Second edition of ReBIOer welcomes IBS, MST freshmen

 by Jonalyn Jame Catedrilla | Polyplex

The University of the Philippines released the results of University of the Philippines College Application (UPCA) last July 15, 2021, and welcomed a new batch of  students for the Academic Year 2021-2022. The UPCAT was not administered last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and applicants were strictly assessed through their highschool grades and other factors. 

With the new batch of UPLB freshmen during this online learning setup, GeneSoc and other organizations inside the Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS) continued to help IBS and MST freshies, shiftees, and transferees with the second edition of The Haynayan Initiative.  

The ReBIOer is a learning material covering fundamental Biology courses offered by the Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS). The courses included in the material are Investigative Biology Laboratory (BIO 11.1), Biodiversity (BIO 14), Biology and Applications of Microorganisms (MCB 11), Ecology (BIO 150), and Genetics (BIO 30). Each lesson comprises a concise and comprehensive reviewer of the topics, along with a short assessment at the end of the lesson.

The second edition of ReBIOer was updated and improved from the former edition’s lessons, with professors being consulted for revisions in order to assess the accuracy of the topics discussed. Meanwhile, access to the learning material was previously offered exclusively to Biology students, but became available to MST students on September 8, 2021.

The ReBIOer was started last year in 2020 as a collaborative project by various IBS organizations: such as The UPLB Genetics Society (GeneSoc), Philobioscientia, The UPLB Life Sciences Society, Symbiosis - The UPLB Biological Society, and The UPLB Microbiological Society. This collaboration was dubbed as “The Haynayan Initiative''.