Outreach

Arduinos support STEM education in vulnerable children of southern Chile

Further work from this EXPLORA 2016 project has been published in the International Journal of Science Education. Manuals for teachers and students are also available to replicate the experiences. Take a look!

Arduino Explorador

In May 2018, in collaboration with the Ecoinformatica Lab at Universidad Austral de Chile, I led a technological workshop for teachers sponsored by Explora PAR Los Rios. We helped 26 local teachers to create mini environmental monitoring stations using Arduino technology. The idea was that these teachers will use or rebuild the environmental stations in their schools as tools for hands-on science, data collection, informatics, and to learn about climate and anthropogenic induced changes. Some news (in Spanish) available at:

Ecological Informatics for Kids

In 2016, I co-directed, with Horacio Samaniego from the Ecoinformatica Lab at Universidad Austral de Chile, an outreach project applying ecological and informatics concepts with 7th graders from five public schools in Valdivia, Chile. This project was funded by the Chilean government through EXPLORA-CONICYT (#ED190018). The original name is in Spanish : "Ecoinformática para jóvenes: Capturando información ambiental para comprender nuestro entorno". Essentially, during five workshops, we built environmental stations with Arduino technology to teach kids hands-on science, data collection, informatics tools, and climate change. More information (in Spanish) is available from the official project page: http://ecoinformatica.cl/2016/explora/ecoinformatica-jovenes/, where manuals could be downloaded to repeat the experiments and experience in other classrooms. This was fun!

Wetland and Urban Restoration

In 2015, in collaboration with CIFAN (Centro Integral Familia Niño) and The Global Alliance for Animals and People (The GAAP), I was awarded a FPA (Fondo de Protección Ambiental) fund from the Chilean Environmental Ministry to work on an environmental project, called in Spanish: "NO MÁS BASURA! Queremos un parque y humedal limpios, ricos en biodiversidad y el cuidado responsable de animales domésticos!". The fund was used to begin the restoration of a degraded urban park and wetland area in a underserved community in Valdivia, Chile.

Sustainability Workshops for Foster-home Children

In 2014, with funds provided by the Universidad Austral de Chile, I led the project: "Yo Aprendo a Ser Sustentable: del Juego a la Practica". These were hands-on sustainability workshops aimed to a group of 6-14 years olds living in a foster house of CIFAN in Valdivia, Chile.