Material educativo para el fortalecimiento de la cultura nuclear en Bolivia

Abstract

Con el objetivo de fortalecer la cultura nuclear en Bolivia, el ano 2008 se elaboró un texto para el ultimo año de educación secundaria donde se introdujeron tópicos "nuevos" al currcu-lum oficial, como ser "estructura nuclear". Siendo este el primer material con el que se contó, se lo intento introducir como texto oficial en el sistema educativo boliviano; sin embargo, debido a la falta de formacion de la mayoría de los profesores de fısica de colegio, ese intento no prospero. Debido a eso se tomaron otras iniciativas, tales como la apertura de una pagina wikifísica y la insercion del módulo: "Introducción a la Física Nuclear" en el Diplomado en Física para Profesores de Colegio (DFIS), ambos proyectos desarrollados en la Carrera de Física, UMSA. La pagina wikifísica Nuclear es visitada frecuentemente y se la actualiza con regularidad a fin de optimizarla. En cuanto al DFIS, la interaccion docenteestudiante (profesionales de Física, UMSA profesores del nivel secundario) se realiza a traves de encuentros virtuales utilizando la plataforma de educacion a distancia, moodle, y encuentros presenciales donde se realizan experimentos, exposiciones, evaluaciones y una monografıa. El DFIS espera cubrir el vacío de cultura nuclear de los educadores de secundaria bolivianos y de esa manera capacitarlos para que puedan transmitir a sus estudiantes conocimientos de Física Nuclear. Otra actividad importante en relacion al fomento de la cultura nuclear, es la realizacion de la Olimpiada Boliviana de Física (OBF) y la Olimpiada Boliviana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (OBAA) donde se incluyen topicos relacionados con la física nuclear desde 1997 y 2006 respectivamente. Asimismo deseamos incluir el dictado de charlas tecnicas y divulgati-vas sobre Física Nuclear a modo de coadyuvar en el objetivo de aumentar la cultura nuclear en Bolivia.

In order to strengthen the nuclear culture in Bolivia, we prepared in 2008 a book to be used at the ending year of high school, where new topics were introduced, especially those concerned to modern physics, such as nucleostatics and nucleodynamics. We tried to include this book as the official contents to be taught in the Bolivian high schools; however, due to the lack of training of most teachers in physics, this attempt was unsuccessful. On the other hand, we carried out other initiatives, such as the opening of a wikifisica in the server of the Department of Physics of our University (UMSA), and the inclusion of the module "Intro-duction to Nuclear Physics" in the refresher course given to teachers in physics once a year. The number of visits of the Nuclear wikifisica page is increasing and we frequently update the contents of this website in order to improve it. The above mentioned refresher course, called DFIS is an outreach project, where physicists train high school teachers in physics that in the near future will teach these new topics to high school students. The development of DFIS is done using new information technologies that allow distance learning, and the virtual interaction between the trainers and students via a moodle platform. At the end of DFIS, the high-school teachers carry out experiments, prepare a monograph and pass a final test in order to obtain the grade. These activities pretend to enhance the knowledge on nuclear physics of high school students through the improvement of the level of high school teachers in physics. Another important activity, related with the enhancement of nuclear culture, are the Bolivian Olympiad on Physics and the Bolivian Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, both for high school students where it were included topics about nuclear physics since 1997 and 2006 respectively. Finally, some other activities are in progress, such as informative talks and popularization publications on nuclear physics.