Another
Book Out
I’m extremely pleased to announce that
my last book, Writing Your Thesis, is just out of the press. This book was published by the UPOU Office of
Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS). It was designed as reference
for students (of UPOU and other universities) doing their theses or research
projects. Personally, I would love it if
more students from universities in the Philippines other than UP would use it.
This book is a sequel to the first one
that I wrote in the early eighties, which saw the publication of three
editions, all published by the UPLB College of Agriculture. When I was asked to do a fourth edition of
such book, I thought that any additional material would warrant a new book all
together. Hence, this new volume.
This current volume has extensive
discussions about a number of new topics, such as an extended treatment of how
to write the discussion chapter of the thesis, particularly techniques in
visualizing research results. One of the
reviewers of the book commented that this was her first time to see a book of
this nature providing extended explanation of why research results needed to be
visualized other than in textual form.
Normally, she observed, thesis advisers gloss over this very important
topic. Too, there’s discussion about
plagiarism, which is something that has become rather frequently discussed in
media today.
Well, I’ve been teaching science
communication and I feel that even theses could be presented in more understandable
form. One way of achieving this is
through visualization of results. So, in
this book there are discussions on how to use statistical tables, graphics and
charts, illustrations and drawings, and pictures.
The original book titled How
To Write A thesis Proposal, I’m very proud to say, has been cited
internationally, even if not frequently.
I hope this current version would be read by more. I can say it is a vastly improved version.
The UPOU-OASIS is still determining
how much it would cost, but certainly it wouldn’t be expensive because our
intention is to get as many Filipino students as possible to use it. Interested parties may link-up with the
UPOU-OASIS (oasis@upou.edu.ph), and place
your orders. It’s pretty quick since the
book is under UPOU’s print-on-demand program.
I’m prepared to travel to universities
upon invitation to discuss this book and its content in an effort to promote
research among students and to share information about the significance of
plagiarism as an ethical issue in the academe.
***
The second semester is almost in, and
there are a lot of things that I need to do before then. Perhaps I won’t be able to deliver on what
I’ve said I’d be doing. One of the things I had been wanting to do is
undertake a content analysis of the electronic discussions in my courses. Thus far, I’ve produced hard copies of the
e-discussions in my following courses: DEVC 263, SCED 250, Comm 320, and Comm
360. Each course has at least 500 pages
of transcriptions.
Of course, I know exactly what
transpired in those electronic discussions, but I’d like to be able to present
more systematically, perhaps in a journal article, what it means of have
electronic discussions ion courses offered online in the Philippines.
To be sure, there are many problems in
electronic discussions in courses delivered online in the Philippines, among
which may include small bandwidths, unreliable Internet connections in distant
places, and things like that. I’ve had
students reporting to me that they had to take a banca from their places of
assignments (that’s where they teach in elementary schools) in island-villages
to town and look for Internet Café so they could upload their submissions and
read postings from their classmates. Frequently,
these teacher (pursuing their master’s degrees from the UPOU), need to travel
untold distances just so they could comply with the online requirements of
their courses. One can only commend such
efforts of many UPOU students.
***
Here’s
a very encouraging event.
For the first time in its 27 years,
PhilRice collaborated with the UPLB-CA in organizing the first CALABARZON Region-Wide
Farmers’ Field Day, this October 18th. Theme of this field day was “Capturing Higher
Rice Productivity Potentials.” The focus
was upland rice production, hence the sub-theme, “revitalizing Upland Rice
Research.”
“UPLB is the corporate headquarters of
PhilRice, but this is the first time that we did this,” said Dr. Dong Rasco,
Executive Director of PhilRice. Then he
turned to me and said, “don’t ask me why.”
The main upland rice variety
highlighted in the field day was called “inipot-ibon.” When I asked one of the researchers why the
name, she said, “because the panicle is comprised of grains that look like bird
droppings in color.” This variety
originated from Quezon. This rice
variety has smaller grains compared to the modern varieties, but it is
aromatic. Well, most upland race
varieties are aromatic, especially when they’re newly harvested.
The Philippines has some 4.5 million
hectares of rice land, but only 100,000 hectares are planted to upland
varieties. These numbers alone tell us
that upland rice comprises very small proportion of our rice production and
food. But considering the effects of
climate change, which could be mostly dry spells, then we could end-up planting
more upland varieties. Unfortunately,
these varieties give lower yields because they don’t get enough water. As the farmers will tell you, rice is one
that requires a lot of water. In fact,
to produce one kilogram of milled rice, one needs some 55,000 liters of water.
An interesting sidelight of the field
day was the distribution of “bayong” made of pandan leaves, courtesy of Laguna
Vice Governor Ceasar Perez. All farmers,
while moving around the demonstration site at the UPLB-CA Experimental Farm,
were carrying bayong. “By and by, all
these will have rice panicles in their respective bayongs,” observed Dr. Rasco. He was, of course, referring to the farmers
being very enterprising by collecting matured rice grains which they will
eventually plant in their respective farms.
Upland rice is close to my heart. This is what we used to plant in Batanes, in
my younger days. Years ago, we planted
upland rice for home consumption. We
didn’t plant the modern varieties because there’s no irrigation water in
Batanes. Planting rice in Batanes is a community activity, a cultural
phenomenon. But when the NFA began
bringing milled rice to Batanes, this cultural event practically stopped. Planting rice in Batanes is no longer a
significant cultural event. That part of
the culture of the province is practically lost. And this was really never systematically
studied and documented before. That’s
very sad.
***
In the just-concluded UPLB-CA Flower
and Garden Show (October 7-14) I saw something I’ve never seen before – a
completely violet lettuce. Yes, I’ve
seen lettuce with some parts of the leaves violet, but this one is all violet.
By way, the UPLB Flower and Garden
Show is always a good show for exciting new varieties of plants developed by
our plant breeders. If you missed this
year’s show, do plan to attend in April, during the Flower and Garden Show in
time for the UPLB Graduation Exercises.
Photo at right is the hanging violet lettuce.
###
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