Invent School Goes Digital

Education reaches beyond the four corners of the classroom as the Invent School Program of the Department of Science and Technology, Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI) utilizes the digital platform in the last quarter of 2020. 

This is in response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation and government policies which discourage mass gathering. School-aged and adolescent children, who are the fundamental participants of the program, are at high-risk of exposure, hence the shift to the digital platform.

The change in the learning medium brings forth fresh changes and challenges to  the program’s facilitation. Over the past years, the Invent School Program has reached out to various far-flung provinces in the country and held seminar-workshops in different schools and colleges. The two-day seminar featured on-site lectures which encompasses topics on creativity enhancement, invention development, intellectual property rights, and invention commercialization. These are followed by hands-on activities, particularly on conceptualizing and building invention prototypes with assigned teams.

            As the Invent School Program goes digital, it will initially focus on high school and college students, as the stress and adjustments of elementary children are taken into account. Further, the web seminars or webinars will be conducted for two half-days, instead of the usual two whole days in schools. The experiential activities will likewise be adjusted, as DOST-TAPI’s in-house facilitators strive to conceptualize innovative activities that can be guided and accomplished remotely. Essentially, all lecture topics will have to be improved to be more comprehensive and understandable to students during the half-day sessions. Electronic certificates will also be given to the participants after completing the sessions and accomplishing the post-evaluation forms. With the digital shift, DOST-TAPI aims to conduct at least 33 webinars, each with 30-40 participants, in the coming months.

            In this regard, DOST-TAPI recognizes the challenges of implementing digital learning, the biggest of which is the quality and accessibility of the internet in the country. Despite the slight improvement in the past years, the Philippines still lags behind in terms of internet connectivity having been ranked 19^th out of 26 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, based on the 2020 Speedtest Global Index which assessed internet availability, affordability, relevance and readiness. Further, some students may not have access to the internet and electronic gadgets, such as computers and laptops. Invent School endeavors to bridge this gap by coordinating with the DOST Regional Offices and local governments in order to provide necessary resources for students to participate.

            Invent School also acknowledges the reduced interactivity and element of fun, as students will not be able to physically collaborate with their peers unlike before. Confined inside their homes for their own safety, students may have to accomplish more tasks individually. Hence, sustaining the entertainment value of the lessons is one of the biggest challenges the program aims to overcome.

“Ita-try pa rin namin siyang gawing tulad ng dati, ‘yong mga activities lalo na ‘yong prototyping, since high school and college students ang participants. At the end of the Invent School sessions, ‘yon iyong pinaka output nila, invention prototype”, said Ms. Rich Cahanap Malaay, Program Manager of Invent School.

            She also added that as facilitators, they understand that circumstances and resources apply differently for each participant. However, they see this as an opportunity for students to be more creative and innovative with the materials around them, particularly in building their own invention prototypes. Regardless, the program aims to help students be more creative despite the limited resources and barriers to learning. 

Currently, the Invent School Program is still accepting proposals from schools and colleges all over the country. Also, the program is awaiting the official start of classes and release of guidelines from the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education before proceeding with the webinars. Despite the digital shift, the Invent School Program still hopes to provide a safe space for innovative and revolutionary ideas that neither the four walls of the classrooms nor computer screens can confine.

Invent School is a program of DOST-TAPI which serves as a platform for the youth to awaken their true ingenuity by stimulating their interest for creativity and inventiveness. The Program involves seminar workshops for elementary, high school, and college students. To learn more about the program, visit https://techtrans.gov.ph/how-we-serve/regular-programs/invent-school-program-isp