Biosec

Incorporating biotechnology in basic and middle-school education

We are a multidisciplinary group which has been led by Marina Caro Muñoz for the last 15 years. The group consists of teachers from the Universidad Nacional and public and private schools which is nationally and internationally recognized for its contribution towards high-school students’ integral formation. The group has implemented a pedagogical proposal in different educational institutions whose innovating aspect lies in establishing a bridge for applying received knowledge, constructed in the classroom with the production sector through biotechnology. Biotechnology plays a prominent role in obtaining products and services having great social value in fields as diverse as medicine, agriculture, the food industry, energy resources and the environment. The group has made an impact on the educational, production and socioeconomic sectors of the Cundinamarca, Antioquia and Meta departments where the first biomill/vegetal seed production plant has been set up in the Colombian Orinoco region.

Our fundamental objective has been implementing a curricular integration-based pedagogical model in basic-, middle-, technical- and technological-education cycles where the contents of the biology, chemistry, physics and environmental areas become united into a dynamic system for developing the students’ academic, scientific, work and social skills and transferring this model to more departmental institutions.

We have updated around six hundred basic- and middle-school teachers, aimed at reaching a greater population through pedagogical models using modern computer science technologies developed by the group, such as the educational software selected by the Ministry of Education as being amongst the country’s best work and nationally and internationally evaluated as being excellent. This educational software is currently available on the Rutas del Saber Hacer website (Colombia learns, a knowledge-based website), as is the virtual course recognised by the provincial government of Cundinamarca and the Colombian Secretariat of Education through the national educational multimedia competition (concurso Nacional Multimedia para Educar) which was selected for its integration into CDteca (an intercultural education website) due to its academic, pedagogical and technical quality.

We have consolidated strategic alliances between educational, scientific and government sectors and private companies for strengthening specialisations in biotechnology and conserving high-quality education where this involves science and technology contributing towards resolving problems in Colombia’s agricultural regions. We have also managed to make pupils aware of the rational use of natural resources and caring for the environment as well as biodiversity know-how as being the basis for developing biotechnological products.

We have produced the first biomill/vegetal seed production plant in the Colombian Orinoco region through joint work with the Meta Petroleum private company and local mayors’ offices. We provide this service for the whole of the region’s production and cattle-raising sectors. It was set up in Colegio Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and the natural science and environmental education curriculum was restructured in basic primary-, basic secondary- and middle vocational-education levels. This new curricular focus has facilitated coordinating biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics content; this is developed in time and space unified and integrated with the contents of the specialisation in biotechnology. We are currently engaged in a macro-project for strengthening the specialisation in biotechnology, this being a successful model integrating vegetal material production for the community, ongoing improvement of the school’s academic level and providing services for the region’s agricultural and livestock companies.

Director
Marina Caro Muñoz Ing.A. Esp.

Researchers
Raúl Heredia Pastor Ing. Elec. Lic. Química.
Adriana Catherine Camacho Lozano Bac.
Leonardo Prieto Ing.A.
Ana Leonor Vivas MSc.
Carmen Helena MSc.
Xavier Marquinez
Oscar Belarcazar

Undergraduate student
Elsa Bibiana Gómez

Herramienta Multimedia Para la Enseñanza de Ciencias Naturales a Partir de la Biotecnología. Ministerio del interior y justicia, Dirección Nacional de Derecho de Autor. Libro 13 tomo13 partida 226. Registro: 25 Nov 2004.

CARO M., VIVAS L., GARCÍA Y., CAMACHO A., RAMÍREZ O., FUYA A. Experiencias exitosas en incorporación de Modelos Pedagógicos Basados en Cultivo de Tejidos Vegetales in vitro para Mejorar Logros en la Enseñanza de las Ciencias Naturales y en la Educación Ambiental. En: Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá D. C., Secretaría de educación. Configuraciones Didácticas con elementos de Biotecnología en el currículo de Ciencias Naturales. Bogotá, 2005. Capítulo: 2.6, P 79-86.

GRUPO DE INCORPORACIÓN DE LA BIOTECNOLOGÍA EN LA EDUCACIÓN BÁSICA Y MEDIA. Incorporación de la Biotecnología en la Educación Básica y media. En Revista Colombiana de Biotecnología, Bogotá, vol I - Número 2, julio 1998. P67-68.

Curso nacional Multimedia para Educar, se seleccionó para integrar la Cdteca Educación con Multimedia por su calidad académica, pedagógica y técnica, El Libro Virtual Para la Enseñanza de las Ciencias Naturales, Bogotá, diciembre 2003.

Foro Universitario en Competencias Científicas con la experiencia: La Biotecnología como Eje Innovador para el Desarrollo de Competencias Académicas científicas, laborales, sociales en la Educación media técnica y Tecnológica de la Institución Educativa Distrital Aldemar Rojas Plazas. Medellín, octubre 2005.

Contact Us

Profesora Marina Caro Muñoz
Directora
Ciudad Universitaria - Carrera 30 No. 45-03
IBUN - Instituto de Biotecnología, Bogotá D. C., Colombia
Teléfono: (57-1) 3165000 Ext. 16958
Correo electrónico: mcarom @unal.edu.co