The meeting was held within the framework of the III Summer School of the career of Pedagogy in Chemistry and Natural Sciences of the Buenos Aires house of studies.

At the beginning of January, students from the ULS Biology and Natural Sciences Pedagogy and Chemistry and Natural Sciences Pedagogy careers visited the Chemistry Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, with the purpose of participating, for the first time , from the Summer School organized by the Buenos Aires educational institution.

On the occasion, the students, who were invited by Dr. Cristian Merino, an academic from the Didactics Laboratory of the PUCV Institute of Chemistry, participated in two free workshops, one called "Design of school scientific projects in natural sciences", directed by professors Joyce Maturana and Carlos Duque, and the other titled "How to elaborate scientific narratives?", by the prominent specialist in Science Didactics, Dr. Agustín Adúriz-Bravo, from the University of Buenos Aires.

The students in training received the support of the teachers of the Department of Biology, especially from the coordination of the Pedagogy in Biology and Natural Sciences career, "specifically from the teacher Francisco López, who made the pertinent coordination to get to the meeting and be able to participate of this training day,” said the future ULS professional, Pablo Núñez.

“We consider the experience as a learning opportunity that brings us closer, in specific aspects, to the context of the real classroom that we must face in teaching practice. Through these instances we channel common elements of our training and socialize them with other practicing teachers and teachers in training, with the aim of establishing general guidelines regarding the teaching and learning of science and its challenges in the current school context. the students explained.

According to the students present in the training and the experts, the themes, the development of school scientific projects and the elaboration of scientific narratives are essential in initial training and, in turn, didactic resources of high pedagogical value that must necessarily be acquired. for science teachers who face a great challenge when teaching science in today's school.


Source: DEIP

The initiative promoted by the scientist from the University of La Serena, Claudia Bernal, will use food peel waste to produce raw materials, which mostly come from the oil industry.

At a time when we urgently seek to reduce gas emissions that pollute the environment, it is a priority to generate raw materials through alternatives that are different from the oil industry. Along these lines, one of the challenges currently facing the food industry is what to do with the waste that is produced. An example of this is Pectin, a polymer present in the peel of many foods that in Chile, in general, is used very little, implying an extra expense for the industry, which must pay for the process so that it is discarded.

Given this need, Dr. Claudia Bernal, academic and researcher at the Department of Food Engineering and the faculty of the Doctorate in Food and Bioprocess Engineering at the University of La Serena, designed a project that aims to use waste from the food industry to produce new products in a clean way, contributing to reducing pollutants. “Pectin, which is a byproduct of the food industry, can be transformed enzymatically into raw materials to generate nylon and polyester, which are currently produced by the oil industry,” she explained.

To finance this project, Dr. Bernal was awarded one of the funds from the FONDECYT Regular 2019 Contest (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development) that this year was given to researchers from the Coquimbo Region, which is highly competitive and currently represents the main source of financing for scientific research in Chile.

“The FONDECYT that I won focuses on taking advantage of two great opportunities offered by the region and the country: the first is the Recycling Law, which is to reuse and take advantage of the by-products of the industry; and the second is to transform food, in which we want food not to be raw material but rather to produce value-added products,” Dr. Bernal said.

“If we use agri-food waste by transforming it with enzymes, clean technology, to produce something that will also no longer contaminate as much from the oil industry, we are making a contribution to these two opportunities that Chile had,” he added.

“The Pectin that is extracted from the peels of agro-food waste is used as a gelling agent to make jams and other foods, it is a product of very low value, and that is in the best of cases. Most of the shells end up in landfills, little is done, so it's a good opportunity. Producing raw materials to generate other types of materials such as polymers or polyesters as far as I know is not done (in Chile), so there is an important niche there to generate technology and new areas of commerce,” he explained.  

Dr. Bernal hopes in the future to be able to link entrepreneurs and obtain financing to scale and have people trained in the area and trade in the future and in this way contribute to providing a solution to the management of waste from the agri-food industry.

Source: VIPULS

The presentation is part of the cycle of free public talks “AstroSerena - Exploring the cosmos from the Coquimbo Region”, organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of La Serena and the Gemini Observatory.

A new talk from the “AstroSerena” cycle will take place this Friday, January 25, at 18:30 p.m. at the Gabriela Mistral Regional Library. On this occasion the topic to be discussed will be "Telescopes: a window to the universe", by the Spanish astronomer Manuel Gómez Jiménez, from the Gemini Observatory.

The talk is aimed at the general public, without any prior knowledge in astronomy. The basic concepts of the operation of an astronomical telescope will be developed and the importance of the Chilean skies in this science will be explained, as well as the importance of the atmosphere in astronomy. After a brief introduction to electromagnetic radiation, day-to-day life at the Gemini Observatory will be narrated, ending by showing some images obtained with Gemini and the type of science we can do with them.

Astronomer Manuel Gómez has worked as a scientific operations specialist at the Gemini Observatory for three years. He studied general physics at the University of Granada, his hometown, specializing in astronomy for a year at the University of Nijmegen, in the Netherlands. After a few months working in Barcelona, ​​in the instrumentation group that develops the ITER nuclear fusion reactor, he studied a master's degree in Astronomy in the Canary Islands, specializing in instrumentation and optics. The Canary Islands being one of the world's astronomical paradises, he began working there in the operations of the Teide Observatory, on the island of Tenerife. After two years, he got the position he currently has in Chile, where he enjoys traveling and getting to know the Chilean mountain range and nature.

It should be noted that the series of talks “AstroSerena - Exploring the cosmos from the Coquimbo Region” is organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of La Serena and the Gemini Observatory, with the collaboration of the Gabriela Mistral Regional Library and the financing of the ALMA-CONICYT Project #31180047.

The idea of ​​this activity is to promote the concept of inclusion and talk about the topic with professionals who work daily with boys and girls who demonstrate and are completely different beings from each other.

In the context of the Inclusion and Universal Accessibility Project 1799 of the University of La Serena, training was carried out for the educators of the ULS Kindergarten and the “Los Papayitos” Nursery and Kindergarten.

The activity, led by the academic from the Department of Education, Dr. Georgina García Escala, and the project professionals, the differential educator Alejandra Galleguillos and the psychologist Sandra Salazar, focused on providing information about inclusive education in kindergartens. In this way, we reflected on the concept of disability and its evolution from a social and rights approach, the changes in policies, practices and culture in Chile based on the current legal framework at the national and international level in inclusive education, emphasizing the importance of oral language development in educational inclusion and activities for early attention to it according to age.

The training ended with a group work, where the educators had the opportunity to reflect on the importance of the evolution of the concept of disability in the country, where an increasingly inclusive health and educational system is promoted and in which values ​​diversity.

Likewise, the educators identified as the main barrier to eliminate in the educational system in Chile, the beliefs about disability in some parents, who refuse the suggestion of carrying out an evaluation of their children with the specialist and having a possible diagnosis of disability. .

Finally, the educators proposed activities to promote oral language at an age of a toddler level of development, related to storytelling with different voices, use of pets, handling of textures, word baths and songs, among others.

Source: DEIP

The meeting took place in the offices of the Department of Chemistry and was attended by more than 50 students.

With the presence of the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Eduardo Notte, academics from the Department of Chemistry, special guests and a large number of students, the keynote talk by the researcher from the Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of the UNAM was held. (Mexico), Dr. Norma Sánchez Flores, called “The world of Zeolites”.

On the occasion, the researcher, who met with a group of academics from the University of La Serena, including Dr. Adriana Mera, who organized the visit of the Mexican expert, spoke about the importance of Zeolites and what they are. their varied applications in the environmental and industrial world, taking into consideration that they are extremely attractive materials, due to their structure and properties.

During the talk, students were able to ask questions and interact. In addition, the members of the GIMEGA group also participated in the meeting and expressed their doubts once the master class was over.

The talk covered specific topics such as the general concept and what Zeolites are, their structural framework and their composition and properties. The expert taught those present interactive web pages to be able to make applications in real time and see in three-dimensional form how they behave in different states.

It should be noted that this is the first time that Dr. Sánchez visits our country, expressing that she is very satisfied with the relationship she has established with Dr. Mera, who has been rigorous in the way she works and has carried out mutual collaboration in related aspects. to the study area. She also noted that they will continue to work together and maintain ties to carry out future studies.

Dr. Sánchez is a Senior Academic Technician C, with appointment by the National System of Researchers as National Researcher level I; undergraduate level thesis tutor of the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Higher Studies Zaragoza, UNAM, and postgraduate level thesis tutor of the Materials Sciences and Engineering programs - Materials Research Institute, UNAM - and Medical and Dental Sciences and Health at the Faculty of Dentistry of the same Mexican university.

Source: DEIP

This year the survey was incorporated into the route of procedures that the student had to complete to enroll.

The Office of Institutional Studies, with the objective of creating a profile of the student entering the University of La Serena, applied the 2019 Characterization Survey, which seeks to know the environment, preferences, interests and/or reasons that motivated the student to enter. to the only state educational institution in the Coquimbo Region.

The survey considers questions in areas such as motivation for entering the University, perception of ICT entry skills, sociodemographic characteristics, social development, personal interests, interests and expectations regarding university life.

The importance of the survey lies in the information it provides in support and decision-making for the institution's management processes. In particular, the survey collects information that is not available in other data sources, such as DEMRE. In addition, it is an input to respond to information requirements of the institutional and/or career accreditation processes, for the development of leveling and/or support plans for students.

The novelty in the application of this year's Characterization Survey is that it was incorporated into the route of procedures that the student had to follow to enroll at the University of La Serena, which allowed students to answer the survey online from their homes achieving greater response coverage, a figure that this year reached 95%.

Finally, the University made a laboratory available for those students who for various reasons could not answer the survey; and in the case of doubts and/or queries, they had the support and guidance of professionals and students.

In this year's registration process, students had two options to respond to this tool: answer from their homes online or appear in the room that was designated for these purposes on the Ignacio Domeyko Campus, where new students were able to clarify doubts with the professionals in charge of the process.