The activity brought together School Directors, career coordinators and Department Directors of the ULS.

The Support and Effective Access to Higher Education Program, PACE, University of La Serena, held the Meeting “Support Strategy in Higher Education”, focused on School Directors, Career Coordinators and Department Directors of the university. superiors.

The meeting was held within the framework of the Support Component in Higher Education (AES), aimed at managers of the University of La Serena, to publicize the support and monitoring strategies carried out during 2017 and their projections for this year 2018. .

For Claudia Toledo, AES coordinator, this instance was significant. “It is very important to point out the importance of inclusion programs in higher education; as well as frame the Program as an initiative of the MINEDUC and take advantage of presenting the work carried out by the team with the students of our University to directors, career coordinators, among other authorities,” she explained.

The purpose of this component is to accompany students in their first year of higher education to facilitate their progress and permanence, through the implementation of devices that respond to their academic and psychoeducational needs.

Within this context, the Executive Coordinator of the PACE ULS Accompaniment Program, Viviana Romero, and the SECREDUC PACE Coordinator, María Irene Cortés, presented information to the attendees about the Accompaniment Program within the higher education institution and in the national context. , analyzing and evaluating the results obtained in 2017 of the students assigned to the Program. On the occasion, the importance of monitoring and tracking students using the information provided by institutional platforms was also recognized.

The AES Coordinator explained the importance of Early Warning, “which is very important for us as a team, since through different processes we constantly monitor our students, so that if any anomaly is detected in the student's performance , we can immediately contact you and begin the actions pertinent to the specific case, whether due to spontaneous demand, action protocol of the guardians, among others.

Source: Press PACE ULS Program

This January, two courses brought together students and graduates from the university, as well as external participants, to get closer to probabilities, algebra and geometry. One of these initiatives is available on the DMATV online channel for the community.

With full places, the free summer courses of the Department of Mathematics of the University of La Serena were held, which, for two weeks in January, brought together students from different careers of the institution, also graduates in pedagogy and engineering, in its facilities. ULS and external participants, who wanted to return to the classrooms for a few days this summer.

“Probabilities in Secondary Education” and “Fundamentals of Mathematics and Geometry” were the two alternatives available on this occasion, after a successful first experience of this type in the summer of 2017.

The first of them was intended for 30 teachers, graduates in Pedagogy in Mathematics and Computing from this university and high school mathematics teachers from different municipal schools and high schools.

The activity was funded by the PMI FIP ULS 1501 Institutional Improvement Plan for Pedagogies and its professor in charge was Dr. Ken Matsuda Oteiza, who addressed content such as: Normal and binomial distribution, Mathematical hope, Bayes' Theorem and Total Probability, in theoretical-practical classes that lasted for a week.

During the closing ceremony, the participants received a document for their attendance at the course and greetings from the Director of the Department of Mathematics, Dr. Marco Corgini Videla, the Coordinator of the Mathematics and Computing Pedagogy degree, Mg. Luisa Elgueta Alucema, and the Alternate Executive Director of the PMI FIP ULS 1501, Dr. Fabián Araya Palacios.

Then it was the turn of “Fundamentals of Mathematics and Geometry”, which also filled its 30 places with students and graduates of Bachelor's degrees in Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics, Civil, Mining and Environmental Civil Engineering, as well as Pedagogy. in Mathematics and Computing and Ped. in Mathematics and Physics, along with professionals and external students, who even came from the Atacama Region.

Here there were two modules (Algebra and Geometry) that were taught in one week by the academics of the Department of Mathematics, Dr. Marco Corgini and Dr. Héctor Moreno Barrera, and the evaluation made by the unit is “excellent. We had a significant number of students, very interested, very participatory, with the basic knowledge necessary to understand the topics we covered in this course, which were not simple. “We are all very happy with the final result of this activity,” said the Director of the Department.

“A bit in the context of the 'open university', which was established by Michel Onfray in France, the idea is to welcome the community, the students, the students and the people who are interested in coming to our house of higher education. . That is an obligation that we have, ethically, to deliver to the community what we know how to do, and that is to develop knowledge. Obviously, this is an initiative that does not end here, our teachers, our academics are absolutely committed to this task,” the academic stressed.

For his part, Dr. Moreno commented that “it is the first time that I have participated in this type of instance. We had a fairly heterogeneous level of participants, from school students to graduates, so the dynamics that took place in classes were a very nice experience.”

An equally positive assessment was made by the students of the course, who expressed great interest in initiatives of this type continuing to be repeated in the summers and in addressing different topics, including general training. For Cristian Salinas Madariaga, titled Ped. in Mathematics and Physics from the U. of La Serena, these courses “favor a little the interaction between teachers and also the fact of sharing certain experiences and being in contact with this type of teaching that, of course, is given by the teacher and, of course, One way or another, they make us resume the school year again with a refreshment around our discipline, our subject.”

The students with the best attendance at the course received books as a gift and the document confirming their participation. “Fundamentals of Mathematics and Geometry” is available to the community on the online channel www.youtube.com/matematicasuls, in the Free Summer Courses section.

The Pedro Pablo Muñoz School in La Higuera, and the Gabriela Mistral and Técnico Marta Brunet high schools in La Serena, are the establishments that join the Program.

In a pleasant meeting, the official welcome was held to the three new educational establishments in the communes of La Higuera and La Serena, which starting this year will be part of the Support and Effective Access to Higher Education Program (PACE) University of La Serene.

With the presence of the Academic Vice-Rector, Dr. Jorge Catalán, the Director of Teaching, Mg. Laura Vega, part of the institution's PACE Team and representatives of the new educational establishments assigned to the PACE Program, went to the first welcome activity organized by the house of higher education to welcome the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School of La Higuera , and the Gabriela Mistral and Técnico Marta Brunet high schools in La Serena.

For the Executive Coordinator of the PACE ULS Accompaniment Program, Viviana Romero, this is a very pleasant instance: “we are very happy to receive these three educational establishments in our Program, since it is a way to continue strengthening public education and providing support to more students. This year 2018 presents us with new challenges and we have the expectation and hope that this work can contribute to the consolidation of the Program. We extend a cordial welcome to the Gabriela Mistral High School, the Marta Brunet Technical High School and the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School in La Higuera.”

On the other hand, the director of the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School, Alejandra Zúñiga, expressed that “as an educational establishment we are happy to belong to the Program under the auspices of the University of La Serena. We live in a fairly vulnerable commune, where children, in order to study, have to travel, and some getting up so early caused them to drop out. Now we promote secondary education, which has around 60 students (...). It is an opportunity that not everyone has, to have a future and in addition to that, for the entire school community to aim towards the same goal, the education of our students.”

Meanwhile, the director of the Gabriela Mistral High School, Lorena Rodríguez, expressed her gratitude to the University of La Serena and “for this new opportunity that my educational establishment has to provide, through the PACE Program, more tools to my students to be able to enter to higher education, because it is the opportunity for those who do not have many opportunities for a better quality education. We were looking forward to this news and it finally came true. "I have nothing left but to say thank you and start working for and for the students of public education."

Source: Press PACE ULS Program

This is Fernando Rojas Galleguillos, who obtained the title of Kinesiologist and the degree of Bachelor of Kinesiology.

The University of La Serena conferred the title of Kinesiologist and the degree of Bachelor of Kinesiology to Fernando Emilio Rojas Galleguillos, who thus becomes the first graduate of this career from the state campus of the Coquimbo Region.

It should be remembered that the Kinesiology career, like the Dentistry, Law, Engineering in Business Administration and Bachelor of Astronomy programs, began to be taught in 2013, responding to the labor market requirements associated with the strategy of regional development and, above all, providing new opportunities for the youth of the region.

The Kinesiology career, attached to the Faculty of Sciences, has the human being as its object of study, considering it as a system in constant movement. It focuses on primary care with deep foundations in the management of musculoskeletal dysfunctions, through integrative manual therapies (osteopathy, chiropractic, orthopedic manual therapy).

The course corresponds to the activities organized by the Teaching Improvement Unit (UMD) together with the Integrated Management of Pedagogies Unit (UGIP).

Analyzing a case study as an active learning methodology was the exercise carried out by the various teachers, who participated in the last refresher course developed between January 22 and 23. The sessions were directed by the coordinator of the UMD Teaching Area, Gerardo Galleguillos, who also participates in the UGIP student accompaniment subunit.

“The case study as such is an active methodology that seeks to mobilize knowledge at different levels and that the teacher is not the only holder of knowledge within a classroom. The case is one of the active methodologies of many that exist to be able to work in higher education," explained the coordinator.

In this way, attendees discussed some background information on teaching practice and learned about those elements that they should keep in mind when carrying out a case study. As a first exercise, they had to create a learning result based on their respective subjects taught in the pedagogy courses, and assess them in each standard to verify how they contribute to the graduation profile.

On the second day, the teachers developed a case study, according to the type (case/problem, case/evaluation and case/illustration) and the structure (background, purpose, questions and units of analysis) presented, and then socialized their proposals with the rest of the teachers present.

"Nowadays, new methodologies have to be applicable and not just remain on paper, and it is essential to meet with our peers to socialize what we are doing and see how we can face the challenges that our students are asking for according to the demands of the environment, and that is why it is recurrent to be participating in these courses and rearrange our study plans,” said the Coordinator of the Mathematics and Physics Pedagogy degree, Mg. Luis Tamblay

That is why the main purpose of the courses was to update the teachers' knowledge, considering the curricular redesigns that are being carried out in the different ULS pedagogy careers.

“The idea is that during the month of March they continue working on the case created and they can be incorporated into each of their subjects,” concluded Professor Galleguillos.

Source: PMI FIP ULS1501 Press

TNC is an organization established for the purposes of conserving plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth, protecting the lands and waters that they all need to survive.

An important collaboration agreement was signed by the University of La Serena and the NGO The Nature Conservancy (TNC), an international non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the lands and waters on which life depends.

The agreement signed by the Rector of the ULS, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, and the TNC conservation manager, Maryann Ramírez, considers site conservation planning, the protection of priority areas and natural resources for conservation, the reduction of threats to biodiversity and conservation actions based on local institutions that contribute to mitigating threats to biodiversity in the long term.

It is also contemplated to promote conservation science, including applied research activities, ecological assessments, planning and monitoring of natural resources and biodiversity, documentation and dissemination of lessons learned in conservation management.

Another purpose of the agreement is to support the identification of potential conservation objects in the Limarí basin and their relationship with the water market.

For Rector Avilés, this agreement “reflects recognition of the work that the University is doing in terms of conservation, and leaves us with a broader commitment, with objectives that we hope to meet. We are grateful for the opportunity given to us as a regional and state university, and we are eager to continue working to benefit the conservation of our country's natural heritage."

The conservation manager of TNC, Maryann Ramírez, meanwhile, said that for the NGO born in the United States and which has a presence in various countries, it is an honor “to work with the University of La Serena. More than five years ago we began planning how to carry out conservation in our country. And within those recommendations, our goal was to get to work in this area, specifically in Limarí”, highlighting that thanks to the collaboration with the PROMMRA Laboratory of the university, they began “to make that work a reality.”

The Dean (S) of the Faculty of Sciences, Dr. Héctor Reyes, expressed that this agreement represents “one of the mandates that we have as a public and regional university, “which is to become part of the solutions to the problems inherent to our development, and clearly natural resources and their conservation are a fundamental part. That TNC has chosen the territory of the Coquimbo Region to develop its activities highlights the importance and richness that this arid territory represents, and not only from the point of view of its natural components, but also human and social ones.”

The academic added that at the University this is reflected “in many of the areas of university work, for example, in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, with training programs that effectively include the relationships and links between environment and society; and in research, with powerful and highly relevant and productive lines of work.”

In addition, Dr. Reyes valued the work carried out by Dr. Pablo Álvarez and the PROMMRA Laboratory team, “with whom TNC had its first and fruitful approaches, which over time laid the foundations for this cooperative relationship that is formalized with this signing of the agreement.”

Authorities, directors, academics and officials from the state campus, and representatives of the TNC were present at the activity carried out at the ULS Headquarters.