Effective participatory science education in a diverse Latin American population

Leonardo M. R. Ferreira, Giovanni A. Carosso, Natalia Montellano Duran, Soad V. Bohorquez-Massud, Gustavo Vaca-Diez, Laura Ines Rivera-Betancourt, Yara Rodriguez, Dalila G. Ordonez, Diana K. Alatriste-Gonzalez, Aldo Vacaflores, Lilian Gonzalez Auza, Christian Schuetz, Lucia Elena Alvarado-Arnez, Carolina V. Alexander-Savino, Omar Gandarilla and Mohammed A. Mostajo-Radji ()
Additional contact information
Leonardo M. R. Ferreira: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Giovanni A. Carosso: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Natalia Montellano Duran: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Soad V. Bohorquez-Massud: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Gustavo Vaca-Diez: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Laura Ines Rivera-Betancourt: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Yara Rodriguez: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Dalila G. Ordonez: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Diana K. Alatriste-Gonzalez: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Aldo Vacaflores: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Lilian Gonzalez Auza: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Christian Schuetz: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Lucia Elena Alvarado-Arnez: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Carolina V. Alexander-Savino: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Omar Gandarilla: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation
Mohammed A. Mostajo-Radji: Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation

Palgrave Communications, 2019, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Abstract Particular challenges exist for science education in the developing world, where limited resources require curricula designed to balance state-of-the-art knowledge with practical and political considerations in region-specific contexts. Project-based biology teaching is especially difficult to execute due to high infrastructural costs and limited teacher training. Here, we report the results of implementing short, challenging, and low-cost biology courses to high school and college students in Bolivia, designed and taught in collaboration between scientists from developed nations and local science instructors. We find our approach to be effective at transmitting advanced topics in disease modeling, microscopy, genome engineering, neuroscience, microbiology, and regenerative biology. We find that student learning through this approach was not significantly affected by their background, education level, socioeconomic status, or initial interest in the course. Moreover, participants reported a heightened interest in pursuing scientific careers after course completion. These results demonstrate efficacy of participatory learning in a developing nation, and suggest that similar techniques could drive scientific engagement in other developing economies.

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-019-0275-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:5:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-019-0275-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-019-0275-0

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().