More than 250 students from eighth to fourth grade from different schools in the region participated in an entertaining scientific day organized by UCM in conjunction with the departments of: Education; Environment; and Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation.
The three talks given by researchers from the Universidad Católica del Maule who spoke to the more than 250 school students about the extreme ecosystems existing in Chile such as the desert and Antarctica, the solutions that fungi provide in our daily life and marine biodiversity caused great interest among those present.
The presentations were made in the framework of the activity called «The wonderful world of ecosystems: let’s talk about biodiversity» carried out thanks to the collaboration of the UCM, with the Maule regional departments of Education, Environment and the South Central macro zone of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation.
Francisco Varela, Seremi of Education, said he was happy with how the activity turned out, valuing the joint work.
«This type of action contributes to the improvement in the framework of learning in the world of science, technology and innovation, especially considering that our region is biodiverse,» he said.
Dr. Sofia Valenzuela, seremi of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of the South Central Zone, said that «from our Ministry we are very interested in democratizing the knowledge that is generated within the universities, in this case that UCM reaches the whole society we are very happy, since we have more than 200 students, who are learning in a different way the same topics that have to be passed in the curriculum».
«Something very interesting is that students from different communes of Maule participated in the day, which addresses our decentralization axis, that this is not only from Santiago to Talca, but also includes the 29 other communes that the Maule Region has», then highlighted the Seremi of Science.
For her part, Daniela de la Jara, Seremi of the Environment of the Maule Region, said that she valued this joint action with the Universidad Católica del Maule positively, because the issues related to the environment are cross-cutting.
«This is a strategic view that allows us to pay attention to the great difficulties of our time, such as the climate crisis and what brings us together on this occasion, which is biodiversity, and in this sense, our region, which has many riches, is experiencing a period of vulnerability, therefore, knowing and transferring information is an input for the children and adolescents who accompany us.
«We are part of this planet and not its owners»
On behalf of the organizers of the activity, the Universidad Católica del Maule, Dr. Liliana Zúñiga, Director of Research at UCM, stressed the commitment of the institution to impact the community and grow the sense of belonging of the younger generations, so that, as she emphasized «they love their region and know the existing wealth of biodiversity».
Therefore, Dr. Zúñiga comments that in order to protect biodiversity, it must be studied, considering that it is being affected by this climate crisis. «Our mission is to make future generations part of this problem, who are the ones who will protect us, so we invite them to be critical, to question how we have been doing and thus be able to rethink to be in tune and with respect for the environment, since we are part of this planet and not owners of it,» she concluded.
The speakers of the day were Dr. Hugo Benítez («Secrets of the fauna of extreme ecosystems, know to protect»); Dr. Patricia Silva-Flores («Once upon a time there was the fungi kingdom: inhabitants, habits, problems and solutions») and Dr. Mauricio Oróstica («More than a vacation, an ecosystem: marine biodiversity in rocky intertidal habitats»).
It should be noted that in the first of the presentations, Dr. Benítez, in addition to UCM, represented the Millennium Institute of Antarctic and Subantarctic Biodiversity.
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