SW New Mexico News

The College of Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU) welcomed middle school teachers from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, for a workshop on the scientific method and its application in everyday life.

The workshop aimed to share STEM exercises suitable for middle school students with the teachers and raise awareness about the opportunities available for Mexican citizens to study at NMSU.

“A lot of those students grow up, literally under the shadow of university in El Paso, Texas,” said Eliseo De León, professor of practice in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. “They don’t even know there’s other opportunities they can take advantage of in New Mexico.”

The “Descubre” program is offered by NMSU to Mexican citizens with the goal of reducing international student tuition fees.

During the visit, De León presented the Chemical and Materials Engineering program and highlighted the opportunities it provides for studying at NMSU. He delivered a workshop demonstrating how the scientific method can be applied to everyday activities.

The first phase involved having teachers put themselves in their students’ place by chewing a piece of gum to determine how many bites it takes to soften it. The objective was to show that children can apply the scientific method to familiar events in their lives.

“The reason we do this with bubble gum is because children are familiar with bubble gum, and for them it’s just something that’s part of their world already,” De León said. “What I hope to achieve is to bring them into that scientific world without taking them out of their childhood world.”

The second phase involved an experiment where eggs pretreated with different thermal and mechanical properties were fried. They used a frozen-thawed egg, a boiled egg, a scrambled egg, and a normal egg for comparison. The goal was to show teachers various activities they could use to teach their students about the scientific method.

"Our objective is that when the children observe this, when they get to participate in this kind of behavior, they learn about the scientific process," he said. "And maybe even more important than number one, they learned that science is something all around us."

De León spoke about teaching workshops in Spanish and mentioned his experience with students from Gadsden Independent School District.

“Students were given the opportunity to come and take the workshop in English or in Spanish; I had 28 students sign up for the Spanish language class,” De León said. “By creating that environment, we're welcoming the families of those students.”

De León emphasized that programs like “Descubre” allow NMSU to open its doors wider and welcome more students from across the border near Las Cruces campus.

“Let’s face it; they’re neighbors,” De León said. “So all we’re doing is welcoming our neighbors.”

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Written by Alvaro J. Fernández

CUTLINE: Eliseo De León (center), professor of practice in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at New Mexico State University speaks to a group of middle school teachers from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico during a workshop on applying scientific methods in everyday life. (NMSU Photo by Alvaro J. Fernández)