In mathematics education, studies reveal difficulties in the teaching-learning of trigonometry in secondary and higher education, due to the fact that students are not encouraged to achieve a deep conceptual understanding of abstract concepts. Several studies demonstrate that incorporating digital technologies has a positive impact on students’ learning. However, most of the existing technologies do not consider the use of the body and multiple senses. Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) in contrast, can host bodily interactions that have the potential of enhancing learning. Nonetheless, there is a lack of applications of TUIs for trigonometry education. This study consisted in designing and validating a tangible interface for the teaching-learning of basic concepts of trigonometry. The interface hosts a pedagogical experience that privileges exploration through physical manipulation and fosters intuitive and collaborative learning. A Pre-Test was applied to 121 students to determine previous knowledge, yielding a 29.1% performance. After two sessions using the interface, the results of a Post-Test reveal an increase of 37.1%, confirming the educational effectiveness of the interface and the pedagogical experience to facilitate learning of basic concepts of trigonometry.

There is substantial concern about critical environmental problems related to waste in production sectors such as textile, construction, and packaging. The materials ascribed to the sector’s unsustainability are primarily fabrics, plastic, and hazardous solvents, making developing new biobased materials imperative. As such, various strategies have been investigated to convert and recycle waste and give them commercial value via the manufacture of biobased materials. This review discusses the various types of raw materials as sources to develop new biobased materials that could promote the transition toward sustainability. According to the literature, the functional qualities of biobased materials are comparable to those of synthetic materials. Raw material sources such as biomass, derived from plant and animal-based waste, are attractive due to their low cost, abundance, and biodegradability. The manufacture of biomaterials, as well as their characterization and performance, are also discussed. Further, this review will offer a comprehensive view of the potential applicability and current commercial applications of the developed biobased materials in relevant areas such as packaging, construction, textile, and wastewater remediation. This could be a potential field of research to address the environmental challenges posed by the continuous growth of the global population.

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is the standard to assess and train clinical skills in healthcare students. However, conducting an OSCE demands expensive resources such as time, qualified personnel, and adequate facilities. The aim to provide more cost-effective examinations has promoted the emergence of electronic versions of OSCEs (eOSCEs). However, existing eOSCEs available in the market do not adequately adapt to diverse local contexts. For a Spanish-speaking country such as Chile, implementing foreign eOSCEs requires to adjust the examination to unfamiliar terminology, archetypes, and procedures, thus hindering the quality of the assessment. This article reports on the design of Ch-eOSCE, an eOSCE tailored for the Chilean local context and culture. Ch-eOSCE is comprised of a mobile application and a back-end system. A prototype of the application was developed and tested with three healthcare experts to gather their perception of usability and coherence, yielding an overall evaluation of 4.5 in a scale range of 5. The preliminary results reveal that Ch-eOSCE has the potential to become a viable solution for a context-specific eOSCE for the Chilean healthcare context.

We argue that visual representations of design processes contribute toward social and material practices of design(ing). They are used as didactic devices. We will discuss them using metaphors to illustrate that they are active material devices of which circulation, production and consumption are informed and informing perceived complexities, ambiguities and paradoxes associated with design. We propose a follow-up study to investigate how teachers and designers use and interpret visual design process models. The reason is to identify how these models are informing what design is as we are interested to understand how these models are contributing to the development of Design Literacies.

In the last three decades, the application of TUIs (tangible user interfaces) in education has demonstrated its positive influence on performance and learning of students. At Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile, monitoring of diagnostic tests over time evidences difficulties and challenges in the teaching-learning of trigonometry in first-year Engineering education. This study consisted in designing and validating a tangible interface to learn trigonometry in the classroom setting. The methodology used was a quasi-experiment with first-year students from the Schools of Design and Engineering at Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile. Principles of the theory of Embodied Cognition and Blended Interaction were applied to model an intuitive, collaborative and meaningful learning experience. During the design process, three Intermediate Models were tested with several types of users, and two Prototypes were tested with an experimental group. User-testing highly contributed to the design of the interaction experience and the interface, progressively defining the functional and pedagogical aspects. Comparative analysis of Pre and Post-Test results, demonstrate that students’ performance increased by 37.1% after two sessions using the interface.

Desde hace algún tiempo podemos observar una transición desde iniciativas estatales orientadas a fomentar la difusión del diseño chileno, hacia iniciativas que fomentan su aplicación en diversos sectores de la vida social, con el propósito de generar beneficios sociales o económicos. Por ello cabe preguntarse cuál es el rol que el Estado chileno asigna al diseño en la sociedad que aspira construir y cuán alineados están los planes de estudios con estos requerimientos. A casi cincuenta años de su cierre, es necesario redescubrir la HfG-Ulm para entender los principios con los que desarrolló un modelo educativo que se distanciaba de las escuelas de artes y oficios, para responder a la reconstrucción moral y material del país. Este trabajo busca analizar esta propuesta pedagógica como forma de entender el diseño y su inserción en el tejido social. La reflexión cobra vigencia porque si bien el Estado chileno ha ido incorporando al diseño en distintas iniciativas, todavía está en construcción una visión integrada de lo que el diseño es y puede llegar a-hacer por el país. Por otra parte, la pregunta acerca del propósito de la formación disciplinar dista de estar resuelta y generar consenso.