schools, and private sectors are helping one another to battle the actual problem present in our society. We can see that people are still actually trying to save the environment and that they are doing this without expecting something in return. We would like to showcase that we shouldn’t be afraid of showing what we can do and that we can change something. If we want to do something that is right, there will always be people who will back us up.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
We, being in the special class of the science section, had many problems to face. We have many requirements that were needed to be submitted in the different subject areas. We were short on time especially during this last quarter. We had many activities which made time short for us. Projects, quizzes, seatworks, assignments, requirements, and exams were needed to be accomplished and passed for the last three weeks of the month. We are also participants of the Doors to Diplomacy project which doubled our work because we were doing them simultaneously. The Doors to Diplomacy and CyberFair were announced to us last October. Since we only have limited time to do all the projects and requirements, we were actually focusing on other projects that are needed to be passed during the past quarter. Because we are also in the science section, the teachers have high expectations from us and gave us extra works which are both hard and time consuming. The lack of time because of the different requirements, sleep deprivation, stress, and pressure made us physically and mentally exhausted. We also had a problem to gather data because we didn’t have the time for it. At the same time, the famous Panagbenga of Baguio is being celebrated and it made hard for us to go to the Balili. While we had many problems that we need to face, we still found ways and solutions to solve these problems. Determination, patience, perseverance, creativity, and cooperation, all alongside with discipline, helped us to still create this website. Sleepless nights and hectic schedules did not stop us from patiently gathering the data needed and complete the essays assigned to us. The high expectations of our teachers served as our pushing factors to improve our work.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” A dream becomes a reality in 4 stages: dreaming, wanting, planning, and doing. Courage is the glue. If you don’t have courage you will never want it bad enough to plan. If you don’t have courage you will never plan it well enough to do it. If you don’t have courage you will never fulfil your dreams. If you do not fulfil your dreams, you may not have the courage to dream again.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Initially, our participation in the CyberFair was intended to be an application of our lessons in our Technology and Home Economics 3 curriculum. This was the chance we were given to show how much we had learned during the 9 or so months we spent in school. However, there is really no academic value to all of this (if “academic value” is synonymous with grades) since we also had to prioritize our entries for the Doors to Diplomacy. Our project for the CyberFair was also a requirement for us to be cleared for the school year; therefore it is a required coursework.
Our school calls for its students to take on the four core values of Creativity, Competence, Christian Spirit and Social Involvement, all of which served as our basis in the making of this project. What was interesting about our project was the fact that not only did it require the utilization of our computers and the improvement of our digital literacy, but it also became an application of the aforementioned core values. In the making of our website we had learned to think outside the box and to think of different methods that deviated from the norm. We became more cooperative; the urgency of this project being the cause for us to all work together and to somehow outdo ourselves. But more importantly, we were able to carry out our roles as students who engage the core values. For some people who have passed through this learning, it is a way of life – a code of principles and ethics which are passed on to the people whose lives they touch.
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