ISESA UniJos Chapter

#4: SCIENCE INTEGRATORS - Living the Experience
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My Advice to Younger Science Integrators

by Kangpe Longmun Usaini

It all started sometime in February 2018, when I was finally admitted into my dream school, the University of Jos. Being a student at the University of Jos has been one of the best things I ever wished for, even though I had never been there at the time. Yet, I was fascinated by the stories from the school and the people who graduated from there.

I spent most, if not all of my time, checking my admission on the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) after my application to the university. The feedback was always the same . . . pending. I grew discouraged with every passing day. The session was to commence in April.

On 28th February 2018, at about five in the evening, I logged in on the CAPS portal. It was written in block letters: EDUCATION AND INTEGRATED SCIENCE. I lost strength and my enthusiasm sublimed. Questions ran through my mind. "What has Dental Surgery got to do with Education and Integrated Science?" "Should I accept or reject the admission?" "What will I tell people when asked what I am studying at the university?"

I was disappointed. I wasn’t even ready for my father’s pep talk. “Education courses are given to only strong people,” he will say, “to those who are bound to understand the rudiments and mysteries of life.” I considered his perspective because he was a professional teacher and taught Special Education. I had to be thankful, even in this circumstance, as admonished in the Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

I did not have any acquaintances in the university when I came for my registration. I walked into the Bauchi Road Campus of the university with my tuition fee and accommodation fee, unsure of what next to do. I prayed for divine help and guidance. Help came. I met this newly admitted student of Social Studies Education. Being a direct entry (DE) student, drawing from his pre-degree experiences, he was of great help through the registration process. I chose the Student Village Hostel for accommodation, even though I had no idea what it was like. I was assigned Compound One, Room Four.

New to the environment and naïve. I had a small button mobile phone. I refused intimidation and got tired of reciting Michael Morpurgo’s statement to myself. “Wherever my story takes me,” Morpurgo said, “however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption; not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning, that there is light at the end of every tunnel.” And then my father’s reminders: “Never forget where you are coming from, and be focused on where you are going.”

Lectures had commenced and yet I did not know what my courses were nor the designated lecture halls. In my ignorance and confusion, I attended a Life Changer tutorial (a tutorial class especially for students in remedial studies). I did an assignment for the class. It is quite funny, thinking about it now.

God bless the day I met one Lekmang Gubam Ladan. Gubam was my coursemate. We stayed in the same hostel. He had resumed before me and had gone far with his registration when I met him. We became more like brothers from different mothers. Every day, I met another coursemate.

Initially, I thought the Integrated Science I am coming to study was the same thing you will find in primary schools. I was marveled to find that we took courses like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Plant Science and Biotechnology, and Zoology, to mention just a few. More daunting is the fact that the venue for these lectures is spread across the two university campuses, the Naraguta and Bauchi Road campuses.

Shuffling both campuses has been one of the discouraging factors to our studies. We lacked guidance from our seniors and our lecturers. Our help came via the Fellowship of Integrated Science Christian Students (FISCS). We survived stuffy and crowded classrooms, mass failures, missing scripts, and results, intimidation from lecturers, and crises in the state, just to mention a few.

I also had my academic disappointments. My first academic disappointment was a missing result in CHM 101 in my first year.

The first and second years went by. The first semester in the third year came hard: we had 18 courses (and no elective) to be taken at lecture theatres spread across both campuses and across several departments. It was a sad and depressing semester. Perhaps the worst I have experienced during my stay at the university. Some of us will go crazy at the slightest provocation. Three times a week, we will have about four assignments to be done. I sought respite in the words of Ulysses S. Grant, “There's always going to be obstacles in life. You just have to be strong enough to face and overcome those challenges. And that's never going to be an easy thing to do, it's always going to be hard because it has to get worse to fight and make it better.”

Thank God for the fourth year (finals), there was less to do compared to the 300-level. The joy of being a finalist, one conducting undergraduate research. It wasn’t all roses. Talk about incessant industrial strike actions by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities - ASUU, incessant crises in Jos, the COVID-19 pandemic, and lockdown. All things being equal, the graduation year for the 2018 entrants of the university for a four-year course was 2021. But here we are. Yet again, I find respite in the words of Helen Keller, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Additionally, “Destiny delayed is not destiny denied.”

I choose positivity and resolve to be a person of value to everyone, from students to management. I evolved virtues and character in my years of study at the University of Jos. The Integrated Science Education Programme (ISEP) is not all about the aforementioned workload, but about unveiling a person’s inherent qualities.

My advice to the undergraduates of the ISEP:

The majority, if not all, did not apply to study this course. I did not as well. However, it is one of the best things that has happened to me. It may not be your destiny, but a pathway to your destiny. I took an interest in politicking during my years of study. I served as the assistant secretary general of the National Association of Mwaghavul Students (NAMS), welfare secretary of the Integrated Science Education Students Association (ISESA), national publicity secretary of the National Association of Kanam Students (NAKS), president of ISESA, and other roles too numerous to mention. I was awarded “The Most Humble Comrade of the Year 2022” by the NAMS.

I have learned to live a life of selfless service to others. I have learned that change will not come if we wait for someone else to take responsibility or for some other time. You are the one you have been waiting for. I am the one I have been waiting for. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

God bless Nigerian students, at home and abroad. Aluta bruhaha!

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The photo: Kangpe Longmun Usaini is a member of the ISESA Class of 2021 at the University of Jos. He served as the ISESA President for the 2020/2021 academic session.

#3: SCIENCE INTEGRATORS - Living the Experience
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How I Leveraged Being an Undergraduate

by Jœy Shekwonuzhibo

The story began in 2010 when I applied for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination. I couldn’t secure admission into the University of Jos that year. I applied in 2013 again, after spending three years at the polytechnic and graduated with a diploma. I studied Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) at the Plateau State Polytechnic (PlaPoly). I performed excellently in laboratory sessions. Some lecturers in the polytechnic advised me to go further and study Science Laboratory Science.

I took the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post UTME) at the University of Jos in 2013 or so. After the exams, I returned to conclude my project at the Polytechnic. The post-UTME results came out some months later. I was offered admission to study Integrated Science Education. I despised it at first. I thought it wise to go back for a Higher National Diploma (HND), a year after my Ordinary National Diploma (OND) at the polytechnic.

I talked to my Dad about it. He got worried. He had to talk to me, even through his friends. He pleaded that I should go and make something of the course at the university, perhaps become a lecturer. After a series of conversations around the issue, I resolved to take the admission.

I came to the University of Jos campus in 2013. I met new people and coursemates, all of whom did not apply to the course. We discussed our fears as we waited in the queue to get registered for the new course. We studied the handbook and manuals, trying to make sense of what awaited us. We had long conversations, only to realise that many of us studied Science Laboratory Science at pre-degree levels. And the journey started.

The first thing I told myself then, was that I would not reach for first class or third class. Instead, I’d stay in between. However, I knew I had a passion for broadcast journalism and IT. I didn’t know how to pursue this passion, at the time. I remember I was going along the lines of this passion in secondary school. I was a science student and also the president of the school’s Press Club at some point. My friend, Umar Farouk, and I, back then in school, were members of the club. We’d stay back in school every Friday to prepare news for the club which would be read on Monday assembly.

At the 200-level, I committed to learning broadcast journalism. I gave myself a two-year timeline. I planned to start from the university’s radio station. Saint Charles, a friend and coursemate was already on the university’s radio. So, I spoke to him about my interest in being on the radio. He helped me in writing my internship letter. I was interviewed by Meshach Titch. He questioned why I was interested in radio considering that I am a science student. My performance in the previous session wasn’t bad (no first class or third class), so I was free to go ahead. I started working on my interests and building myself; in news writing, broadcast journalism, reporting, and blogging. I started blogging on a campus blog called UJxclusive.

Sometimes, you won’t find me in class. Whenever I was absent from class, you can be sure to find me on the radio station. I had issues with some lecturers during that period. After a while, the blog became popular on the campus. We organised a Spelling Bee competition on campus, which brought judges from the Department of Mass Communication and the Department of English. We had sponsors from outside the campus, from Bulletz Systems. I had a growing influence in school and had increasing opportunities for internship opportunities outside the campus. And I had to figure out a way to translate my skills and experience into income because I resolved to not return home after graduating.

I got my first job when I was a student, in my third year. The job was with an organisation running an online radio. They needed someone with vast knowledge of running an online radio. All I learned outside broadcasting was self-taught and that is why, today, I still give credit to the Integrated Science Education Programme (ISEP).

The discipline helped my problem-solving skills and critical thinking. I became solution-oriented. I worked with the organisation running an online radio until I graduated from the university. I was then offered a job at Rhythm 93.7 FM, then later at JayFm Live, where I now work currently.

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The photo: Joey Shekwonuzhibo is a member of the ISESA Class of 2018 at the University of Jos. Check out his blog and podcast: https://www.joeyoffair.com/author/joeyzhibo/

#2: SCIENCE INTEGRATORS - Living the Experience
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Living the Experience

by

I remember one fateful evening, in a conversation with my mom in the parlour when a notification came on my phone. It was the long-awaited UTME result. Although I hadn't waited for so long for the result, it felt like I did. The anxiety created mixed feelings. There I was, wanting to see the result but at the same time worried about what the score would be. This anxiety was more real to me than the phone in my hands and the couch I was sitting on.

On tapping the notification bar, excitement pulled me out of the couch, and my head almost touched the vinyl ceiling in the room. I think I screamed, "JAMB result!" My mom collected the phone and her face brightened up. I scored well above 200. I had applied to study medicine at the university; my childhood dream was to become a medical doctor. My UTME score gave me hope. Like every other serious-minded university applicant, I did my research and found out that candidates who scored 250 and above had the chance of being admitted into medicine, and if not, to another course not too far from it, so I was hopeful. The next thing on my mind was the post-UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination).

After a series of internal and external ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) strikes and Student Union Government (SUG) protests, admissions finally came and that gave me the shock of my life. "Integrated Science and Education? What the hell is that?" I felt disappointed. Although I resolved to accept the admission, I planned to rewrite another UTME the following year.

The registration process was a tedious one. You could be punctual and still not achieve what you set out to by the end of the day. The Integrated Science Education Programme (ISEP) was one of the newly introduced courses at the University of Jos during the 2014/2015 academic session. I was among the first set enrolled for the course, so you can call my set the "UTME Pioneer Set".

Pleasant as it may sound, the experience of being a member of that class wasn't nice. As a pioneer set, we had no reference point except the level coordinator assigned to our class who was also a lecturer and a researcher and was not always available whenever we had concerns that needed clarification. So, for those periods when our dearly beloved Mrs. Asabe Edward Bash was not available, we had to fend for ourselves.

I stayed a month at the university without knowing my coursemates. In fact, it was at the end of the first semester that I got to know all my coursemates. We were only 30 or so. Interestingly, none of us applied for the course. I know, for many of us, the name "Integrated Science" reminds us of the junior secondary introductory science subject and would make one at initial points to berate the course, thinking it's just going to be a four-year walkover, but my mates and those who came behind us would agree with me, in strong terms, that Integrated Science is as demanding as any other course in the university, if not more demanding. I don't know if adjustments have been made, but the experience of shuffling two campuses, sometimes more than once a day, depending on the timetable, to take courses all around the Faculty of Natural Sciences isn’t a funny experience at all. The number of courses one had to offer in a semester was quite cumbersome. In fact, you dare not fail any as some of those courses were prerequisites to offering their higher forms at higher levels.

You also have to think of the space to add up courses from previous sessions to a new session which already has enough courses of its own. No student is expected to exceed 48, the maximum number of credit units a student can take in a session. This is me saying that if you have taken the bull by the horns to study integrated science at the University of Jos, you have to be serious at every point of your study.

There's this demeaning attitude toward students of Education by students from other faculties. I want to tell you that they're no better than you are. You may not get the chance to debate your way into convincing them that you're good, so the best way to do so is to storm their faculties, ace every course that comes your way, and do so with your integrity intact. Integrated science may not have been your dream course, but who says you can't make the best of it and attain any point you want? Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General (DG) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is an accidental economist and many others too numerous to mention are at the top echelons of greatness. That may just be your place!

Let me end with this quote from Michael Phelps: "There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits."

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The photo: Aaron Luka is a member of the ISESA Class of 2018 at the University of Jos. You can contact him via e-mail: [email protected]

#1: SCIENCE INTEGRATORS - Living the Experience
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A Journey Worth the While*

by Tongjal Wungakha Nungbulla

We were all seated in the living room after dinner when I screamed out in excitement, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Everyone had a question mark creased across their faces. I had a phone in hand. They must have thought I was reacting to someone’s comment on a post or reply to a chat. I was unsettled for close to five minutes before I regained the stability to respond to their questions appropriately.

"I got admitted into the University of Jos," I said with cheer but declining excitement for I was not ready for the questions that I imagined would follow.

"What course?" Dad asked immediately, supported mutedly by Mum and inquisitive postures from my siblings.

I took a brief pause before responding. Is the news of being admitted without giving the full details not enough to light up the mood of the evening? I may have thought so at the time but could not have expressed it so. Shortly after, I responded in a hushed tone, "Integrated . . . Science . . . Education."

"In-T-what?" Dad asked with a little calm. "Repeat what you said again; I didn’t get you clearly."

"INTEGRATED SCIENCE EDUCATION."

That little exchange was just another moment supporting Dad’s conclusion that I ought to learn to speak audibly and not always assume that everyone is of the same age group as I am, let alone assume that everyone hears the same way. However, there was more to that or so, I thought. That question punctured my balloon of excitement and brought me back into the reality of my society’s consciousness, by which I was haunted, hence the swift change of tones in that brief span of time.

Silence ensued. My siblings could not respond for they may not have understood the reason for the silence. All they knew was that I was admitted into a university and had reserved speculations as to why nothing like “Medicine” or “surgery” was mentioned as I shared the details of the reason for my excitement.

Dad broke the silence. "What is the course all about?"

"I don’t know. I am just knowing this course exists."

"Is that not one of your subjects in secondary school?" Mum asked innocently.

Though her question was innocent, I was hurt. That evening of 7th March 2018 was the beginning of a dark season in my life which lasted longer than I expected.

It was a long evening. I was asked a series of “what questions”. The question which resounded the most was "What next?" I responded to the few I could, kept mute for those I could not answer and those I felt needed no answer.

Time wouldn’t stop simply because I was hurt and scared of what the following days would hold, not even if it was about what my lifetime would be. A restless night followed; thoughts clashed in my head, my eyelids held tight but to no avail, and the springs underneath the mattress could tell they were overstretched that night.

Against all odds, I accepted the admission. In fact, that was done before the suggestion to wait and apply for JAMB in the coming year or to enrol for Remedial Studies (a pre-degree course in the University of Jos for Science students who wish to make up for lapses in their admission, thereby attaining better chances of being admitted to study their choice course).

None of those suggestions made sense to me. I simply disliked the idea of waiting an extra year before continuing my education; for reasons such as being disregarded by acquaintances who have high expectations of my becoming. I dreaded the idea of applying for JAMB again because, prior to my first sitting for that exam in 2017, I was not clear about what I wanted to study to become. With every week that passes, about a month to JAMB, I changed focus from Medicine to Engineering and all the other revered courses in the society. I never wanted to make a choice of a career based on high-earning prospects alone; I wanted to do something that is rewarding, beyond just the financial returns. I wanted to do something that fed my curiosity and in which I’d joyously invest my time, talents, gifts, and all such endowments. Just maybe I’d find out what my path is in life, academically, when studying this course I have been admitted to study for four years.

The session commenced. I was overwhelmed by the excitement of being in a higher institution, a totally new environment for me, in my first year. I soon paid very little attention to the memories of that evening. As I acclimatised to the new environment and contacted some of my friends elsewhere, thoughts about studying to become a teacher became appalling. That feeling lasted through to my first semester in my third year. School and all it allowed an opportunity for were not fascinating. I struggled every morning to get myself to class. Conversations or time out with friends and coursemates in school, outside of lectures, were not helping. Bedtime seemed scary for my thoughts and imagination about where studying this course would lead me to later in life was like being roared at (like a lion’s roar) in a dark room.

Light found a way into my dark space. I realized this is a journey of becoming. That life’s end is not in what one studies. There is more to being alive. This is like a pathway I would traverse in my lifetime.

Dad and Mum were light sources: they provided support in many subtle ways, emotionally, and financially, with kind words and actions. The climax of their support is when Dad said to me that this is a journey of becoming, of discovery and has always remained hopeful. Friends, who were my coursemates, who had had their minds baptized in hope, flashed theirs in conversations and actions. There was a flood of light rays pouring into that dark space I had hidden in for quite a long time. Statements of hope and declarations of God’s promises in fellowships of like-minds were like bullets shot through whatever denied entrance of light to where I was.

The people I was surrounded by through my years as an undergraduate played a major role in ensuring that I got through a course filled with many ups and downs, and all the more discouraging given its near obscurity in the rating of courses studied in the university. No one in my class, through secondary school, wanted to become a teacher. We all wanted prestigious and hallowed fellowships and associations.

Yet, I have no regrets for staying through it. (I’ve made attempts to change twice. I made good shots but did not hit the bull’s eye). The ill-treatments in lecture rooms and theatres only made me feel less for a moment but did not succeed in making me think less of who I am purposed to be. Those years in school were a refining process. Through the tides, I have seen more sides to who I am not and what strength I possess.

There is more beyond this phase, I reckon. I keep evolving as I tend towards the end of my lifetime. Meanwhile, I confess that this is a journey worth the while. At least, I would not have this story to share if I was elsewhere.

Be encouraged; there’s more to life!

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The photo: Tongjal, W. N. is a member of the ISESA class of 2021 at the University of Jos. You can contact him via e-mail: [email protected]

*This is the first of other entries for the maiden edition of the Science Integrators yearbook to be published here. The other entire will follow subsequently. Ensure you keep tabs on the update.

The Science Integrators Yearbook

Dear Member of ISESA,

Based on the academic calendar of the University of Jos, the 2022/2023 academic session officially commenced on Monday, 28th August 2023. The session is expected to end on Friday, 21st June 2024.

The ISESA Hike (the first of its kind) which was held on Saturday, 27th May 2023 remains the most memorable event during the 2021/2022 academic session. Sadly, the planned ISESA Dinner & Award Night did not come to fruition during that session. Likewise, the Science Integrators yearbook. With a due sense of responsibility, I was the Chairman of the Dinner Committee and the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook.

The visuals in this post are illustrations of what the yearbook production team had in mind to publish as the maiden edition of an annual publication chronicling the activities of ISESA, documenting membership, and the experiences of students past and present.

The team envisioned a publication that would serve as a reference for the posterity of ISESA, a manual, an encouragement, and a guiding light to sojourn through the unique challenges of the four-year undergraduate Integrated Science Education Programme.

This post is an appeal to the new leadership of ISESA, to consider bringing this dream to reality. Consider what good this publication serves when there are many students like me, who during my first two years in the ISE Programme, sought encouragement from those who have gone through the programme despite the negative stereotypes attached to courses preparing one to become a trained and certified teacher in Nigeria. This is the common lot we bear: the ISE Programme has its unique and quite depressing stereotype, not to mention the course load.

We believe this publication has the potential to provide some respite to the individual members of the association, any student enrolled to study for a BSc./BEd. in the ISE Programme.

In the meantime, based on the update from me about the yearbook, re-published on Saturday, 16th September 2023 on the association's page and group, the publication of entries received for the yearbook will be published on the Facebook platforms of ISESA.

Also, I must acknowledge the generosity and contribution of the graphic designer behind the flyer for entries and the visuals attached to this post. To of Sicomm Global: On behalf of the Science Integrators yearbook team, we are grateful. And also to the publisher Random Despatches, we are grateful.

Thank you for your kind reception thus far.

Yours faithfully,
Tongjal Wungakha Nungbulla,
(Class of 2021)
Editor-in-Chief, Science Integrators

10 Things to Consider on a Field Trip to Yankari

by Tongjal WN

This list was inspired by a recent field trip I was a part of to Yankari Game Reserve, facilitated by the biological sciences departments at the University of Jos which spanned Monday, the 11th of September to Saturday, the 16th of September 2023.

Based on my experience there, I'd use this list (a kind of checklist) to prepare for any future visit to Yankari:

1. Two change of clothes for each day.

2. A budget of 1,000 naira per day for food.

3. Mosquito nets or repellants.

4. Face caps.

5. Do not forget your swimsuit!

6. Boots.

7. Torchlight.

8. Worry less about blankets, bedsheets, and mattresses.

9. Worry less about body treatments.

10. Be desirous to learn.

All else that isn't here will be under your control, so long as you heed this list and remember that you are human and possess adaptability.



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Photo credit:

Perhaps you should read chapters 1 to 5 of "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell to get the point of this excerpt from the book which is some encouragement for you who is a student of integrated science, "a relatively obscure field":

"[Bill Joy and Bill Gates] toiled away in a relatively obscure field without any great hopes for worldly success. But then - boom! - the personal computer revolution happened, and they had their ten thousand hours in. They were ready. [Joe Flom] had the same experience. For twenty years he perfected his craft at Skadden, Arps. Then the world changed and he was ready. He didn't triumph over adversity. Instead, what started out as adversity ended up being an opportunity."

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Source: "Outliers: The Story of Succes" (2008) by Malcolm Gladwell, in Chapter 3 'The Three Lessons of Joe Flom' on p. 128 [Allen Lane: Penguin Books]

UPDATE ON THE PROPOSED YEARBOOK FOR ISESA, UNIJOS CHAPTER

Fellow Members of ISESA UniJos Chapter,

First, congratulations on the conclusion of the 2020/2021 academic session. In view of the fact that we are in 2023, it has been a long ride. Congratulations, you survived thus far!

As the title of this piece implies, this broadcast is a follow-up on the proposed yearbook “Science Integrators”, which was intended to launch as a periodical specifically for the documentation of vital information concerning the students of Integrated Science Education. In view of the the visionary national coverage of the association, the publication was envisioned to start small at the University of Jos, and eventually branch out in the near future.

The content was conceived to include: brief biographies of the final year students for every session, a photograph cross-section of students in every level, articles on individual journeys as students of integrated science education, promotional adverts, commentaries from lecturers and alumni, etc.

The first edition was conceived to be launched at the Dinner scheduled for the close of the 2020/2021 academic session. Regrettably, the Dinner did not hold. Likewise, the maiden edition of the yearbook was not produced. Final-year students were the primary sponsors of the production of the yearbook with an individual payment of ₦2,000. At the time of this writing, only ₦4,000 was paid by the appointed Editor-in-Chief for the project. Despite reminders, nothing more came in.

Thankfully, over a dozen articles were sent in for publication in the yearbook. All but one are narratives of the struggles of the individuals behind the articles on their journey as undergraduate students of integrated science education from pre-university to post-graduation. All of the entries are filed and stored in a cloud storage system.

In view of the goal to build a storage and reference material for the benefit of the posterity of ISESA, I deem it necessary as editor-in-chief of the project to pitch an alternative route to that goal.

The following are my suggestions:

1. The entries should be published on the page and group of the association.

2. An e-mail newsletter can be developed and managed for ISESA (on Substack as an option) where other relevant information for the development of students of ISESA can be shared directly to the e-mail inbox of every member of the association who will sign up for the newsletter.

I would like to get your opinion on this information to enable successful ex*****on. Especially for those who have sent in articles for the yearbook, I would like to know if you grant permission for your article to be published or not on Facebook or anywhere else outside of a printed yearbook.

Kindly share your opinion on this in the comment, please.

We anticipate your immediate responses, so we can hurriedly move into creating a database of encouragement and motivation for the posterity of ISESA.

With diligence,
Tongjal Wungakha Nungbulla,
(Class of 2021)
Editor-in-chief, Science Integrators.

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This document was first published on Sunday, 23rd July 2023 in the WhatsApp groups of ISESA, namely, ISESA Dinner Committee, ISESITE UNIJOS, and those for every class.