Missionaries of science in Mexico: bringing science to mexican schools

Abstract

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organization for Economic CoOperation and Development (OECD) define scientific literacy as "The capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions and to draw evidence-based conclusions in order to understand and help make decisions about the natural world and the changes made to it through human activity." Scientific illiteracy is a worldwide problem. Without basic science knowledge we are utterly dependent on others to form opinion about decisions made by the government and people, like construction of factories contaminating seas and rivers, uncontrolled consumption of species causing their extinction, street littering, tree felling, etc. Specific indicators of scientific illiteracy in our country, besides given above, are the poor results on PISA examinations obtained by the Mexican students, mainly in scientific culture.