Schools strengthen support for Smart’s Project Rain Gauge

Months of monitoring and recording the amount of rainfall in their respective provinces have strengthened the commitment of 17 public high schools to contribute to improve local rainfall monitoring in the country.

Teacher-representatives from the test group for Project Rain Gauge under the Smart Schools Program recently reconvened to evaluate the initial run and to share lessons learned from various challenges they experienced in maintaining a rain gauge in their respective schools.

The group first met in late August to attend a Rainfall Monitoring Workshop in preparation for their role in Project Rain Gauge, a joint undertaking of Smart Communications Inc. and Manila Observatory’s KLIMA Climate Change Center, in cooperation with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and the Department of Education.

They have since obtained the support of their school principals, immediately buckling down to the task of setting up garden rain gauges provided by Smart. Some were given the additional challenge of fabricating rain gauges. The next step was to get the students and other teachers involved in the project.

“I presented to our principal who, in turn, presented Project Rain Gauge to the faculty. The students were informed about it during our flag-raising ceremony,” says Jacqueline Bete of Monkayo National High School in Compostela Valley. 

Bete, the school’s science coordinator, also went the extra mile to similarly involve the school’s Parent Teacher Community Association, the municipal mayor, and even met with the municipal disaster coordinating officer.

“They are all willing to help. It was even suggested that a rain gauge be also put up on Mt. Diwalwal,” she says.

For the common problem of monitoring rainfall during weekends and holidays, Carlo Magno Pomorada, biology teacher at Ligao National High School in Albay, formulated a schedule that puts not just the teachers and student-members of the Explorer’s Club in charge of monitoring, but also the school janitors and utility workers every weekend, and the security guards on holidays.

Marinella Garcia Sy, a Science 4 teacher at San Miguel National High School in Bulacan, believes that involvement leads to better understanding. “The students are able to experience a hands-on science activity,” she says. Rainfall monitoring efforts are spearheaded by the school’s Science Department through the Young Earth Lovers Society.

Hilton Fernando and Jun Paat Jr., weather specialists from PAGASA’s Flood Forecasting Bureau, were on hand to listen to the schools’ performance reports and provided tips and solutions to the concerns raised.

They also oriented the teachers on how to use standard rain gauges that Smart deployed in the schools to replace the garden rain gauges and the fabricated ones used in the past months.

Future rainfall data forwarded via the Internet to the Manila Observatory’s KLIMA Climate Change Center will be based on measurements from the standard rain gauges.

KLIMA has been consolidating and posting the data from the different schools in a website where anybody can access the information.

Based on their gathered data, Elena Adamos, a chemistry and biology teacher at Baler National High School, observes that “rainfall in Aurora varies, it usually rains moderately but continuously.”

At Monkayo NHS in Compostela Valley, very minimal rainfall was recorded from August to October. Moderate to heavy rainfall was experienced only at the start of November.

Project Rain Gauge’s long-term goal is to create a network of supplementary ground stations across the country to provide additional data on local rainfall measurement in specific areas for a more effective and accurate local weather monitoring.

Its importance is underscored by the fact that the Philippines has a complex weather system and that there are only 58 ground stations for weather monitoring in the entire country.

“What we are doing is not small. Your experiences will help us improve and expand the program. There is strong interest among other schools, including non-Smart Schools members, to help out, specifically in Albay province. In fact, PLDT and Smart is making Albay a pilot province for disaster preparedness and risk reduction activities. So, you have here an opportunity to make a distinct contribution in gathering rainfall data,” Ramon Isberto, Smart public affairs head, tells the teacher-representatives.

Isberto goes on to reveal the grand vision for Project Rain Gauge. “Our undertaking can be part of a worldwide concerted effort to address the growing threat of climate change. We hope that we can make Project Rain Gauge part of a movement involving concerned citizens, companies and government units working together to face this environmental problem,” he says.

He also reminded the participants to make Project Rain Gauge of value to their schools. “This is your chance to make science education and learning relevant and fun.” With this comes the challenge of involving more people within their schools, and eventually getting more schools involved.

“We plan to roll out Project Rain Gauge to 150 schools this 2008,” says Darwin Flores, community partnerships manager of Smart.

To this end, several teachers from the 17 pilot schools have enlisted their services to train other schools. Their task includes installing standard rain gauges in the schools assigned to them by Smart, and conducting trainings on reading, recording and reporting. They will also be in charge of monitoring each school’s progress and providing technical support.