The Students’ Perspective of Geometry Teaching and Learning in High School

The purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from a questionnaire applied to Costa Rican high school students, in order to know their perspectives about geometry teaching and learning. The results show that geometry classes in high school education have been based on a traditional system of teaching, where the teacher presents the theory; he presents examples and exercises that should be solved by students, which emphasize in the application and memorization of formulas. As a consequence, visualization processes, argumentation and justification don’t have a preponderant role. Geometry is presented to students like a group of definitions, formulas, and theorems completely far from their reality and, where the examples and exercises don’t possess any relationship with their context. As a result, it is considered not important, because it is not applicable to real life situations. Also, the students consider that, to be successful in geometry, it is necessary to know how to use the calculator, to carry out calculations, to have capacity to memorize definitions, formulas and theorems, to possess capacity to understand the geometric drawings and to carry out clever exercises to develop a practical ability.

Beliefs, Teaching Practice and Proposals for the Attention of Cultural Diversity: the Case of a Costa Rican Teaching and Three Nicaraguans Infants

This article presents data from a research that studied a teacher belief regarding three Nicaraguan students. Specifically, presents findings related to teaching practice and its relation to diverse education proposals. It includes an analysis of four subcategories: daily dynamic of a teacher who works with infants of another culture, students’ assessment in the classroom, discipline strategies to children, and diverse beliefs and proposals. The data shows that, in the classroom, the teacher does not demonstrate different treatment to Nicaraguan and Costa Rican children, suggesting that equal treatment is the strategy per se used by the teacher to solve the issue of cultural diversity in the classroom. On the other hand, discipline is assumed by the teacher with scolding criteria, using a loud tone of voice and aggressive vocabulary.

Towars a chemical reagents and residues management at the teaching laboratories of the Chemistry School of the Universidad Nacional

The academic activities carried out at the School of Chemistry make indispensable to develop actions oriented toward the consolidation of a reagent and residue management system, especially in the teaching laboratories. The project “Management of reagents and residues in the teaching laboratories of the School of Chemistry” works under the Green Chemistry values which designs products and chemical processes that reduce or eliminate the use and production of dangerous substances, to benefit the environment. With a preventive vision, a change from the  laboratory practices is looked to select those with less environmental impact. Additionally, residue quantification is made and its management protocols are developed for each practice. The project has several stages: diagnose, action implementation, student, teacher and administration personnel training and evaluation during the process and at the end of it. The article describes methodological aspects of the project operation emphasizing on reagent and residue quantification through flow diagrams.