Second meeting with scientists brings together teachers from the ICEC-UCSC learning communities of Ñuble and Biobío

Dr. Maribet Gamboa, from the Faculty of Sciences, was the speaker at this first face-to-face meeting.

In an unprecedented meeting, the conference “Biodiversity with molecular tools: a history of insects” was held, given by Dr. Maribet Gamboa, professor at the Faculty of Sciences. The activity was attended by professors belonging to the Learning Communities, who traveled from Chillán to UCSC. Likewise, the day was broadcast on the Zoom platform, for all those who could not be present.

“I think that teachers are interested in learning about biodiversity, in studying it, with respect to climate change. So, this will give you an insight into how certain experiments are done using molecular tools,” said Dr.

On the occasion, the academic recounted her professional career, studying the stone fly (plecoptera), insects used for environmental monitoring, since they are sensitive to pollution and are found in rivers near the mountain range. In this way, if there are large numbers of these insects in the river, they indicate that there are no contaminants in the water.

In this context, Dr. Gamboa carried out research on environmental monitoring, analyzing the distribution of stonefly species and identifying the possible variables that influence community patterns throughout the park in the main tributary rivers of Venezuela. After this research, Ella Gamboa travels to Germany to develop a new study that seeks to provide an answer to how the habitat influences genetic diversity, ending her research in Japan.

The professors attending the seminar were very interested in Dr. Gamboa’s extensive career and resolved their doubts together with the professional. Later, the teachers, from Learning Communities, participated in a presentation by Professor Tamara Luna, who explained the link between the ICEC-UCSC Program and aspects of Teacher Evaluation. In the instance, the contribution made by the program to the teachers who develop their teaching evaluation and how it has impacted the formulation of their evaluation and the results obtained were addressed.

For their part, the professors of the 2022 Scientific Inquiry Program, who connected to the conference from Chillán, subsequently developed inquiry activity n°1, where they tested what they had learned in the course together with their tutors.

It is important to mention that since 2019 there have been no face-to-face meetings with scientists. Added to this is the fact that, since the history of ICEC, there have never been activities in which teachers from Learning Communities from both regions participate together.