The unique creation of the Special Mathematics Curriculum of Pedro Guevara Memorial National High School was an offshoot of its school principal’s exposure trip to Texas, USA. Upon his return, Emilio S. Ulpindo was eager and determined to upgrade and uplift the school’s curriculum. He conferred with some Mathematics and Science teachers, and with Regional and Central Office personnel of the Department of Education and the Department of Science and Technology on how to strengthen the school’s curriculum in Science and Mathematics. The result of these consultations was the Special Mathematics Curriculum.
One of the elective subjects under this newly formulated curriculum for junior high school students was Statistics, a subject that most students dreaded. Mrs. Florina C. Federico, Statistics teacher, was challenged to think of a strategy to make the learning process less daunting. She knew that she had to engage the students in an activity where they would learn the relevance of statistics in real life. She collaborated with Mr. Frederick Zaide, Information Technology teacher, and Mrs. Corazon Caballes, Guidance Counselor, on designing a survey project that would enhance the students’ learning capabilities in Statistics and Information Technology. The two teachers had undergone Intel® Teach Program training which facilitated the collaboration process due to their familiarity with the technology integration scheme.
Prior to the preparation of the survey questionnaire, Mrs. Federico discussed elementary statistical concepts such as the collection and organization of statistical data, the reading and interpretation of tables and graphs, computation of the mean, median and mode using grouped and ungrouped data, and the computation of the range and standard deviation relative to a given set of data. Meanwhile, Mr. Zaide guided the students on the ICT aspects of the study, namely, the graphing of data using MS Excel*, communicating the results of the study to the community through a newsletter using MS Publisher* and through MS PowerPoint*.
She asked the students to identify and analyze the social and economic factors that negatively impact the academic performance of students enrolled in the Pedro Guevara Memorial National High School.
The steps for the community survey involved the selection or determination of the number of respondents, the construction of questionnaires, data collection and processing. The students enrolled in Statistics were divided into groups of five. Before they conducted field interviews, they went thorough an exercise called “Problem Wall” conducted by Mrs. Caballes wherein the students identified and analyzed the problems they go through in their own lives.
After much preparation, the students were then sent to the different villages in Santa Cruz to conduct the field study. Mrs. Caballes, the guidance counselor, advised the students on the proper way to interact with survey respondents and conduct interviews.
After data collection and processing, the students tabulated and interpreted the same with the help of the two teachers. The group presentation of the survey results was staged like a conference with the theme “The First Information Technology Congress”. Each section enrolled in the Third Year Special Mathematics Curriculum was allotted three hours to present and defend their study.
Criteria for judging included 30% content, 30% presentation, 20% organization and 20% mastery.
Different groups had different ways of presenting their findings - some were formal while others mimicked their favorite MTV idols. They likewise used different ICT tools and software to present their survey findings and analysis.
The main reports were then submitted to Mrs. Federico who forwarded it to the Guidance Counseling Office. A newsletter was prepared summarizing the results of the study based on a narrative report written by the different groups and submitted to the Statistics teacher. To conclude the entire activity, the students returned to where they conducted the survey to present their findings to the respondents and to thank them for their invaluable cooperation.
