BY DR. DOMINGA AGHON & INSTR. JUVELYN LINDONG
THE Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) proposed two StudyPh-Edutourism projects costing P10 million for the Fisheries and Marine Science Museum and the La Guerta de ISCOF Animalville: a Sustainable Agri-Fishery Tourism, which are the investment projects of ISCOF-Main and the ISCOF-Dingle Campus, respectively to serve students and stakeholders in the municipalities, and provinces in Region 6.
The existence of this StudyPhEdu-tourism project in both localities will increase educational and agri-tourism related jobs. Its target is to raise the number of tourists in the municipalities from 40,000 in 2018 to 60,000 in 2020 and grow the number of immersions from 12 schools to 20 schools per year. The project’s target clients are the students, study groups for schools, families, and groups.
It will also enhance the capability of faculty, staff, and students –both organic and exchange – thru training, immersion, and research in agri-fisheries, tourism management, information technology, marine sciences, and adult education.
The project wants to promote ISCOF’s core programs and research in agri-fisheries through an increase in enrollees and number of research outputs, to launch ISCOF as an interactive and immersive tourist destination that is associated with fisheries, marine sciences, agricultural researches, and instruction.
The Fisheries and Marine Science Museum – a proposed project of the ISCOF Main Campus – aims to establish a virtual museum to continuously serve its stakeholders and students, which will initially start with the conduct of research in different municipalities and provinces in the region. It will focus on the marine environment thru the inventory of organisms and collection of samples.
Collected samples will be digitized for the virtual museum and added to the current physical museum to enhance a visitor’s experience by providing access to additional materials for review and knowledge deepening, either before or after the real visit. Likewise, the virtual museum will be a source of teaching materials to augment the learning process by providing near-to-real experiences for the students.
The proposed La Guerta de ISCOF Animalville of ISCOF-Dingle will be the first school-based Eco farm in the Province of Iloilo, with the following components: The ANIMALVILLE project is a sustainable educational and interactive venture that includes skills training in animal raising for immersion, research tours, and feeding and petting activities for young and adult learners.
The La Guerta de ISCOF is a 40.6-hectare donated farm of rolling hills with rice fields and a mango plantation in Brgy. Bongloy, Dingle, about a kilometer from the national highway. It serves as a school experimental farm for agriculture students and an animal village, training, and assessment center of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority for agri-crops production and organic farming.
Project KANDINGAN will be a goat milking activity that will teach adult learners how to process products made from goat meat and milk; Project COCO will teach how to make coco sugar, coco honey, coco candies, and virgin coconut oil; Project KARAN-UNON will be a cooking demonstration class for native Dingleanon delicacies; and Project HIMUKIT will be an arts and crafts activity for young adults and learners.
Proponents for Fisheries and Marine Museum are Prof. Grace Bunda, Dr. Jescel Bito-onon, and Instr. Rolindo Demoos, Jr., and for Animalville are Dr. Alma Locara and Prof. Cheryl Gison./PN
