TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, May 5 (PIA) -- After a whirlwind visit to Bohol last week, the mobile science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEM) learning facility for senior high schools in the STEAM strand will be back in Bohol for a month next year.

This is according to Department of Science and Technology Bohol Provincial Science and Technology Center Director Vina Antopina.

The DOST through its Science Education Institute sent to Bohol its NuLab, a mobile science and technology learning facility and laboratory equipped with a huge interactive board as the teacher’s main board, individual monitor for students, laboratory-grade equipment, wireless sensors, internet connection and carries with it modern learning modules designed to help students discover their potentials in the various STEM fields and encourage them to take courses where they are most inclined to succeed and excel.

On April 24-28, the NuLab also brought to Bohol scientists from the country’s Balik Scientist Program, subject matter experts and former DOST scholars in nanotechnology, aerospace engineering, nuclear science, earthquake risk analysis, science media literacy, programming, oceanography, robotics, entomology, environmental science and still in so many interesting fields, to engage students into science and related subjects.

In its first stop at the Ubay National Science High School, STEM strand senior high school students took the chance to get a glimpse of applied chemistry inside the NuLab bus as a chemist scientist conducted interactive experiments.

In the Nulab’s second stop in Pres. Carlos P. Garcia Technical Vocational School of Fisheries and Arts in Bien Unido, a former DOST scholar and now science teacher aired his appreciation for DOST’s efforts to ease student’s perception against science and math.  

On April 26, the NuLab rolled to Manga National High School, where topics on chemistry and microbiology were discussed as the scientist teacher expert engaged students into the fun and exciting world of mathematics, drawing using Excel, and the mathematics behind computer graphics.  

In the afternoon, the NuLab team unrolled its tarps at Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School where STEM senior high students were immersed in the world of environmental science with Balik Scientist and Central Visayan Institute Jagna teacher scientist Dr. Janneli Lea Soria, an expert in Coastal Geology, testing and analyzing water quality properties of water samples collected throughout the City.

By April 27, the NuLab team rolled to another stop: at the Tagbilaran City Science High School where students had their first peek at nuclear science and its significant industrial uses other than developing nuclear weapons.  

Dr. Vallerie Samson, a scientist expert from DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, discussed the applications of nuclear science to health, food, and safety.

In the afternoon, Dr. Soria talked about environmental science and marine biology, Bohol’s marine environment, and the effects of population in the marine ecosystem.

With the mobile learning environment’s visit to Bohol apparently piquing students’ interest in the sciences, schools have seen what would take them weeks to usher in the courses which STEM can help them prepare, can be done with one NuLab session.

With this and the popular demand to have STEM in Motion go back, the DOST has set the revisit next year, and it will be for one month, Antopina added. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)