Welcome to STEM class!
If you're still curious about STEM,
read this.
Zuleen's POV
"My X."
I repeatedly uttered it like a sound-tape recorder as I write all my equations that lives upon my head. Almost of the pages in my notebook had been covered with my scribbles so I decided to vandalize my arm chair as well. I switched up my sight as I sensing their glances. Namulagat sila sa pagtingin ko dahil kanina pa nila ako pinagmamasdan.
"She's crazy."
"Don't look at her. She might kill you."
Takot ang mga kaklase ko sa presensiya ko. They might be wondering why they had an odd student lingering in their classroom. They were seeing my behavior as the symptoms of a mental disorder as a threat.
"Is she a public student? Her sense of fashion is so cheap like she was dressed up to bothered anyone."
"I don't think so. Look, she had a logo in her uniform."
"I heard she dropout last year and enrolled again to continue her studies. Maybe her severe mental illnesses might be the reason."
"How pity."
Our Math proffesor arrived into our classroom as he barging out the doorway. Bumalik na sila sa kanilang mga upuan. I slid my eyes seeing Gel manage to sit beside me after she went to the comfort room a while ago.
Si Sir Jay ang magtuturo sa amin ngayon. He introduced our first topic in Pre-calculus. Malakas siyang magsalita at strikto pagdating sa strand namin. Everyone has high expectations when it comes to STEM. Kaya mapapahiya ka kung wala kang kaalam-alam sa itinuturo niya.
He placed a Pre-calculus book on the front desk and started to teach us alone without the use of the book, revealing that he had perseverance and professionalism to know all the lessons inside of it. In all his discussions about the conic sections, palagi ko siyang binabara. Kapag magtatanong o magtatawag siya, palagi akong nagtataas ng kamay. Everyone was glaring at me due to their jumped-off conclusion that I was likely a straw—Sipsip.
"Bida-bida."
"Papansin."
"What a teacher's pet." They blurted out.
"YOU. STAND UP!"
Sir Jay called upon my seatmate—si Gelai, instead of me while raising my pride hand.
"Y-Yes, sir." Sabi ni Gel at tumayo.
"THE CIRCLE IS THE LOCUS OF A POINT THAT MOVES EQUALLY IN A CONSTANT DISTANCE OF ITS RADIUS FROM THE FIXED CENTER, SO WHAT WOULD BE THE GENERAL EQUATION OF A CIRCLE?!"
"Uhm. It's Ax² + Ay² + ...ano 'yan? 'Di ko mabasa."
Gel paused for a second and elevated her head trying to read my current writings on my hand. I was helping her but she let her revealed the deceivement we were doing! Oh gosh! Mariin akong napapikit. Should I informed her at least that she must recite to answer and not just to stand up and read?
"It's letter D, as in dumbheaded as you." I helped her out as I ridicule her abominably for easing my boiling blood burdened to her palpable ignorance.
"REMAIN STANDING!" Sir Jay bawled out loud as he caught her cheating. We can't deny his claim due to the reason that Gel was being to obvious to be seen to her crime.
"I'm not finished yet, sir!" Pilit ni Gel.
"BUT I AM ALREADY DONE WITH YOUR DECEPTION!"
He called next our class president and asked the same thing. Hindi ito nakasagot kaya agarang pinatayo niya rin ito katulad ni Gel. Most of them did not get the right answer. Iniiwasan ng mga iilang estudyante na nanatiling nakaupo na mapadako ang tingin nila sa mga mata ni sir. Sir Jay snorted in frustration as seeing all students cannot answer his simple query.
"AM I TEACHING STEM STUDENTS RIGHT NOW? O NAGKAMALI LANG YATA AKO NG ROOM NA PINASUKAN?" He rhetorically asked to us showing how disappointed he was.
Silence entered our room uninvited.
"STEM STUDENTS, MAY I HAVE A WORD." Mahinahong niyang wika.
He caught all their eyes to awakened their attention.
"IN MY TWO YEARS OF TEACHING SERVICE, NGAYON LANG AKO NAKA-HANDLE NG STEM NA MGA BOBONG KATULAD NINYO! KUNG TUTUUSIN, MAS DINAIG PA KAYO NG MGA IBANG STRANDS DYAN NA WALANG KAALAM-ALAM SA TINUTURO KO PERO MAYROONG KIBOT AT NAKAKASAGOT PA RIN SA ORAL RECITATION! WALA KAYONG BINATBAT SA KANILA! ITO BA 'YUNG MGA MATATALINONG ESTUDYANTE NA NAKAPASA SA NCAE AT HIGH QUALIFICATIONS?! NAGKAKAWALAAN NA BA NG MGA UTAK NGAYON?!"
He changed the degree level of his sight directly at me.
"YOU! KANINA MO PA AKO BINABARA SA KLASE KO KAYA IKAW NA ANG SUMAGOT. SAME QUESTION FROM THE CLASS!"
"It is Ax² + Ay² + Dx + Ey + F = 0, or when x² + y² + Dx + Ey + F = 0." I gave him the correct answer to stopped him from emitting his boisterous voice inside the class. Ang sakit niya sa tenga!
"IMPRESSIVE! THAT'S WHAT YOU CALLED A REAL STEM STUDENT." He complimented me to show to everyone that they must imitate me like a role model. I heard murmurs circling around the rooms as I ignored them. Their pride ego cannot accepted that I attained honorable remark who had happen to spoken out by the lips of our terror teacher.
"SILENT!"
Sir Jay muted the class. He went to the board and write a problem for us to solve, then after that, humarap siya sa klase.
"COULD YOU ANSWER THIS EQUATION? YOU AT THE BACK." He pointed out to the person who is seating at back of the class.
"Beshy, look. Si crush ang magsasagot."
"What? Si Denver Kein Monsalud?!"
Bumaling kami sa likod. It was a good-looking guy who happen to had a dominating blue-toned hair to attract the eyes of Sir Jay. He stood up causing all girls hyped-up and blushed to see his idolized gorgeous face. Pigil sa kilig din si sir Jay na nababakas sa mukha niya kahit takpan pa niya ng Pre-calculus book.
Lumapit si Denver sa board and he started to calculate the simple problem. He managed to answered it all well, yet his corresponding equation does not interchangeably follow to his solution. Mali ang sagot niya.
"WRONG." Tugon ni Sir Jay.
Nagtaas ulit ako ng kamay.
"YES, YOU! HELP HIM SO HE CAN FOLLOW UP."
I went beside Denver and wiped his awful writings. I didn't mind him to watch me while solving. I labeled my answer at the bottom of the solutions, encircling the value of the center and also the radius. Those were the answers of the conic sections given.
Namangha ang mga kaklase ko sa aking sagot.
"Thank you, Zuleen." Pasalamat ni Denver sa akin at tumango lang ako as a humbled welcome. We went back to our seat like a asymmetrical hyperbole but Sir Jay called me again.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME AGAIN, MISS?"
I faced Sir Jay.
"My name is Zuleen."
"OH, MISS ZULEEN! THAT IS WHY YOU'RE QUITE FAMILIAR. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTIONAL STUDENT LAST YEAR. I HEARD YOU OUTSMARTED ALL THE INSTRUCTORS AND GOT REMARKABLE FLAT GRADES. HOW COME YOU'RE ATTENDING THIS CLASS AGAIN?"
"She got dropout with me, sir." Sagot ni Gel.
"YOU INFLUENCED HER?"
"Grabe ka naman, sir! Hindi noh!" Reklamo ni Gel.
"ZULEEN, I KNOW YOU'RE AN OUTSTANDING STUDENT BUT COULD YOU PLEASE NOT INTERFERING ME WHILE I'M DISCUSSING HERE IN FRONT. YOU'RE INTELLIGENCE SEEMS LOSING THE TONE OF YOUR GOOD MANNERS." Pangangaral niya sa akin.
I smiled to eased my chucklesome.
"Sir, if you do not want to be bothered in your class again, you may want somehow to give me a student evaluation so I would not meet you in a whole semester."
The room filled with oohed of amusement.
"IF THAT'S SERVE ME PEACE OF TEACHING, I'LL LET YOU HAVE IT."
Sinenyasan niya ako na pumunta ulit sa harapan at sumunod ako. I stood while facing the class and ready to be examined.
"LET'S START ON THE BASIC. CAN YOU PLEASE ELABORATE THE EQUATION OF QUADRATIC FORMULA?"
Oh. I am not expecting that one. Is he going to easy on me? He mentioned the quadratic function from the first Algebra of high school.
"It is when x is equal to the negative b, plus or minus the square root of b squared minus to 4ac divided by 2a." I lazily answered like I enumerated the letters of the alphabet.
"CORRECT. LET'S SAY I HAD THE EQUATION OF 2 TIMES A NUMBER TO THE SECOND POWER ADDED TO 3 TIMES A NUMBER MINUS TWO EQUAL TO ZERO, WHAT ARE THE TWO POSSIBLE ANSWERS OF X?"
Tumikhim siya with a victory smile as if I was illiterate to answer that. "DO YOU NEED A BOARD? YOU'RE FREE TO WRITE." He recommended while gesturing the board.
"I am not dependable in writing down my calculation. I already knew the answers after you took a deep breath expressing the problem."
"THEN, WHAT WERE YOUR ANSWERS?"
"X is equal to one half or negative two."
Napatingin ang mga kaklase ko kay Sir Jay kung tama ba ang sagot ko. He tried to mentally calculate the equation too while snycing his fingers to sketch his solution in the air. After that, he started to shift his eyes on me in a plain look, acting I was wrong in my answer.
"CORRECT."
Napatayo at napahiyaw si Gel mula sa kaniyang upuan dahil tama ang sagot ko. She's cheering up on me. Nagbulungan pa ang mga tao rito like it was a big deal. Hindi naman mahirap iyon, even juniors know that. Nagsisimula pa lang kami and it's just a warm up.
"BEFORE WE GET INTO THE REAL ASSESSMENT, COULD YOU PERMUTE YOUR FIRST NAME IN HOW MANY POSSIBLE WAYS WHILE I AM BUSY PICKING UP ALL THE POSSIBLE QUESTIONS THAT I MUST PROVIDED TO YOU LATER?"
Umupo siya nang taimtim at nagbuklat ng aklat para maghanap ng maitatanong sa akin. Akala niya matatagalan ako sa pagsagot.
"It's 720." I replied back like a calculator. "My apologies, sir, I don't want to wait you for that long." I chuckled.
He glared at me at pabagsak niyang isinara ang aklat na um-echo sa buong classroom. I already caught his temper. Wala siyang emosyong tumitig sa akin.
"HOW IMPATIENT OF YOU, MS. ZULEEN. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY RUSH, WELL THEN, LET'S GET INTO IT."
Marahas siyang tumayo at natumba ang silya.
"LET'S SAY THAT THE ANGLE OF ELEVATION OF THE TOP OF THIS HILL IS 29°. AT ANOTHER POINT 100 METERS CLOSER, THE ANGLE OF ELEVATION THEN BECOMES 36°. WHAT WILL BE THE HEIGHT OF THE ZAMBALES SUMMIT UNIVERSITY?" Mabilis niyang kuda.
Oh. Trigonometry.
"233.83 meters. ZSU is placed at the habitable highland region of Mt. Tapulao."
"CORRECT."
He walked beside the window. Marahas niyang inalis ang kurtina at ipinakita niya sa amin ang bakuran sa likod ng building namin.
How majestic.
"WHEN YOU LOOKED UPON THE WINDOW, THE RECTANGULAR PLOT AT THE BACK OF OUR STEM DEPARTMENT BUILDING IS 8 METER BY 10 METER AND HAS THE RECTANGULAR GARDEN AT ITS CENTER AND A WALKWAY OF CONSTANT WIDTH AROUND ITS PERIMETER. IF THE AREA OF THE WALKWAY IS ONE-FIFTH THE AREA OF THE PLOT, WHAT IS THE WIDTH OF OUR WALKWAY?"
Here comes the Plane Geometry.
"It's 0.47 meters, which is enough for a single person to walk in."
Napatingin ako sa kaniya. By the sense of his evaluation, I knew what would be the overall sequence of all his questions.
I smiled crazily.
__(=_=)__
MAHIGIT NA bente minuto na kaming nakatayo rito at sa bawat isang minuto ay nakakatapos ako ng sampung questioned item which was tantamount approximately to 200 answers that I got so far in our current time.
He started to evaluate my knowledge from the beginning of laws in Algebra, then Plane and Spherical Trigonometry until the Theorems of Geometry. All of them were consummated by my capable proficiency in exposure to math problems.
Sir Jay wasn't satisfied and convinced to all my answers.
He once held the Pre-calculus book on his desk to opened up all the chapters and find some references. It might be general problems now in Analytic Geometry instead of Advanced Algebra he initially based earlier.
"STATE THE GENERAL EQUATION FORM OF HYPERBOLA THAT HAS FOCI AT (0,0) AND (0,10), WITH ASYMPTOTE OF x + y = 5."
"2x² - 2y² + 20y - 25 = 0." I answered as I converted them easily.
He tried to challenge me and this time, gusto niya akong pagurin. He instructed me to graph all my answers to those kinds of cutting plane based on his questions about conic sections as indicating the conditions of points and vertex in x and y axis. Ito ang topic na pinagaaralan namin sa kasalukuyan.
I consumed all the remaining time in our meeting for illustrating and lining pero marami pa siyang ibinabatong katanungan sa akin habang may ginagawa pa ako. In my case, sinasagot ko ang mga iyon na tila isang sampal sa pagmumukha niya dahil binabara ko na agad siya sa pagsagot bago pa niya matapos ang tanong. Dahil dito, lalong napahanga ang mga estudyante sa akin habang patuloy silang sumusubaybay sa aming dalawa.
"SIMPLIFY THE LIMIT AS APPROACHES TO 4, x SQUARED MINUS 16 DIVIDED BY x - 4."
"Eight."
Wait. Lumagpas na siya sa Pre-cal.
Tuloy-tuloy pa rin siya sa pagtanong sa akin.
"EVALUATE THE LIMIT OF x² + 3x - 4 AS x APPROACHES THE VALUE OF 4. WHAT WOULD BE‐"
"Twenty-four!"
"HUWAG MO NGA AKONG PANGUNAHAN!"
Nagagalit na siya sa akin. I supposed the sets of questions he inquired right now were relevant to Differential Calculus which overpassing the topics in our major subject. He's out of the line. Iba na pala ang hawak niyang aklat. Madugas.
Kumuha ulit siya ng panibagong aklat sa bookshelves. Tinanong niya ako ulit ng mga panibagong topics at halos lahat ay nasasagot ko.
"IF THE CURVE HAS AN EQUATION OF x = y³, DETERMINE THE AREA BOUNDED BY THE CURVE AND THE LINES x = 4 AND y = 0."
"4.76 square units."
After I answered his last questions under the topics of Integral Calculus, he emphatically closed the book and stared at me like he was examining my whole existence being an alien. Maybe, it is such a pain for him seeing me not mistakenly answered a single question out of him without a sweat.
"Are we done, sir?"
Matagal niya akong tiningnan bago siya makasagot.
"I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR RETARDED FACE AGAIN IN MY CLASS." He said which seemingly in denial for him to say yes and agree to my exempted performance.
And after that, he dismissed the class as he walk out the room, leaving his students speechless after the show.