Pinoy scientists venture into arts to adapt to 'new normal'
MANILA, Philippines — Learning is entering a brave new world.
With face-to-face learning in classrooms still out of the question, everyone – students, teachers, parents - are all being brave, taking leaps in adapting new ways to make sure learning continues, despite and maybe more importantly, because of the pandemic.
Since institutions for learning, like Mind Museum in Taguig City, are still not allowed to operate under general community quarantine guidelines, the museum's staff, including its in-house Filipino scientists, have to find new ways to survive.
The sudden shift in the education system from traditional to e-learning is one of the reasons why the Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc. (BAFI) sought to contribute to the learning experience of Filipino students and families around the country.
“We are all waiting for the crisis to be over but the science and art champion BAFI, a non-stock, non-profit organization that brought you The Mind Museum and the BGC Arts Center, both located in Taguig City, aimed as early as April to be part of the solution by designing the wait that could help with education which should continue despite the health crisis. This creative learning wait we came up with is called 'Mind S-cool'," said Maria Isabel Garcia, Managing Director and Curator of the BAFI.
Garcia emphasizes that the new educational show "Mind S-cool" (MSC) is the umbrella concept for BAFI’s contribution to not only adapt to the new normal but to seize the opportunity to fill the gaps in the basic education courses across age-groups toward a direction that will help create a citizenry who will act to restore us to an even better normal.
Garcia, in a recent interview with Philstar.com during an online press conference, explained that 'Mind S-cool' continues the museum's mission to provide continuous distance learning even after classes for kids.
"I’m very sad to say that the Mind Museum has been strongly impacted (by the pandemic), but we’re fortunate that our board is very supportive of what we do," she said.
"When the museum is allowed to continue, we will continue that. But we would not abandon 'Mind S-cool' even if the pandemic ends."
Moving beyond the usual classroom set up, "Mind S-cool" conveys the strong relation of the two greatest human traditions, science and art. Set in the huge and exciting galleries of The Mind Museum as the new “dream school," the show aims to first, empower the learner-viewer to discover his/her own mind in learning in connected ways across topics, essentially bridging the sciences and the arts for its viewers; and to connect science and art to other things happening in the real world and how learners could help make the world better, in the new normal, knowing those connections.
Garcia assured watchers that each episode willl be an exciting adventure for the main “questers," guided by mentors to solve different challenges, acquire rewards and develop a sense of connectedness across the different topics and continuity of the learning journey across the whole series.
To widen the range of access to students all over the Philippines, the show runs on free-to-air CNN Philippines every Saturday at 8:30 a.m., with simultaneous streaming on CNN Philippines' online site and Mind S-cool Online. Each platform is set on different formats covering different scopes that are strongly tied to the K-12 curriculum set by the Department of Education but with the most updated knowledge.
As the most updated educational program for free TV, Mind S-cool TV will kick off its first episode with a narrative titled, “What in the World is Going On?,” to give insights on the current situation brought about by the pandemic. All episodes will be in Tag-lish.
The series has two permanent main characters called Mind Movers of The Mind Museum. In each episode, they will be visited by interesting and engaging personalities from different industries. These guests will help the hosts unveil the answer to all connected questions via engaging ways like experiments, show-and-tell with exhibits and illustrations, stories and even difficult conversations.
It will also have “online” visits from rockstar scientists and other interesting characters set in their professional spaces like construction sites, archeological digs, robot labs and museum partners around the world.
On the other hand, the online Mind S-cool will focus more on the explorations of the main characters in certain topics that are part of the K-12 curriculum in science and art and will always engage the learner in 3 main dimensions: The Nature of Things (What is it?), Science and Technology (How do we know/do it?) and Real World Relevance (Why is it relevant/useful?).
This will serve as the museum’s contribution for students and teachers to not be limited to the basic and standard curriculum. The learners will be exposed to the connections that one topic has with other subjects particularly the sciences (in all its fields) and the arts (across its forms). Each video will be presented with content in a way that will cut across the age groups.
Access to MSC online is via subscription basis.
Garcia concluded by sharing that BAFI pursued Mind S-cool despite the tough financial and logistical challenges because “we also owe it to the ones who helped create The Mind Museum and the BGC Arts Center and to the ones who have supported those institutions through the years, to continue our mission to champion learning the sciences and arts despite the challenges. We all know without a doubt, that science will solve this crisis and the arts indeed, make the wait inspiring and transformative. We need to count on learning the sciences and the arts, perhaps now more than ever.” — Reports from Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo
