Spanish Geology Olympiad winners: What they think about their geology learning and the Olympics experience? A prospective study

Among the initiatives that seek to promote earth sciences among young people are the Geology Olympics. This article analyses the perceptions of previous training among eleven of the winners of the first ten Geology Olympics held in Spain. This study also investigates the factors that have influenced young people to choose their university careers and their perceptions of the learning that participation in the Olympics has meant for them. The results indicate that the theoretical training they have received in the first cycle of secondary education has been limited and that practical content and geological field trips are practically nonexistent. Thus, only the good work of teachers has motivated them to take optional subjects such as geology and participate in activities such as the Olympics, which are a decisive factor in choosing university degree in Geology. Every participant changed their perspective of geology and its professionals after their participation in the Olympics. One of the aspects to consider is that more integrated and practical knowledge should be imparted in teacher training master’s degree programs, as well as in providing more didactic instruments to future teachers so that they can implement better geological training for our young people.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEUniversidad de AlcaláMinisterio de Educación y Formación Profesionalpu

Neuraminidase-activated microglia compromise the viability of ependymocytes

Neuraminidase (NA) is a sialidase present in the envelope/wall of some virus/bacteria responsible for brain infections, such as flu, mumps or meningitis. The intracerebroventricular injection of NA in the rat brain provokes ependymal detachment and death, and an acute inflammatory process. Although inflammation reverses, ependymal lining is not regenerated. Complement system activation within the CSF contributes to ependymal damage, but is not the only cause (Granados-Duran et al, 2016). Here we aimed to investigate if microglial activation might also play a role. For this purpose we used pure isolated ependymocytes (Grondona et al, 2013) and ventricular wall explants, which were co-cultured with microglial cells, both in basal conditions and with agents that induce microglial activation: NA, LPS, or Pam3CSK4 (synthetic lipopeptide). The viability of the ependymal cells was assessed by trypan blue exclusion. The viability of isolated ependymocytes was reduced when NA or LPS were added to the culture, compared to controls without additives. In the absence of microglia, NA or LPS did not compromise viability significantly, indicating that microglia was involved in ependymocytes death. The addition of NA to cultured explants reduced ependymocytes viability only when microglial cells were present in the culture; a similar reduction was observed when LPS or Pam3CSK4 were added. Conversely, explants cultured in the absence of microglia did not suffer a significant decrease in ependymocytes viability upon NA addition to the medium. We hypothesized that cytokines released by activated microglia, such as IL1β or TNFα, could mediate ependymocytes death. RT-PCR performed in RNA obtained from pure ependymocytes confirmed the presence of IL1β and TNFα receptors in ependymal cells. Nevertheless further experiments are required to confirm this hypothesis. We conclude that microglia activated by NA mediates, at least in part, ependymal cell death, what might be relevant for neuroinflammatory diseases mediated by NA bearing virus/bacteria.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Personal learning environments in the European Higher Education

En la actualidad existen multitud de plataformas de formación, muchas de las cuales no siempre responden a las necesidades de una institución de formación a distancia. El objetivo de esta ponencia es analizar aquellos aspectos importantes a evaluar a la hora de seleccionar una buena plataforma de formación on-line, teniendo en cuenta las nuevas características de la educación superior basadas en las ideas del Plan Bolonia. Para ello, se hace hincapié en la importancia de Internet para la formación a distancia, se enfatiza la enseñanza y evaluación por competencias y se analizan los aspectos a tener en cuenta en una plataforma. Si deseamos tener enseñanza de calidad a través de plataformas de teleaprendizaje debemos evaluar la funcionalidad, los aspectos técnicos y estéticos y los aspectos pedagógicos de las plataformas utilizadasToday, there are many training platforms, some of which that do not always have what distance learning institutions need. The aim of this paper is to analyze the important aspects which need to be considered when selecting a good platform for online training, based on the latest trends in higher education. For this purpose, the article discusses the importance of the Internet for distance learning, teacher observation, and competency assessment. It also discusses the things to consider in evaluating the platforms. If we want to have quality education through distance learning platforms, we must evaluate the functionality of the platform: its technical, esthetic and educational aspect

How to Use Challenge-Based Learning for the Acquisition of Learning to Learn Competence in Early Childhood Preservice Teachers: A Virtual Archaeological Museum Tour in Spain

This article presents the research results in relation to an interdisciplinary teaching innovation project—Teaching and Learning of Social Sciences and Teaching and Learning of Natural Sciences—with Early Childhood Preservice Teachers (ECPT) at the University of Alcalá (Spain) in the pandemic context by COVID-19 during 2020–2021 (N 55): 52 women (94.55%) and 3 men (5.45%) from 20 to 22 years of age. The main research problem is to know if the ECPT improves the learning to learn competence after a challenge-based learning (CBL) linked to virtual tour in a museum. The main objective was to improve the learning to learn competence, during a virtual tour at the Community of Madrid Regional Archaeological Museum (MAR) (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) for a reflective training of students to understand problems of the past and present and future global challenges, promote collaborative and multidisciplinary work, and defend ethics and leadership. In order to ascertain the level of acquisition of this competence in those teachers who were being trained, their self-perception—pretest–posttest—of the experience was assessed through a system of categories adapted from the European Commission. ECPT worked, in small groups and using e/m-learning tools, ten challenges and one storytelling cooperatively with university teachers to solve prehistoric questions related to current situations and problems. Subsequently, two Early Childhood Education teachers from a school in Alcalá de Henares reviewed the proposals and adapted them for application in the classroom of 5-year-old boys and girls. The results show an improvement in this competence in Early Childhood Preservice Teachers: total score pre-post comparison paired-samples Wilcoxon test result shows a statistically significant difference (p > 0.001); an evaluation rubric verified the results of self-perception. Second, we highlight the importance of carrying out virtual museum tours from a challenge-based learning for the development of big ideas, essential questions, challenges, and activities on socioeconomic, environmental, and emotional knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Third, this experience shows the insufficient educational adaptation of the virtual museum tour to the Early Childhood Education stage from a technological and didactic workshops point of view, but there is a diversity of paleontological and archaeological materials and a significant sociocritical discourse.This work was developed within the framework of the following funded teaching innovation project: Challenge-based learning at the Community of Madrid Regional Archaeological Museum: a proposal for teacher training applied to the classroom 5 years old (UAH/EV1212) (University of Alcalá, Spain). In addition, it had the support of the R + D HETEIC project: Heritage education for the territorial and emotional intelligence of citizens. Analysis of good practices, design, and intervention in compulsory education (EDU 2015-67953-P) (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities/FEDER

The design of a Teaching-Learning Sequence on simple machines in elementary education and its benefit on creativity and self-regulation

In this study, the process of design, implementation, evaluation, and redesign of a TeachingLearning Sequence (TLS) on simple machines for students of 9-12 years old is shown according to the principles of Design Based Research. The aim is to create a TLS that satisfactorily addresses the conceptual difficulties inherent to the object of study and that succeeds in fostering selfregulation skills and creativity. Both qualitative (focus group, semi-structured interviews, students’ reports, and teacher’s class notes) and quantitative instruments (a validated questionnaire and an ad hoc one with content validation by experts) are used. The statistical analysis of the questionnaires and the narrative analysis of the qualitative instruments have been triangulated. The results show that students manage to address the conceptual and procedural difficulties of the object of study while developing emotional (enjoyment and self-efficacy) and cognitive (metacognition) self-regulation skills, as well as creativity related to the scientific and artisan domains.En este estudio se muestra el proceso de diseño, implementación, evaluación y rediseño de una Secuencia de Enseñanza-Aprendizaje (TLS) en máquinas simples para estudiantes de 9 a 12 años de acuerdo a los principios de la Investigación Basada en Diseño. El objetivo es crear un TLS que aborde satisfactoriamente las dificultades conceptuales inherentes al objeto de estudio y que logre fomentar las habilidades de autorregulación y la creatividad. Se utilizan tanto instrumentos cualitativos (focus group, entrevistas semiestructuradas, informes de alumnos y notas de clase del profesor) como cuantitativos (un cuestionario validado y uno ad hoc con validación de contenido por expertos). Se ha triangulado el análisis estadístico de los cuestionarios y el análisis narrativo de los instrumentos cualitativos

Using gamification in a teaching innovation project at the University of Alcala: a new approach to experimental science practices

Pre-service teachers frequently express negative prejudices towards science and the methodologies traditionally used during their training. Gamification is a booming technology based on combining the psychological aspects, mechanics and dynamics of a game in non-ludic environments. The use of gamification has shown good outcomes in terms of increasing students´ motivation towards the sciences. In this study, new laboratory practices were developed under the umbrella of gamification methodology for pre-service teachers. The general objectives were to eliminate negative prejudices, fear and rejection attitudes towards science, to foster the conceptual and procedural learning of science among students and to provide students with real-life examples and an experience of applying gamification themselves. First, the theoretical basis of the main components and dynamics of gamification in the Education context are summarized. Secondly, their application in a specific subject from the curriculum for the Teaching Training in Primary Education degree (Didactics of Natural Science (DNS), 3rd year) are presented. The methodology was applied twice in laboratory practice in two consecutive academic years: 2017/2018 (5 groups, 150 students ) and 2018/2019 (6 groups, 183 students) . The steps, dynamics, components and the tools used for the gamification experience are described (i.e. Kahoot, Class Dojo). Several pre and post-tests were carried out to explore: (i) the students' relationship with games; (ii) their preferred role as players; (iii) their assessment of the different elements involved in the gamification methodology; (iv) their motivation towards science laboratories attitude and (v) their self-perception with regards to their newly acquired skills to put gamification into practice in their professional future.Universidad de Alcal

Entornos personales de aprendizaje en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

Today there are many training platforms, some of which do not always have what distance learning institutions need. The aim of this paper is to analyze the important aspects which need to be considered when selecting a suitable platform for online training, based on the latest trends in higher education. For this purpose, the article discusses the importance of the Internet for distance learning, teacher observation, and competency assessment. It also discusses the things to consider in evaluating the platforms. If we want to have quality education through distance learning platforms, we must evaluate the functionality of the platform: its technical, aesthetic and educational aspects.En la actualidad existen multitud de plataformas de formación, muchas de las cuales no siempre responden a las necesidades de una institución de formación a distancia. El objetivo de esta ponencia es analizar aquellos aspectos importantes a evaluar a la hora de seleccionar una buena plataforma de formación on-line, teniendo en cuenta las nuevas características de la educación superior basadas en las ideas del Plan Bolonia. Para ello, se hace hincapié en la importancia de Internet para la formación a distancia, se enfatiza la enseñanza y evaluación por competencias y se analizan los aspectos a tener en cuenta en una plataforma. Si deseamos tener enseñanza de calidad a través de plataformas de teleaprendizaje debemos evaluar la funcionalidad, los aspectos técnicos y estéticos y los aspectos pedagógicos de las plataformas utilizadas

The paleobotany: a preferred tool on the Earth Sciences Teaching.

Los restos vegetales constituyen unos documentos de origen biótico muy interesantes ya que tienen un registro fósil muy amplio, desde los ambientes marinos del Precámbrico llegando hasta la actualidad. Los plantas fósiles son de un enorme valor para conocer la historia de la Vida en la Tierra lo más completa posible. El binomio animales-plantas no es posible separarlo en las actividades didácticas de las Ciencias de la Tierra si se pretende una imagen real y coherente de cada paso en la historia de nuestro Planeta.The plant remains are a very interesting biotic document owing to the wide fossil record since the Precambrien time until now alowing to know the live history in the earth. The animals-plant relationship is necessary for have a true image of the past times and consequenly is a very important tool on the educational activities in earth sciences.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Implantación de un visor GIS con software libre en la Comunidad de Regantes del Trasvase Tajo-Segura de Totana, Murcia

En el ámbito del desarrollo de software orientado a la implementación de sistemas de información geográfica, una de las empresas de referencia a nivel internacional es la multinacional estadounidense Esri. En particular, en el contexto de los visores cartográficos para la web, por la experiencia del usuario que aportan. No obstante, la utilización de visores, tal y como los ofrece Esri en su sitio web, queda circunscrita al consumo de servicios ArcGIS Server, que sólo se pueden gestionar mediante la aplicación de Esri ArcGIS for Server. El elevado coste de la adquisición de este software propicia, en muchos casos, la búsqueda de soluciones alternativas, que casi siempre pasan por la utilización de librerías de desarrollo de código abierto, como son OpenLayers, GeoExt y ExtJS, entre otras. En este trabajo se plantea una propuesta que aprovecha las características funcionales del visor de Esri, evitando recurrir a ArcGIS for Server como servidor de mapas. Esto es posible gracias a la generación de servicios WMS y WFS a partir de software libre (servidores de mapas MapServer o GeoServer) y, al hecho de que Esri mantenga liberado bajo la licencia Apache 2.0 el código de su visor, permitiendo la alteración del código, lo que permite implementar capacidades funcionales nuevas, como la recuperación interactiva de datos temáticos (operación GetFeatureInfo en servicios WMS) y las búsquedas multicriterio sobre el mapa (operación GetFeature en servicios WFS). Este visor de La Compañía® ha sido implantado con éxito en la Comunidad de Regantes del Trasvase Tajo-Segura de Totana en Murcia, poniendo de manifiesto de que con software libre es posible construir visores con las mismas y/o mejores funcionalidades que los visores implementados con software propietario, y reforzar las ventajas en el ahorro de costes aplicando software libre, logrando con ello independencia tecnológica de las empresas que comercializan software propietario