BacteriumRA

BacteriumRA is a mobile augmented reality app that allows you to learn about the structure of bacteria and their development processes. BacteriumRA was born from a research project that aims to evaluate the impact of the redesign of teaching strategies for learning the concepts of structure and bacterial transmission studied in the academic space of microbiology at the Universidad de la Salle. In the process of redesign we want to take advantage of the opportunities and benefits suggested by the active and situated learning of the users through the use of diverse emerging technologies such as augmented reality technologies and mobile computing.

The redesign of the strategies combines different scientific challenges in the areas of:
- The didactic of microbiology.
- Augmented reality for the design and creation of highly interactive learning objects.
- Mobile learning.

The learning of Microbiology, like Biology, has a special challenge because the student must master and understand the scientific language, which increasingly becomes more specialized, vast and incomprehensible for those who are not familiar with its terminology (Aguilar , Hernández & Salgado, 2006).

The study of the cell as a structural and functional unit of every living being requires a deep learning, for its correct interpretation and application of concepts in physiology and pathology, however, these contents are related to excessive, and sometimes incorrect, simplification of the structures that are represented in many texts (even more so when many teachers outline the cell on the board).
The analysis of real microphotographs, although it requires a more detailed work, allows us to overcome this obstacle, presenting an image of the structures that is closest to the one found by scientists when researching them (Mengascini, 2006).

With BacteriumRA we wish to address three difficulties that students present in the learning of microbiology:

a) Attitudinal, technical skills and dependent on the skills of observation of the student: low interest in the work in general and drawing the drawing of microorganisms superficially and quickly to meet the task.

b) Poor technique of preparation of the material for its observation and the proper handling of the microscope.

c) Inability to interpret images. This last difficulty has to do with the possibility of: discriminating forms of the fund and making inferences from the observed. In fact, the undergraduate students of health sciences perceive a greater contribution of the laboratory classes than the theoretical classes of microbiology (Uscategui, Zahlout & Perez, 2006).

To use the APP you must print the following two markers:

- Marker for the Coco bacteria (https: /bit.ly/targetCoco)
- Marker for Bacillus bacteria (https: /bit.ly/targetBacilo)