Helping science students in Mexico: Clubes de Ciencia México (CdeCMx) • iBiology

00:00:06.22 Hello, my name is Manuel Razo-Mejia
00:00:09.28 and I'm currently a grad student at
00:00:11.12 the California Institute of Technology.
00:00:13.02 Today I want to tell you about this
00:00:14.23 fantastic project called, Clubes
00:00:16.13 de Ciencia, Mexico.
00:00:17.14 This is a program aimed to improve
00:00:21.07 the science education in the developing world
00:00:23.11 through the creation of significant mentoring
00:00:26.15 networks. Science education in Mexico
00:00:29.06 is facing a huge challenge.
00:00:30.21 First of all, we don't have the educational
00:00:33.25 nor the financial resources.
00:00:35.09 And more specifically, we are now facing a
00:00:38.21 huge scarcity of trained science teachers.
00:00:41.21 Moreover, the science problems in the country
00:00:44.12 are not consistently being evaluated,
00:00:47.13 They usually have very limited learning goals.
00:00:50.10 And the good programs that do exist
00:00:52.06 in the country are very small,
00:00:53.29 so they can reach a very limited number
00:00:55.13 of students. That's why our goal
00:00:58.24 as an association is to expand the access
00:01:02.07 to high quality scientific education
00:01:04.07 in Mexico, and the way we're doing this
00:01:06.11 is by organizing a strong network of
00:01:09.19 grad students and researchers
00:01:10.27 all over the U.S. and Mexico.
00:01:12.10 And putting them in contact with students
00:01:14.24 in Mexico, so that they can both benefit
00:01:17.17 from this interaction. We provide
00:01:21.11 project-based science workshops
00:01:23.28 in different cities in the country.
00:01:25.28 And we are currently developing our
00:01:28.21 online platform that would allow
00:01:30.01 us to expand our reach.
00:01:32.19 We understand that people live in a context
00:01:36.21 and that they need opportunities to succeed.
00:01:38.07 Many Mexican grad students in the U.S.
00:01:40.27 constantly express their desire to improve
00:01:43.10 the situation back home, such as Alejandra
00:01:44.27 Quintanilla. But many times they don't have
00:01:47.16 an idea of how to do so.
00:01:49.07 On the other hand, in Mexico, we have
00:01:51.23 many, many very enthusiastic kids
00:01:54.06 willing to learn if given the opportunity,
00:01:56.04 such as the case of Juan Carlos Martinez,
00:01:58.19 one of our rockstar students,
00:02:00.28 that he participated multiple times in
00:02:03.08 our workshops. And I'm happy to say that right now
00:02:05.28 he's spending his summer doing research in a
00:02:08.14 neurobiology lab at UCSD.
00:02:09.29 In order to help students,
00:02:14.24 such as Juan Carlos, we're looking for
00:02:17.12 inspiration at very well established science
00:02:20.06 education programs. For example,
00:02:22.14 for our online presence, we're seeking to reproduce
00:02:24.22 the success of the massive online courses
00:02:26.24 that many of the top universities
00:02:28.04 in the world are now providing.
00:02:29.29 And for our hands-on experience,
00:02:33.05 we look up to programs such as NASA's
00:02:35.23 outreach science program, where
00:02:37.17 the students get a very rich introduction
00:02:39.28 to the experimental sciences.
00:02:41.14 That's how we came up with this
00:02:43.29 very simple, but very powerful,
00:02:45.20 scheme of how to implement our strategy.
00:02:48.23 Once our students are selected,
00:02:51.02 they go through an orientation phase
00:02:52.24 where we use our online platform
00:02:54.17 that we're developing in collaboration with OpenEdX,
00:02:58.03 where the students receive all the material that they
00:03:00.12 need as a prerequisite for the club.
00:03:03.00 During the week of the club, we fly the grad
00:03:06.05 students to the city where these kids are
00:03:09.04 and we have a one week long
00:03:11.21 workshop, very intense, between 8-10 hours
00:03:15.06 a day. And the topics that they learn are
00:03:19.22 ranging from developmental biology to astrophysics,
00:03:22.02 to pure math. And at the end, we organize
00:03:24.11 a small conference where the students get
00:03:26.23 to present what they learned during that week.
00:03:29.02 We're currently trying to improve our
00:03:31.08 follow up strategies, because we want to have
00:03:33.11 a very good local and long distance mentorship
00:03:36.22 in order to keep providing good material
00:03:39.17 for these students through our online platform.
00:03:41.12 And help them to achieve their goals.
00:03:43.28 So far, last year we organized 73 science clubs.
00:03:50.12 We educated more than 800 students
00:03:52.11 in 4 different cities in the country.
00:03:54.04 We have people participating from universities
00:03:56.15 based in the U.S. and based in Mexico,
00:03:58.14 and this is not limited to only Spanish-speaking
00:04:00.25 people. We have had instructors from Germany,
00:04:03.12 from Greece, from Chile, from China,
00:04:07.27 and we're always seeking from more
00:04:09.11 people willing to help us.
00:04:11.04 We're very happy to say that the
00:04:13.28 organization has grown really, really fast.
00:04:15.22 Only last year, in the winter of 2014,
00:04:19.02 we had 13 clubs with only 100 participants,
00:04:22.29 and this winter, we had 30 clubs in 4 different cities
00:04:29.13 with more than 1200 applicants and
00:04:31.27 400 participants. So we're very happy
00:04:34.21 that the organization is growing really fast.
00:04:36.27 That's why I want to invite you all to join
00:04:39.17 us in this science education revolution
00:04:41.19 in Mexico. We're always looking for
00:04:43.19 people that are willing to be an instructor,
00:04:46.01 to help us with the marketing, to help
00:04:48.05 develop material for our online website,
00:04:50.24 any idea that you have, please contact us
00:04:53.14 at our website -- at our email, sorry.
00:04:56.05 And visit our website to see all the cool material
00:04:58.10 that we have over there.
00:04:59.19 Thank you very much!

This Talk

Speaker: Manuel Razo-Mejia

Audience:

General Public
Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
Student
Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Researcher
Educators

Recorded: July 2015

Watch in:

Spanish

Talk Overview

Science education in Mexico faces serious challenges, including a lack of financial and educational resources that prevents students from reaching their full potential. In this presentation, Manuel invites us to collaborate in a project that aims to expand access to high quality science education and to inspire the future generation of young scientists: Clubes de Ciencia México (CdeCMx). The goal of CdeCMx is to connect talented high school and college students in Mexico with researchers in the United States, Mexico and beyond. Through hands-on workshops and mentorship, CdeCMx provides students with a taste of world-class science, introduces them to a global network of scientists, and empowers them to fulfill their professional goals.

Speaker Bio

Manuel Razo-Mejia

Manuel Razo Mejia

Manuel Razo-Mejía is currently a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology working for Rob Phillips. As an undergraduate student at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, Manuel always knew he wanted to become a professional scientist. But it wasn’t until he met Adrian Jinich, one of the founders of CdeCMx, that he found… Continue Reading