MISSIONARIES OF SCIENCE IN MEXICO:

BRINGING SCIENCE TO MEXICAN SCHOOLS

Abraham Salinas Castellanos1, Karo Michaelian Paw2, Alexander Kazachkov3
1
CECyT 10 “Carlos Vallejo Márquez”, IPN. México D.F.
2
Instituto de Física, UNAM. México D.F.
3
Karazin Kharkov National University, (UKRAINE)
abrrahams@yahoo.com.mx, karo@fisica.unam.mx, akazachkov@yahoo.com

Abstract
Missionaries of Science is a Science Awareness Program launched in Mexico on
February 12, 2009, the year and day declared by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the International Year of
Astronomy and Darwin day respectively. The founders of this project became
conscious of the fact that the popularity of scientific careers is decreasing among
students in Mexico and it was also realized that the population at large needs to have
basic scientific knowledge in order influence positively the decisions taken by
politicians that affect the environment and the planet in general. The idea
Missionaries of Science was to provide a platform over which a scientific and
environmental conscience could be developed in students at all basic levels of
education.
Among the main objectives of this program are:
a) Bring science to Mexican schools.
b) Promote scientific culture in Mexico.
c) Guide students in their choice of a scientific career.
d) Promote scientific research in Mexico.
e) Reduction of scientific illiteracy in Mexico.

Up to now, Missionaries of Science has been present in schools, science fairs and
open spaces mainly in Mexico City. After 6 years of activity, we evaluate the general
impact of the program with the view to improving its effectiveness and to evaluate the
possibility of expanding the program to other states in Mexico, and even to other
countries.
Keywords: Popularity of scientific careers, basic levels of education, environmental
conscience.

1 INTRODUCTION
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development's (OECD)
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) define scientific literacy as:
"The capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions and to draw evidence-
based conclusions in order to understand and help make decisions about the natural
world and the changes made to it through human activity."
Scientific Illiteracy is a worldwide problem affecting global pollution. We all need
basic science knowledge; without this we are powerless, we are utterly dependent on
others to form our opinion about scientific decisions make by the government and
general people, like allowing the construction of factories that contaminate rivers and
seas, consumption of species in an uncontrolled manner causing their extinction,
street littering, tree felling, theft and consumption of turtle eggs jeopardizing their
existence, etc, etc.
Specific indicators of scientific illiteracy in our country, besides the ones given above,
are the poor results on PISA examinations obtained by the Mexican students [1, 2],
mainly on scientific culture. These results seem to reflect also the actual state of the
level in the country´s education in the basic levels (primary, secondary and high
school).
The strategy of importing educational models from developed countries has not been
effective in solving these problems [3]. On the one hand, traditions, attitudes, family
conditions, social environment, marginalization, etc, affect directly the behaviour of
students in the schools [4], and these factors are quite different from developed to
developing countries and even from one state to another in the same country, and on
the other hand, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that Mexican government invests
on education is lower than that invested in developed countries, where most of the
educational models have their origin [5]; our schools lack of the infrastructure (for
instance well equipped laboratories) needed to implement such models.
Bloom noticed that when students were instructed by experienced teachers and also
received attention and support at home from their parents, they were able to acquire
more knowledge and be more effective in their studies than those whose teachers
were not well prepared and with conflicts at home [6]. These two problems pointed
out by Bloom are very common in Mexican schools and society, where most teachers
do not have the adequate preparation to teach a given subject and also it is now
more common to find the divorce problem in Mexican families than in the past [7].
Mexico also needs scientists [8]. The number of students choosing a scientific
profession is low in comparison to professions such as medicine, engineering,
architecture, social sciences and political sciences, which have excessive demand,
saturating universities that offer these professions (see table below). Probably this is
due to the fact that most Mexican students ignore the scientific research performed in
Mexico; also the vocational orientation programs in schools do not seem to be quite
effective. It is well known the students´ aversion for scientific subjects; students need
to be aware of the activities that Mexican scientists perform in Mexico and abroad so
they can see that science is a worthwhile profession in any country.
We present here a program whose main objective is to reduce, in some degree, the
problems that we have indicated above. Although the program foresees to spread
science among the Mexican population, we believe that this will reduce in some
degree problems like scientific illiteracy, making people more conscious of the
damage that mankind has caused to the planet and to the species. It is also expected
that students´ interest in science, principally in that performed in Mexico, and that in
the future the number of Mexican scientists may be increased. Although some
authors believe that scientific literacy is an impossible task and is not the real solution
to problems like the pollution in the planet and to establish a sustainable
development among the world population [9], we have observed, after 6 years
working with this program in Mexico city, that teachers and students show interest in
science when real scientists visit their school and have a direct contact with them.
2. “MISSIONARIES OF SCIENCE” PROGRAM

On February 12, 2009, we launched the program called “Missionaries of Science” at

the high school Centro de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos No. 10 “Carlos Vallejo
Márquez” of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), located in the North East of
Mexico City. That day was declared by UNESCO “Darwin Day”, and the year 2009
was also declared the International Year of Astronomy [10]. Authorities and students
of different schools of IPN attended the opening of the program.

Banner announcing the opening of festivities in the Prof. Karo Michaelian and some students at the
school of “Darwin Day” and IYA2009. Inauguration of the program “Missionaries of Science”.

2.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAM

The main objectives of “Missionaries of Science” are:

1. Bring Science to Mexican Schools at all levels.

2. Promote scientific culture in Mexico.
3. Guide students in their election in a scientific career for university education.
4. Promote scientific research done in Mexico.
5. Reduce scientific illiteracy in Mexico.

The program has been designed to include anyone who wishes to participate, and it
is not limited to students or teachers, but general public interested in the spreading of
science can participate. They can participate in three different ways: as a lecturer, as
a workshop leader or as a host.
Schools participating as hosts need to be registered previously in the missionaries of
science webpage [12], providing information like address and directions how to get to
the school, number of students that will be present during the conference or
workshop, facilities in the school (computer, projector, auditorium, etc.), school level,
conference or workshop required, etc.
People participating as lecturers or workshop leaders can participate in three ways:

a. Research scientist: Can lecture about his research or talk about an interesting
scientific topic We ask the researcher to give his/her lecture in a basic level in
order that students can understand it and can be motivated to study their
scientific subjects in an enthusiastic way.
 b. Teacher: Can visit the school by him/her self or accompanied by a group of
students to lead a workshop or a lecture. They can download pictures and
PowerPoint presentations from the missionaries of science webpage and find
links to websites giving them ideas for workshops.

c. Student: when a teacher or a research scientist visits a school, after the event
he/she invites students and teachers attending the event to do the same and
visit a school of the same or lower level. Students can download resources
from the webpage and also a presentation letter to help them reduce the
paper work.

The idea of the program is to create a chain reaction in order to spread science as
much as possible, involving more people in the program with each visit.
Students who participate in the program need to prepare their workshop/lecture by
themselves and this helps them to acquire more knowledge about the science topic
they have chosen.

Our pioneer team of science missionaries from high First missionaries leading an astronomy workshop in a
school 9 Pedro de Alba in Mexico City, from left to right: primary school
Ibeth López,Laura Salazar, Ricardo Caldera, teacher
Bernabé Melendez and Mariana Torres.

Young girl enjoying the astronomy workshop. Students performing as missionaries of science in Mexico City
downtown.

It is important to note that materials are acquired by the visitor team and the main
ingredient is the enthusiasm of the people participating in the program.
In 2009 we acquired 15 telescope kits from the International Astronomical Union [11].
With these kits we have been able to lead workshops for kids and teachers with great
acceptance, since young students enjoy assembling telescopes and afterwards to
look through them, making them feel that they have constructed a telescope by
themselves.
We have participated also at the National Juvenile and Infantile Meeting on
Computers organized by the Mexican Society of Computation; in these meetings the
society gathers young students from different Mexican states giving us the
opportunity to reach more students with the program.

One of the authors leading a workshop of telescope Primary school students observing through a telescope in a
assembling to students in “Casa Telmex”. workshop of Astronomy. High school students participated
as workshop leaders.

Being a missionary of science is not an easy task, but it is a rewarding experience to

spread and bring science to Mexican schools, kids really like science when it is
taught in a proper manner. Being a missionary it is a unique experience and we are
sure students would consider studying a scientific career after a missionary of
science team visits his/her school to explain a scientific topic.
We have also invited research scientists from other countries to participate in the
program visiting Mexican schools. For instance, we had the visit of professor
Alexander Kazachkov who joined the program and led a series of physics workshops
for high school teachers at IPN and also visited a primary school to show small pupils
different interesting experiments. He enjoyed very much this experience. For
research scientists is not easy to be a missionary either, because they have to talk at
a level they are not used to, but students enjoy talking with them about their
experience as scientists. They get rid of the paradigm that scientists are strange and
special people when they talk with them and realize that any person can become a
scientist if he/she wants to.

Prof. Alexander Kazachkov from Ukraine, participating as Prof. Alexander Kazachkov teaching a small girl in a street
a missionary of Science in a primary school in Mexico City. coffee shop in Mexico City.
Prof. Alexander Kazachkov leading a physics workshop One of the authors leading a workshop on telescopes
for high school teachers at IPN for high school teachers.

Misionaries of Science showing a black hole model to High school students surrounding Dr. Alberto Sanchez after
Kinder garden kids. his conference on astrophysics.

Missionaries of Science continue spreading science among Mexican students, mainly

in Mexico City, where thousands of schools and public places have been visited. We
welcome anyone who wants to join the program either from Mexico or from abroad.
Anyone interested in the project can contact any of the authors.

3. CONCLUSION
Mexican schools and general public are a fertile ground to implement spread of
science programs like Missionaries of Science. Although there are spreading of
science programs in some places like museums, planetariums and the like, most of
them are not free and a fee has to be paid, leaving out students with families of low
income.
On the other hand, it is very satisfying for students to interact with real scientists. In
one occasion the students were taking pictures with the guest, a mathematician from
CINVESTAV, IPN; they were very happy to talk with him at the end of the conference
and ask him about his job and how to become a mathematician like him.
It is not expected that all or most of the students become interested in science, but
the objective to guide them in their election of a scientific career and to attract their
attention toward scientific issues has been accomplished since the program was
launched in 2009.
Prof. Nieto Villar, dean of the faculty of chemistry at the University of La Havana has
expressed his interest to start the program in Cuba and teachers from San Salvador
showed interest in joining the project.
The inservice teacher training program for high school teachers at IPN is being
implemented and hopefully in a near future these workshops will take place on a
regular basis to help science teachers in their job of teaching science to young
pupils.

4. REFERENCES

[1] OCDE. (2015). OCDE Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) .
April 15, 2013, de OCDE Web Site:
http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.
html
[2] All business Report (2015), web site: http://www.allbusiness.com/north-
america/mexico/219460-1.html
[3] Salinas A.: ¿Es el modelo constructivista la solución al problema educativo del
IPN?, VIII Convención Nacional y I Internacional de Profesores de Ciencias
Naturales, Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico. November, 2008.
[4] Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas Report: School
desertion: an urgent problem to solve, No 14, year 5 (March 2003), www.preal.org
[5] UNESCO Institute for Statistics, http://www.uis.unesco.org/
[6] Elliot W. Eisner, Benjamin Bloom, Prospect: The quarterly Review of Comparative
Education, vol. XXX, No. 3, September 2000.
[7] Marriages and Divorces in Mexico,
http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/impresion/poblacion/myd.asp
[8] Fortes Jacqueline, Adler Lommnitz Larissa, Becomming a Scientist in Mexico,
The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
[9] Fensham 2002, cited in Gil Pérez, Daniel et al, ¿Como promover el interés por la
cultura científica? Una propuesta didáctica fundamentada para la educación
científica de jóvenes de 15 va 18 años. Oficina regional de educación de la
UNESCO para América Latina y el Caribe, OREALC/UNESCO, Santiago de
Chile, 2005.
[10] http: //darwinday.org, http://www.astronomy2009.org/
[11] http://galileoscope.org/
[12] http://w2.fisica.unam.mx/misioneros