ViLTI SeMANN UCN International Seminar

• Democratizing knowledge and promoting scientific literacy are the objectives of this educational laboratory, which over the past nine years has had a positive impact on children from 4 to 10 years of age.
• This is the only playful methodology of its kind in the country focused on early childhood. With support from SQM, it is currently being implemented in the regions of Antofagasta and Tarapacá.

The ViLTI SeMANN program belongs to the Vice Rector’s Office for Research and Technological Development at Universidad Católica del Norte. Its name means “eaglets that take flight” in the indigenous Kunza language. Since 2013, it has focused its efforts on generating conditions in early education for the development of scientific skills through experimentation and inquiry, as well as programming and educational robotics.

This was the central theme of the international seminar that took place Thursday, November 24th in Iquique, bringing together teachers and administrators from educational establishments as well as college students studying special education, educational psychology and early childhood education.

Thanks to SQM’s support, this program is currently having a positive impact on children from 4 to 10 years of age in the towns of Tocopilla, María Elena, Quillagua and Antofagasta, and as of January 2022 in La Huayca and La Tirana, in the Tarapacá Region.

International Seminar

For Olga Hernandez, director of ViLTI SeMANN UCN, this was an opportunity to contribute, promote and enhance pioneering teaching practices at the national level. “I believe that this seminar was meaningful because of how well the audience received the topics addressed, and the consistency between the educational model and the three testimonies that were given, where teachers showed their work in the classroom, explaining the features of the methodologies presented, followed by a family highlighting the ViLTI teacher’s importance in being a liaison and strengthening their daughter’s skills, inspiring them to commit to the process as well, and finally concluding with a testimony from Mateo, who talked about his experience and the lessons he learned during his time in the program,” she said.

Special guests included Julian Betancourt, director of the Educational Center for High Abilities (CEPAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, who encouraged attendees to break down preconceptions in the classroom, “so that keys are created in each school to open the doors of talent. Once these doors are opened, the lives of talented Chilean students are no longer the same, because their creative and reflective thinking is reinforced for them to become the creators of their future and generators of tomorrow’s jobs,” he said.

Pablo Pisani, Director of Communities and Public Affairs for SQM’s Nitrates and Iodine businesses, expressed his appreciation for this seminar, which seeks to provoke the community’s interest in the program. “We are very pleased to introduce this program to Iquique, with this very important international seminar. We have been supporting ViLTI SeMANN for 5 years in the Antofagasta Region, and now we are expanding it in the Tarapacá Region. We already have a year of experience here in the region, so we are optimistic about the possibility of growing. To accomplish that, we must get the regional educational community interested in this innovative methodology, including authorities, municipalities, teachers and students in the area of education.”

The event was held at the Gavina Hotel and concluded with presentations from participants such as the family of Isabella Poblete Echeverría from María Elena; program graduate Mateo Salazar, who received the “Lideres de Tocopilla” award in 2021; and educators Paola Araya and Rubelinda Orellana from Tocopilla, who presented the Ckelar project “Innovative Early Childhood Education Ecosystem in Municipal Classrooms in the Antofagasta Region,” a methodological transfer initiative from the ViLTI SeMANN program.

Democratizing knowledge and promoting scientific literacy are the objectives of this educational laboratory, whose ultimate goal is to develop life skills in children and young people from the north of Chile.