Dramafest '07

Last March 2, 2007, the University of the Philippines High School in Cebu, celebrated their 32nd Dramafest. The event was held in the open stage on the night of that day. The fourth year students were the ones who hosted the program. Razel and Euvic, the producers, of each section, were the emcees of the program. We can see the audience and their excitement in waiting for the program to start. But in the case of the fourth year students, a variety of feelings can be seen in each other’s eyes. Some were excited, some were nervous and some were having mixed emotions. Nevertheless, we have to face this day since we have been preparing for this event long enough. This activity also served as our periodical test in Filipino for the grading period. The judges were divided into two groups, on for the technical aspect and one on the acting aspect. And so, it then came to a point wherein we had to start the program. Section Tan was the first one who presented.

Upon hearing the announcement, section Gonzalez was disappointed because of the two sections have more or less the same plot in their stories, so it was better to present first. But being the second one to present was a blessing in disguise. It is because something happened on the technical part of the play, the lights. The house lights did not function well. It kept on blinking and blinking. With that, the Tanikala Productions or the section Tan fixed the lights first and started again from the top. They presented well especially on the acting part. Each actor and actress performed their role well. I can really see that they really did their best just to please the people and theirselves. Their play almost lasted an hour. They gained several claps from the audience, mostly the students. Then it was Quevedo production or section Gonzalez’ turn to present.

I felt the air of excitement as it passed through my veins. I had no reason to be nervous about the outcome of our presentation since I saw the great improvement of our play as every rehearsal went by. I was assigned to hang the series lights on the stage wall. And since I was chairperson on the make-up committee, I made some retouches on the make-up of our actors and actresses. After the props, designs and technicals were ready, the Quevedo production started the play. The flow of the play was so smooth that you can see no error on technical and acting part. It was at the start of the program, but then, a problem occurred. Ralph, the musical director, lost his script. We went to look for it in all the possible places but we could not find it. Instead, we handed him another script. From that time on wrong timing of playing the music as background for a certain scene had frequently occurred. The spotlights also lost their functions nearly at the end of the program. But these faults were not regarded because the acting of the actors and actresses carried the people away. You can conclude that they really studied their role very well. Each of them did their best job. They gave justice to the story. People with teary eyes were visible anywhere from the audience. The acting of the presenters carried them away. Each of us performed our role well. And I am so proud of our production. There was a loud applause from the audience that was the cause why my tears dropped from my eyes, a sense of relief and gratitude.

The awarding ceremony added up to our hype that night. The awarding of the technical part, such as best in lights, music, wardrobe and makeup, poster, song, and set design, were all awarded to the Quevedo Productions. And the Tanikala Productions won most of the acting awards such as best actor, actress, and supporting actor. The Quevedo Productions got the Best Supporting actress performed by Juna Rose Dinglasa. But the Tanikala Productions got the two biggest awards, which were the Best Direction and Best Production.

Nevertheless, we were all happy of the results of the program. At last! It was all done. We all did our best to make the event a successful one. We thank God for the good weather and guidance that he has given us that day. We had proved our worth in making our production a presentable one. No one can take our relief and gratitude that day. And until now, we are happy, and that is all that matters.

Research Project: Ethanol From Potato, Sweet Potato and Taro: A Comparative Study

Philippines, our country, is a third world country that depends mainly on foreign products. And one of these products is energy from oil exports from the Middle East. We all know that petroleum come from fossil fuels. The production of fossil fuel is declining and not only that, the fossil fuel also emit harmful gases that cause air pollution. Fossil fuel is also a non-renewable resource. With these facts, the researchers came up with the idea of using an alternative source of fuel, which is biodiesel. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel, which the raw materials are found here in the Philippines. Ethanol is the main component for biodiesel. It consists of raw materials such as sugary and starchy plants. Sugary plants are sugar canes and sugar beets while example of starchy plants are rice, corn and root crops. The researchers decided to use the root crops as a source for ethanol since it is widely available here in Cebu. These root crops are potatoes, sweet potatoes and taros. These three are abundant in Cebu that is why the researchers chose them specifically. The team conducted the study, hand in hand, in vision that many may benefit from this study.

It was the purpose of the researchers to compare the amount of extracted ethanol from 100ml of potato, sweet potato and taro. The researchers were also interested in knowing which of the three yielded the greatest amount of alcohol and the least amount of alcohol.

To have the data required for a fair conclusion, the researchers went on the procedure of distillation. First, we prepared the materials needed. The processes involved were divided into three major divisions: cooking, fermentation and distillation. Cooking involves the peeling and cooking of the root crops for 15 minutes. The process of cooking also included the blending of the root crops and the mixing 60 grams of yeast thoroughly. After the cooking process comes the fermentation process. In fermentation, the blended yeast and root crops are placed inside a jar and then was sealed airtight. The jar was placed in a cool dry place for 30 days without opening. This span of time was the fermentation period of the yeast. The yeast will perform the chemical reactions in order to produce ethanol. After 30 days of fermentation, the fermented root crops were then to undergo distillation in order to extract the ethanol. Three set-ups of distilling instruments were prepared in this process. The distillation process involves the separation of liquids from liquids. That has to be done with the fermented root crops. After each trial was distilled within 15 hours of distillation, they were subjected into a flame test. The sweet potatoes and taros sparked while the taro extract did not. The researchers also measured the mass and the volume of the distillate and the amount of ethanol extracted from the fermented root crops.

The researchers got the following data after performing the experiments: 4.7 ml of ethanol was extracted from potatoes, while 7.5 ml and 5.5 ml of ethanol was extracted from sweet potatoes and taros, respectively. With these data, sweet potato was found to be a better source of ethanol compared to potato and taro.