Raising a New Breed of Businessmen, Innovators

Below is my piece on the First Robotics Learning Center as published on The Philippine Star's Business As Usual section. I thought of sharing it with my invisible readers as my small contribution to the parenting world. 

Raising a New Breed of Businessmen, Innovators

By Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star) Updated August 27, 2012 12:00 AM  Manila, Philippines -  There are a hundred and one ways to teach children on how to go about their daily lives. Teaching them the basics of dressing up, eating, studying, taking a bath or simply surviving is easy.But it is never easy to teach children how to become the next generation of businessmen, entrepreneurs, problem solvers, innovators or simply great thinkers. Equipping them with tools that they need when they become society’s future leaders is tricky. One way to do this is to expose children in science and mathematics in a fun and learning way so that they may appreciate the amazing wonders of the two disciplines. These two disciplines, after all, have been proven necessary for any leader to have in nation building or to simply make a difference in a society such as the Philippines. The First Robotics Learning Center strives to provide an environment where children can learn and enjoy science and technology using robotics. Established only in June, First Robotics uses the STEM or the science, technology, engineering and math educational approach. Located on the ground floor of Gold Hill Tower in Greenhills, San Juan, First Robotics has four IDEA (invention, discover, explore and aspire) rooms and a play area for the different courses it offers. At present, the center has three courses, taught by educators with science and mathematics academic backgrounds. The Our World of Adventures and Inventions course is for children age five and up. Here, “children explore ways in which people and things move – for example, how animal and human bodies bend and jump, and how machines lift or spin. Children will learn about simple machines in the home and local community as well as design and build their own models.” In the Our World of Science and Technology course, children age seven and up, will learn about information and control technology and math by making their models come to life using basic sensors, mechanical parts and drag-and-drop software commands with a computer. The third course is the Our World of Robotics course for children age nine and up. Here students will learn and start designing more advanced models by deepening their understanding of different science concepts such as forces, motion and energy. Students will also start planning and designing their own program to control robot functions or behavior.

First Robotics Director Bailey Policarpio said the inspiration to put up the school came from his children. In Malaysia, Policarpio’s children really enjoyed the experience in a similar learning center. “Our children really enjoy it,” said Policarpio. He and a group of like-minded investor friends, some of whom are engineers, decided to put up the center in the Philippines. The idea is to teach children the practical application of math, science and technology.  “Normally in school, they’re taught science, math and technology but here we are teaching the practical application so they will have a better understanding of what is taught in their schools and they can appreciate it better,” Policarpio told The STAR. Some of the concepts kids can learn from the center include motion, force, energy and problem solving. The values that may be picked up include perseverance, analytical thinking, problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork. Policarpio invites parents including the country’s business leaders and entrepreneurs to check out the center for themselves for their children. Trial classes are available, too. (Information on the First Robotics Learning Center is available at www.FIRSTRobotics.ph and  6963333). Photos by Iris Gonzales

The 2012 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum

BONN, Germany – Journalists, bloggers, media educators, cultural workers and artists from all over the world gathered in this historic city of Bonn, dubbed as the German United Nations City, for the 2012 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

This year’s forum, a congress with international reach which formally opened on Monday, June 25, aims to examine the role of the media wit their images and messages in a rapidly changing world.

Debates and discussions centered on media’s role in contributing constructively to cultural diversity, education, reducing poverty, addressing the problem of global migration, sustainable development and the overall them of making the world a better place to live in.

Citing a recent study conducted by the University of Hamburg, Deutsche Welle, the organizer of the forum, said that while today’s society is overflowing with information that can be accessed anywhere at any time because of the Internet, approximately 850 million people around the world are still illiterate and that most of these people come from “crisis regions and war zones.”

“Even in a highly industrialized nation such as Germany, 14 percent of the population is functionally illiterate,” Deutsche Welle said, quoting the Hamburg study.

During the opening of the three-day Global Media Forum which ends today, June 27, Reinhard Hartstein, Deutsche Welle Deputy Director General said that people should not have the opportunity to become illiterate with the development of the Internet.

He said media has a role in ensuring this.

“The growth of the world depends also on this. Lacking education cause poverty and social injustices,” he said.

He said the challenge to the media is to create images, make all the things public, and to show these educational and cultural differences.

“The media have to have the goal that they improve educational opportunities,” Hartstein said.

Marc Jan Eumann, State Secretary for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, posted the same challenge

“The challenges of the Internet are all challenges for us. Social media and mobile media are all great opportunities for a great variety of thoughts and information. What we need in a global world is pure information,” he said.

Furthermore, he said that education and literacy go hand in hand and a great challenge that media practitioners all over the world have to face.

“The media is an important partner for this process – the process for raising awareness on sustainability issues,” he said.

Keynote speaker Franz Radermacher, Director, Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing and Club of Rome Member, spoke on the much-debated issue of media practice around the globe: Ratings Versus Quality: Media Caught Between Market Success and the Mission to Educate.”

He said that at the end of the day, media practitioners need to look for the right balance between these two seemingly opposing forces.

“Look for the right balance in the different aims that you have to follow. And still communicating essential things to a lot of people. Try to concentrate on what needs to be communicated,” Radermacher said.

The forum continued yesterday with a wide range of topics, panel discussions and workshops on journalism practices and media education.

Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcasting company, is tasked to explain Germany’s role as a “cultured European nation with democratic freedoms based on the rule of law and to promote understanding and exchange between cultures and peoples.”  It offers television, radio and Internet coverage in 30 languages.   

Notes from Mindanao

TENUOS, Lake Sebu - My exhaustion from walking for almost half an hour disappeared with the crisp mountain breeze when I saw them. Their eyes glistened as they greeted us and their smiles stretched from ear to ear.

Donning their traditional black T’boli dresses which were adorned with colorful beads, and their hair in beautiful braids and pigtails, the little girls welcomed us with open arms.

We arrived in Sikat Tenuous, a school for indigenous children here in Barangay Takunel, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato after a long walk on an unpaved stretch of earth that is riddled with boulders in and in some parts, filled with the thickest mud.

From the school, one can see the famed and mythical Lake Sebu.

But more magical are the smiles, laughter, songs and dances of the T’boli children who greeted us when we arrived. 

On behalf of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines, we  turned over school kits for the children, as part of our organization’s outreach activity. The kits contained notebooks, pencil, crayons, scissors and a small box of vitamins. It’s very little help for a gargantuan problem but the children appreciated it very much.

Theirs is a story of courage, hope and inspiration – the courage to make things happen; the hope to make these dreams last and the inspiration to go on with the daily grind of living even with very scarce resources and very little help from the government.

And this is what the government does not know: That despite its inability to help remote communities such as the village of Tenuos, the men, women and children here strive to maintain a school.

The perseverance of this community is unwavering, as reverberating as the songs of the Tboli children whose voices echoed in the depths of the mountain and in our hearts. 


Photos by Jes Aznar for the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines.