IPN brings science closer to children

Scientists

from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) are developing content, materials, and strategies to bring science concepts closer to children, especially in physics.

In a statement, the IPN indicated that the above is an academic contribution to the incorporation of science in early childhood, in which current requirement, at preschool level, is 13%, equivalent to 83 hours per year.

It stressed that the project "Evaluation of the different formative fields in the preschool level before the development of skills and attitudes for science standards" is part of the Sectoral Fund for Research for the Evaluation of Education of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) and the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE).

Led by Dr. Mario Humberto Ramírez Díaz , an expert from the Center for Research in Applied Science and Advanced Technology (CICATA) , the project is a playful and experiential way of teaching topics such as density changes, magnetism , states of matter , electrical circuits , refraction of light , thermodynamics , and even the theory of relativity .

Through postgraduate courses of Master and Doctorate in Educational Physics , academics contribute to the training of preschool teachers in the field of sciences , to help them acquire the theoretical-practical methodological tools to replicate the knowledge in children.

Ramírez Día

z explains that "It has been very satisfactory, because we as experts have to be very specific with the physics that children can learn, and they, as pedagogues , have had to adapt it to the language and characteristics of the children ," he said.

The academic from the CICATA emphasized that another positive aspect is that by introducing notions of science in childhood , preschool teachers have realized that it has a huge impact in the fields of Language and Communication, Mathematical Thought, Physical Development and Health , as well as Personal and Social Development.

So far, 30 teachers have been part of the project and more workshops are planned in January, at the CICATA .

"What we want is for physics to help us develop skills and for children to lose their fear of science ," concluded Ramírez Díaz.

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