Proyectos de ciencia ciudadana. Una oportunidad para la alfabetización científica y la educación en sostenibilidad
Des que va sorgir el terme ciencia ciutadana fins a l’actualitat, els projectes de participacio ciutadana han augmentat en quantitat i en diversitat d’arees d’actuacio. La ciencia ciutadana es descobreix aixi com un mecanisme per a implicar la societat, propiciar el seu interes en la ciencia i contribuir a la seua alfabetitzacio cientifica. A mes, cal destacar l’aportacio inherent dels projectes de ciencia ciutadana a l’assoliment dels Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible (ODS). En aquest article es revisen alguns exemples de projectes de ciencia ciutadana d’ambit internacional i es detallen projectes en actiu a Espanya, tant des de la perspectiva de l’ensenyament formal com des de la …
Valoración de la Ecología de Aprendizaje Autorregulado Virtualizada para la Didáctica de las Ciencias de la Naturaleza durante la crisis COVID-19
Los modelos de enseñanza-aprendizaje universitarios están siendo afectados por la crisis originada por la COVID-19. Para atender a esta crisis desencadenada se diseñó de urgencia una propuesta de ecología de aprendizaje autorregulado virtualizada durante el confinamiento de 2020 en la asignatura de Ciencias de la Naturaleza y su Didáctica I del Grado en Maestro de Educación Primaria. En este artículo se describe esta ecología de aprendizaje: los materiales elaborados, los contextos diseñados y la utilización de estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje basadas en el aprendizaje autorregulado, tanto durante la docencia virtual como durante la tutorización del alumnado. El objetivo de este estudio…
Classification Similarity Learning Using Feature-Based and Distance-Based Representations: A Comparative Study
Automatically measuring the similarity between a pair of objects is a common and important task in the machine learning and pattern recognition fields. Being an object of study for decades, it has lately received an increasing interest from the scientific community. Usually, the proposed solutions have used either a feature-based or a distance-based representation to perform learning and classification tasks. This article presents the results of a comparative experimental study between these two approaches for computing similarity scores using a classification-based method. In particular, we use the Support Vector Machine as a flexible combiner both for a high dimensional feature space and …
Technologies Applied to the Improvement of Academic Performance in the Teaching-Learning Process in Secondary Students
The use of active methodologies and educational technologies can improve the academic performance of Secondary students in Physics, and it is one of the most predominant subjects in the field of engineering. This article describes a proposal of Physics activities that use various digital and technological tools incorporated into problem solving. This proposal was carried out in the subject of Physics and Chemistry of 3° of Compulsory Secondary Education (14–16 years) with 35 students (12 boys and 23 girls), forming two groups. The result of the implementation in the classroom was an improvement in the academic performance of the entire student body, being more appreciable in girls and in ge…
Developing Engineering Skills in Secondary Students Through STEM Project Based Learning
The development of 21st century skills allows the training of competent students prepared for work and social life. The improvement of these skills, necessary for engineering students and future engineers, can be favored with training in Secondary Education Stage. Specifically, the Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology includes the performance of different activities that allow the acquisition of both conceptual and procedural skills. This article describes the relationship between the skills that high school students develop when they work with PBL and the competences (ABET engineering skills) they acquire. In addition, an objective evaluation of the learning outcomes of 129 Secondary s…
Game-based learning supported by audience response tools: game proposals and preliminary assessment
The so-called game-based learning strategies are based on introducing games in the classrooms to improve aspects such as student performance, concentration and effort. Currently, they provide a very useful resource to increase the motivation of university students, generating a better atmosphere among peers and between student and teacher, which in turn is generally translated into better academic results. However, the design of games that successfully achieve the desired teaching-learning objectives is not a trivial task. This work focuses on the design of games that allow the assessment of ICT-related university subjects. Specifically, three different games are proposed, all based on stud…
Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem.
La falta de diversidad, y específicamente de diversidad de género, es uno de los problemas clave que se están encontrando tanto las empresas del sector tecnológico como las instituciones del ámbito académico en la educación superior. Según la UNESCO, las mujeres representan el 35% de todos los matriculados en las ramas de Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas (STEM, en sus siglas en inglés), encontrándose el mínimo, un 3%, en el área de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC). Al mismo tiempo, el número de mujeres profesionales que abandonan trabajos de perfil tecnológico es inaceptablemente alto. Como miembros de una institución de educación superior centrada e…
Citizen science for scientific literacy and the attainment of sustainable development goals in normal education
Curricular integration of the formal teaching of citizen science can bring to the classroom aspects of scientific literacy that encourage the involvement of citizens. In particular, these include non-epistemic aspects related to the sociology of science (which are often not transferred to the classroom). Furthermore, this practice raises awareness among students, and encourages them to become participants in the attainment of the United Nations&rsquo
La Estadística Oficial como herramienta de aprendizaje en el aula
El presente trabajo muestra la importancia de la Estadística Oficial en la docencia de la Estadística. La Estadística Oficial puede usarse como una herramienta de gran utilidad en el contexto docente, ya que ofrece un elemento motivador para el aprendizaje tanto a nivel universitario como en la enseñanza secundaria. A modo de ejemplo, se detalla una experiencia docente llevada a cabo durante el curso académico 2009/2010 en la que se hace un uso didáctico de la información de tres organismos oficiales: el Instituto Nacional de Estadística, el Instituto Valenciano de Estadística y la Oficina de Estadística del Ayuntamiento de Valencia.
Combining feature extraction and expansion to improve classification based similarity learning
Abstract Metric learning has been shown to outperform standard classification based similarity learning in a number of different contexts. In this paper, we show that the performance of classification similarity learning strongly depends on the data format used to learn the model. We then present an Enriched Classification Similarity Learning method that follows a hybrid approach that combines both feature extraction and feature expansion. In particular, we propose a data transformation and the use of a set of standard distances to supplement the information provided by the feature vectors of the training samples. The method is compared to state-of-the-art feature extraction and metric lear…
Girls4STEM: Gender Diversity in STEM for a Sustainable Future
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are key disciplines towards tackling the challenges related to the Sustainable Development Goals. However, evidence shows that women are enrolling in these disciplines in a smaller percentage than men, especially in Engineering related fields. As stated by the United Nations Women section, increasing the number of women studying and working in STEM fields is fundamental towards achieving better solutions to the global challenges, since the potential for innovation is larger. In this paper, we present the Girls4STEM project, which started in 2019 at the Escola Tè
The effect of publishing peer review reports on referee behavior in five scholarly journals
To increase transparency in science, some scholarly journals are publishing peer review reports. But it is unclear how this practice affects the peer review process. Here, we examine the effect of publishing peer review reports on referee behavior in five scholarly journals involved in a pilot study at Elsevier. By considering 9,220 submissions and 18,525 reviews from 2010 to 2017, we measured changes both before and during the pilot and found that publishing reports did not significantly compromise referees’ willingness to review, recommendations, or turn-around times. Younger and non-academic scholars were more willing to accept to review and provided more positive and objective recommend…
Learning Similarity Scores by Using a Family of Distance Functions in Multiple Feature Spaces
There exist a large number of distance functions that allow one to measure similarity between feature vectors and thus can be used for ranking purposes. When multiple representations of the same object are available, distances in each representation space may be combined to produce a single similarity score. In this paper, we present a method to build such a similarity ranking out of a family of distance functions. Unlike other approaches that aim to select the best distance function for a particular context, we use several distances and combine them in a convenient way. To this end, we adopt a classical similarity learning approach and face the problem as a standard supervised machine lea…
Implementation of a STEAM project in compulsory secondary education that creates connections with the environment (Implementación de un proyecto STEAM en Educación Secundaria generando conexiones con el entorno)
The teaching of STEAM has been gaining ground in the world of education for some years now. This article presents two fundamental contributions to STEAM literature. The first contribution is the de...
Towards breaking the Gender Gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
The gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has drawn the attention of research and academic communities due to its impact in the Digital Society, targeting the fourth and fifth 2030 sustainable development goals of achieving quality education and gender equality. Recent studies show that women are enrolling STEM studies in smaller proportion than men and that they have a larger probability to renounce to their jobs or to take leaves. In this scenario, the involvement of educational institutions is seminal to change this trend. The School of Engineering of the University of Valencia (ETSE-UV), Spain, launched in 2011 a pilot program to promote STEM careers, foc…