Low-Cost Emerging Technologies As A Tool To Support Informal Environmental Education In Children From Vulnerable Public Schools Of Southern Chile

Reform to the Chilean educational system seeks to improve public education, adapting the school curriculum to new technologies and the information revolution. Our study focused on highlighting potential issues with environmental and technological education, offering opportunities to complement the current Chilean curriculum with an interdisciplinary approach. During a five-week period interspersed through the school semester, 115 underprivileged children in seventh grade from five public schools of southern Chile participated in workshops based on Arduino technology to address current environmental problems caused by global change and anthropization. Surveys were conducted to participating students and included both open and closed-ended questions, which measured attitudes and perceptions towards science and the use of technology in classrooms and daily lives. Surveys were analysed quantitatively with basic statistics and qualitatively by building semantic networks of the relationships between different concepts expressed by the students. Results did not show significant changes in attitudes towards science or technology before and after the workshops but students reported mixed feelings about science. Indifference and fear emerged, coupled with the need for more interactive experiences. Curiosity and enthusiasm also surfaced when students were using new technologies. Since the school curriculum is generally focused exclusively towards the completion of specific curricular aims, highly vulnerable schools in Chile have few opportunities to access interactive, hands-on activities. Low-cost, emergent technologies, such Arduinos, have a high potential for improving student's attitude towards science and technology and their use should be considered when tailoring school curriculum in Chile and elsewhere.