Tell me you're a STEM student without telling me you're a STEM student

All strands have their different characteristics and telling others that you belong to one of them is quite easy. Distinguishing a STEM student is easy because they have unique characteristics as they belong to this strand.

All students experienced being tired after a long day in school. But the tiredness that a STEM student feel is different from others. Once you go home, you just want to rest and sleep but as you remember that you have a lot of tasks to do, you sit straight on a chair, facing a laptop, and do the tasks that you needed to do. Moreover, all strands have their applied and specialized courses/subjects that only they have. Since STEM focus on the subjects of science and mathematics, we have many subjects that include them. General Physics, General  Chemistry, Basic Calculus, Pre-Calculus, General Biology, and Earth Science. With these subjects, we encountered different formulas and scientific terms that other strands don't have. Moreover, we have a lot of activities and projects that we need to finish all the time. Most of the time, we are busy doing the tasks from the different subjects. One of the characteristics of being a student is that you should have a scientific calculator to calculate all the problems from mathematics and science. After doing the tasks that we needed to do and finish, that's when the time that we can breathe and rest after a long day.

Overall, being a STEM student is quite challenging. Many mathematics and science subjects test one's abilities, and to be able to solve this problem, one must have a scientific calculator.

https://youtube.com/shorts/EbKq5LPHjw0?feature=share 

Ipil - ipil and Bone meal as an alternative fertilizer for the Growth of Ampalaya ( Momordica charantia) ; A Comparative Study (RECOMMENDATIONS)

The study of Ipil - Ipil and Bone meal as an alternative fertilizer for the Growth of Ampalaya (Momordica charantia); A Comparative Study recommends the following to further help future researchers in improving the study. These are all based on the results and findings of the study.

The application of pulverized fertilizers ( 2 tablespoons) was done once a week. For experimental group #1, ipil - Ipil was applied, for experimental group #2, the bone meal was applied and for experimental group #3, the mix of Ipil - Ipil and bone meal were applied. These fertilizers were composed of nutrients that are sufficient for the growth of the plants such as phosphorus and nitrogen. However, as the weeks of observation and experimentation goes by, the ampalaya plants showed indications of nutrient deficiencies and were distinguished as phosphorus and nitrogen deficiencies. Showing indication of nutrient deficiencies means that the plant is unhealthy. So the study recommends increasing the amount of fertilizers or doing the application of fertilizers twice or thrice a week. This will help to produce healthy plants and make their growth faster. 

Besides showing indications of nutrient deficiencies, pests are the number one enemy of growing plants. In planting the bitter gourd or ampalaya, some pests damaged the plants such as caterpillars. Caterpillars mostly ate the leaves of the plant which made the production of leaves reduced overtime. This situation affected the result of the study. Therefore, the study recommends using organic pesticides to prevent pests from damaging the plants. This will help in producing healthy plants and improving the production of leaves.

The scope of the study was studying the effects/differences of Ipil - Ipil and bone meal in the vegetation stage only. The observation and experimentation were done in eight (8) weeks. The vegetation of the plants occurred in week 4. However, the flowering and fruiting of the bitter gourd occurred in weeks 7-8. Therefore, since the flowering and fruiting occurred in 8 weeks of observation, the study recommends studying the effects/ differences between ipil - Ipil and bone meal on the longer duration (i.e. flowering and fruiting stage).

POV of a STEM Student

You've likely heard the term STEM, but what does it stand for? STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These four fields share an emphasis on innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking. And together they make up a popular and fast-growing industry. STEM is an acronym used to describe science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects. This acronym is often used to clump these subjects together because of their similarities in hard skills and career paths. In education, many curriculum plans combine these subjects into cross-curricular lessons to increase student comprehension and retention.

As STEM students, we engage ourselves in four fields. In science, we have different activities such as doing experiments to explain a phenomenon. Science enables us to develop our interest in, and understanding of, the living, material, and physical world and develop the skills of collaboration, research, critical inquiry, experimentation, exploration, and discovery. Through STEM, students recognize how new technologies are developed, learn how to use technologies and discover how new technologies affect us. Technology is woven throughout STEM in one form or another. In engineering, science, technology, and mathematics were combined. We do activities such as robotics and engineering. Similar to science, mathematics is one STEM category that is the most crucial part to learn. STEM math incorporates concepts and exercises that apply science, technology, and engineering to mathematics. We encounter different formulas and problems that we need to solve. It develops and improves our problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

STEM requires a considerable amount of effort and hard work; there is no room for students who just want to sail through school without any real effort. But even though there were a lot of hardships and challenges that we encountered, learning is fun. Being a STEM Student is hard yet delightful.

https://youtu.be/DtOiGCmKtCs

Ang mga gulay ay nagbibigay ng sustansiya at may kakayahang suportahan ang kabuhayan ng mga tao. Nagbibigay ito ng ibat - ibang kapaki- pakinabang na sustansiya katulad ng bitamina, mineral at antioxidants. Ngunit upang mapalaki ito, nangangailangan din ito ng mga sapat na sustansiya at mineral para matustusan ang pangangailangan ng mundo. Sa kabilang banda, sa pagpapatubo ng isang halaman, mas nagiging epektibo kung ito ay nilalagyan ng fertilizer. Ang paglalagay ng fertilizer sa lupa ang nagiging daan upang masuportahan ang pagpapatubo at pagpapalaki ng isang halaman. Ngunit sa panahon ngayon, chemical fertilizer ang mas ginagamit dahil kaya nitong mastimulate ang mabilis na paglaki habang inaalis ang mga importanteng organisms katulad ng bulate at bacteria. Sa halip, alternatibong fertilizer ay magagawa gamit ang mga by-products at biomass na galing sa problema ng waste management.

Ang ampalaya (Momordica charantia L.) ay isang masustansiyang gulay na matatagpuan sa Pilipinas. Isa itong kilalang herbal remedy na ginagamit para sa ibat ibang sakit. Ito rin ay may mapait na lasa na karamihan ay may gusto at iba naman ay hindi. Isa sa mga food waste na lagi nating nakikita ay ang bone meal. Ito ay isang secondary product na galing sa mga non - marketable na tissue ng mga hayop. Ayon sa isang pag - aaral (Jeng 2006), ito ay kinakitaan na puno ng sustansiya katulad ng Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Calcium (Ca) at organic matter. Ang ipil - ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) ay isa sa mga abundant na puno sa Pilipinas. Ang mga dahon nito ay isa sa mga most nutrient-dense plant protein source (Zamal 2009). Base sa pag - aaral ni (Hasan 2015), ang pinatuyong dahon nito ay magandang source ng nutrients katulad ng Nitrogen (N), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), Phosphorus (P) at Potassium (K) na kinakailangan sa pagpapatubo ng halaman.

Sa kabuuan, sa kadahilanang kinakitaan  ang bone meal at ipil - ipil ng mga sustansiya na mainam sa pagpapatubo ng isang halaman, ito ay gagamitin bilang mga alternatibong fertilizer para sa pagpapatubo ng ampalaya. Ang pag - aaral na ito ay may layuning malaman kung may pagkakaiba ba sa paggamit ng bone meal at ipil ipil fertilizer sa pagpapatubo ng ampalaya. Kasama na rin dito ang paghahambing ng ipil - ipil at bone meal.

References:

Hasan, M. K. (2015). Effect of Different doses of Ipil - ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) (LAM) de wit. tree green leaf biomass on rice yield and soil chemical properties. Research in Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, p. 385 - 394.

Jeng, A. H. (2006, November). Meat and bone meal as nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer to cereals and ryegrass. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-005-5170-y

Zamal, H. B. (2009). Estimation of growth and financial analysis through application of ipil ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) leaf meal as supplements to soybean and fish meal in the diet of juvenile mono sex tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). International Aqua Feed, 36-42.