By Christine C. Rivero

EYE-POPPING, head-scratching, whoa-cool discoveries and scientific breakthroughs greeted us at the exhibit hall of the 1999-2000 Intel Philippines Science Fair national finals. There were booths displaying computer software and simple machines to environment-friendly pesticides and building materials.

High school and elementary students representing all regions of the country put up a total of 99 booths for this year's science fair. What was really neat was that the elementary school kids didn't look at all out of place. Their projects were just as professional and impressive as their high school counterparts and their booths looked every bit like the work of scientists.

All sorts of projects immediately caught our eye like the tiles from plastic cups made by 13-year-old Val Balita of Inosloban-Marauoy Elementary School in Lipa City, Batangas. The paint on the fast-food cups created pretty streaks on the tiles and Val even showed us a picture of their bathroom newly renovated with the tiles he made himself.

Further up, Ken Salario, 11, of the SPED School in Iloilo City, showed us his Electromagnetic Field Lightning Indicator. It's this device he made after a boat his dad was riding was sunk in a storm and he says it can tell how far bolts of lightning are by measuring its electromagnetic field with the antenna of an AM radio.

Gals showed they had a scientific streak in 'em too. Twelve-year-old Carmelle Fuentes of Maningcol Elementary School in Misamis Occidental, developed wall-boards from cassava pith, the styrofoam-like center inside cassava stems, while 10-year-old Sheila Mae Villadores of the University of the Immaculate Conception in Davao City, came up with a mosquito-busting insecticide made from weeping willow leaves and pine cones.

The little girl, though, who discovered "the fibers of the millennium" was 11-year-old Daña Mijal from Tumahobong Central Elementary School in Basilan.

Her project titled "Fibers of the Millennium from the Kanganan Tree" won the third prize in the elementary category.

Daña says the kanganan tree, belonging to the family of santol, lanzones and mahogany, is common where she lives.

"Maraming-marami po talaga ito," she tells us, "tapos po, pinuputol-putol lang po ito ng mga tao dahil wala daw po itong pakinabang."

Daña relates that she saw the wood rot leaving behind these fibers and she thought of working on them to see if they could be turned into something more useful.

After some months of research and treating and dying the fibers, Daña saw that the knitted fibers could be made into bags and placemats (much like abaca, we observed, but much smoother and not itchy too!). Some grown-ups working with her even turned the fibers into a cool vest and pretty Filipiniana dress. How's that for a millennium look?

Though she's a pretty smart researcher, Daña says she'd like to grow up and be a soldier, "Para po makatulong sa mga naaapi (To help the oppressed)."

She'll still be able to make use of her science know-how, she says, "Halimbawa, pag may nagkasakit sa mga kasamahan namin, pwede ko po siyang tulungang gamutin (If someone gets sick, for example, I'll be able to help cure him)."

Another project that made useful knick-knacks out of the seemingly useless was presented by 13-year-old Simon Jude Burgos. This sixth-grader from South II Central School in Iligan City asserts that his project, "Bontong as a Potential Source of Commercial Fibers and Strips" can help our ailing economy. Bontong, he tells us, is their native name for bamboo sheath (dried bamboo stem that looks like paper bags).

"The products made from these bamboo sheaths can be sold at local and even international markets," he adds and they'd be real cheap to make too.

Simon says he was inspired to do this project after hundreds of people lost their jobs when the National Steel Corp. in their province closed down. "When I go home to Iligan, I will introduce to them my project so they can have jobs," he vows.

Now that Simon's project has won the science fair's elementary category second prize, they'll have even more reason to listen to him.

Best friends since Grade 3, Earl Andreu Acabal and Mark Rembert Patindol, both 11 years old and studying at the Visca Foundation Elementary School in Leyte, gave each other scientific best buddy back-up in working on their project, "Biosorption of Lead from Aqueous Solution by Saccharomyces Cerevisiae."

Past all the big words, what this means is they came up with a project that used baker's yeast (the kind used to make bread) to remove lead pollutants in water.

Says Earl, "In some scientific journals, (other scientists) used other kinds of yeast. We wanted to see if it will work with baker's yeast."

Obviously it did because the dynamic duo's collaboration romped off with the fair's elementary category grand prize.

The boys worked on their experiment for almost three months and during their breaks they'd goof off by playing with pellet guns. "Once we tried to shoot with yeast pellets," Mark says, with a grin.

"But they just got squished!" Earl added, giggling.