Filipino students triumph with multiple medals in global STEM competition

LAGONOY, Camarines Sur— A global competition in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) released its winners on April 30, 2024. 

This competition started last September 2023 and finished in December of the same year.  

Gizmos Global STEM Competition is where teams of students create STEM-related projects that deal with the concerns within the students’ communities and present their findings through a video presentation.  

Gizmos is an E-learning platform, a simulation platform, and a virtual science laboratory, which can be utilized by the participants for their entries. 

In the recent competition, 219 schools from 80 countries participated, featuring 353 STEM project entries.  

The competition consists of three categories – Category 1 for Elementary (Kindergarten to Grade 5), Category 2 for Middle School (Grade 6 to Grade 8), and Category 3 for High School (Grade 9 to Grade 12). 

Each category has three awards – Gold, Silver, and Bronze.  

Included in the list of winners is the Project DANUM of Team Chromium Crusaders from Saint Louis University Basic Education School (SLU BEdS), which won a silver medal on the international level and a gold medal on the National level.  

This team of six Grade 11 STEM students proposed a project about creating a prototype using the GIZMOS E-learning platform.  

The team members are this team are as follows 

• Ms. Mary Rose B. Escala (Coach) 

• Ms. Shanaia Heart Abrigo 

• Mr. Jose Maricarl Alvarez 

• Ms. Ameluzúa Marie Azurin 

• Ms. Ysabela Ricka May M. Ballesteros 

• Mr. John Michael Daculan 

• Mr. Joseph Pinto 

According to the article released by Saint Louis University on May 16, 2024, “DANUM: Desalination Biosorption through Nano Biosorption as a Utilitarian Local Scale Machine for Heavy Metal Reduction in the Agno River” aims to eliminate heavy metals in the river using their innovative mobile machine.  

Examples of these heavy metals found in the Agno River system include cadmium and chromium.  

In an interview conducted with Jose Maricarl Alvarez, a team member of Project DANUM, their device is a solar-powered water filtration system. 

A 12-volt, 30-watt solar panel powers Project DANUM and can charge a 20-ampere-hour battery. 

The team has identified the issue with the Agno River System, noting that Baguio City sits below the river system.  

Project DANUM seeks to make the Agno River’s water drinkable through nano-biosorption technology and materials from giant African seashells as the key component.  

Mr. Alvarez explained the mechanics as “wastewater is poured at the top of our device. This is connected to the bio-absorption, where we’ve used giant African seashells.” 

He added that the container is connected to a water pump that pushes the water toward the reverse osmosis filtration before pushing the water outside. 

Project DANUM is expected to transform the enhanced water quality to serve as a water source for the locals in the community.  

He clarified in the same interview that the water is not expected to be potable but is clean enough to be utilized for household chores. 

Moreover, their STEM entry addresses Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is Clean Water and Sanitation, connecting to the project title “DANUM,” meaning “water” in Ilocano.  

In the same event, two teams from the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School (AJHS), also won the competition. 

Both teams have garnered gold medals in their respective categories of 2 and 3 at the National level.  

Four young learners from the seventh to the eighth grade made up the first team in Category 2.  

They titled their entry “Leveraging Technology to Reduce Hunger and Improve Food Production and Sustainability.”  

The other winning team is under Category 3, who also won gold for their study “Effectiveness of Different Wavelengths of Light (nm) on the Amount of Oxygen Produced by Plants through Photosynthesis in Reducing the CO2 Levels in Landfills”. 

Two Grade 9 students and three Grade 10 students from AJHS made up the team.  

Their project entry about the effectiveness of different wavelengths of light won a bronze medal at the international level.  

As written by Gizmos on their official site, the first-place winners or gold medalists from each category will be representing their regions in the Spring 2024 Gizmos Global STEM Competition, which will take place abroad later this year.  

There were other awardees in the competition.  

The silver medalists in Category 2 are teams coming from De La Salle Lipa and Sta. Teresa College, then followed by the team from Immaculate Conception College of Balayan, Inc. who received the bronze medal.  

For Category 3, there were also two silver medalists, namely, the teams from Colegio San Agustin Makati and Saint Paul College of Parañaque. 

The Category 3’s bronze medalists are the teams coming from St. Scholastica’s College – Westgrove and Marian College Inc.  

Judges evaluated all project entries based on the rules and rubrics available on the Gizmos’ website.