This paper explores the value of cooperative games in enhancing knowledge and generating pro-environmental engagement in students. For this, an educational board game related to global change was developed, validated, and subsequently evaluated using future primary school teachers. The board game was validated and evaluated in two phases. Phase I (validation phase): students pursuing a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education evaluated different aspects of the game, providing feedback that improved the game design and playing rules. Phase II (implementation–evaluation phase): the game was implemented using students of the Primary Education Degree, whose learning performance and engagement was assessed through a qualitative survey. These participants were considered potential users of the board game. The users’ experience was explored using a theoretical framework for pro-environmental engagement through playing the game. The findings demonstrate that the cooperative game proposed fomented a feeling of personal responsibility for the environment in the users. It also fostered cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement in the players. The results agree with the attributes present in the framework of engagement with respect to climate-change-related issues using gaming. Game-based learning can be used as a tool for enhancing global change knowledge and promoting pro-environmental engagement while bolstering Education for Sustainability (EfS) capacity in future primary-school teachers.

According to previous research, we consider it necessary to extend the use of games, as mediating elements, in the learning of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) contents rejected by many students. For this, we have carried out an educational research project on games, with an ethnomathematical approach, since games are an important cultural sign with mathematical and scientific potentialities. We have prepared an anthropological study and an analytical one, generating a catalogue of games from different cultures. Thus, we have verified that, starting with culture, we can get to the game, but we posed the query as to whether, starting from certain games, we could achieve enculturation, by activating mathematical and scientific content in the players. To answer this query, we have created a curricular design called “playful microproject” with three traditional games from different cultures and geographical contexts. The microproject was implemented with 32 participants, from 8 to 12 years old. To analyse the results of the microproject, a case study was carried out using qualitative methodology. As part of the playful microproject, the necessary materials for each game were made by hand, and the games were then played. Both the realization of the games and the act of playing showed evidence of mathematical and scientific content, although more in the act of playing. The results revealed that: (1) the three games mobilized 21 categories of analysis, made up of scientific-mathematical content; (2) the three games proved to be equivalent in strong didactic potential; (3) that the microproject provides a valuable intercultural educational approach. The contents evidenced constitute a fundamental part of the Primary Education curriculum: classify, organize, measure, and quantify items, as well as formulate hypotheses, draw conclusions, place oneself in space, and design strategies, among others. It is concluded that these games can promote scientific-mathematical enculturation in a contextualized way.

Understanding the behaviour of light propagation in biological materials is essential for biomedical engineering and applications, and even more so when dealing with incoming biomaterials. Many methods for determining optical parameters from biological media assume that scattered light is isotropically distributed over all angles. However, an angular dependence of light scattering may exist and affect the optical behaviour of biological media. The present work seeks to experimentally analyze the scattering anisotropy in different dental tissues (enamel and dentine) and their potential substitute biomaterials (hybrid dental-resin, nano-filled composite, and zirconia ceramic) and comparatively study them. Goniometric measurements were made for four wavelengths in the visible range, allowing a spectral characterization of the materials studied. Previously, for each material, measurements were made with two different sample thicknesses at the same wavelength, checking the behaviour of the angular scattering profile. The asymmetry of experimental phase functions was considered in the recovery of the scattering anisotropy factor. The results demonstrate that the thicker sample yielded a less forward-directed scattering profile than did the thinner sample. The biomaterials analysed show angular scattering comparable to those of the tissues that they may replace. Comparisons can be made by virtue of the low uncertainties found.

The physical understanding of the optical properties of dental biomaterials is mandatory for their final success in restorative applications. Light propagation in biological media is characterized by the absorption coefficient, the scattering coefficient, the scattering phase function, the refractive index, and the surface conditions (roughness). We have employed the inverse adding-doubling (IAD) method to combine transmittance and reflectance measurements performed using an integrating-sphere setup with the results of the previous scattering-anisotropy goniometric measurements. This has led to the determination of the absorption and the scattering coefficients. The aim was to optically characterize two different dental-resin composites (nanocomposite and hybrid) and one type of zirconia ceramic, and comparatively study them. The experimental procedure was conducted under repeatability conditions of measurement in order to determine the uncertainty associated to the optical properties of the biomaterials. Spectral variations of the refraction index and the scattering anisotropy factor were also considered. The whole experimental procedure fulfilled all the necessary requirements to provide optical-property values with lower associated uncertainties. The effective transport coefficient presented a similar spectral behavior for the two composites but completely different for the zirconia ceramic. The results demonstrated that the scattering anisotropy exerted a clearly distinct impact on the optical properties of the zirconia ceramic compared with those of the dental-resin composites.

Resumen Este estudio tiene como objetivo contribuir al conocimiento del estado de desarrollo de la investigación sobre la formación de profesores de matemáticas desde una perspectiva etnomatemática. El material empírico se seleccionó a partir de artículos publicados entre 1995 y 2015. El análisis fue orientado por cuatro preguntas: ¿Qué características debe tener el currículo escolar basado en una perspectiva etnomatemática?, ¿Cuál debe ser el conocimiento didáctico-matemático del profesor para atender dicho currículo?; ¿Qué características tienen los cursos de formación inicial y continua desde una perspectiva etnomatemática?; y ¿Qué marcos teóricos y metodologías utilizaron las investigaciones? Concluimos que el profesor debe tener un perfil creativo, reflexivo, investigador, capaz de desarrollar un currículo abierto a otras racionalidades; los cursos de formación versan sobre la naturaleza de las matemáticas y el diseño de actividades conectadas con la cultura, y las metodologías son un gran aporte a la investigación cualitativa-interpretativa. Proponemos un modelo sobre el desarrollo profesional del profesor y sus relaciones con otros elementos del sistema educativo, y una estructura para un curso de formación de profesores desde la Etnomatemática.

Games as STEAM learning enhancers. Application of traditional Jamaican games in Early Childhood and Primary Intercultural Education