With a mission to educate and inform new generations, the Kimon Fox was born in La Araucanía to spread research that can change people’s lives.
Kimün, which means “wisdom” in the Mapudungun language, is a charismatic animated fox who is presented as the protagonist of the Kimelün platform, a space aimed at sharing knowledge and opening laboratories to the rest of society.
With his friendly and lively personality, this guide becomes the ideal companion for viewers of all ages, who will take them deeper into the fascinating world of scientific knowledge, making it even more understandable and exciting.
This initiative is part of the Regional Higher Education Strengthening Project, awarded by UCT in 2021, and deals with a series of print and digital books, which can be reviewed on the page kimelun.uct.cl, where documentary articles, opinion columns and news can be found.
The first volume of Kimelün dealt with environment-related publications with topics such as soil crisis, Birds of prey, medicinal plants And vegetation cover of pechilankahu glacier, Among other things.
The contents also present curious facts about our environment, for example, the role of birds of prey as allies in controlling harmful rodent pests. Thanks to various local studies, it has been discovered that the snowy owl eats about a thousand mice per year, making it an effective controller of species that are considered forest pests or reservoirs of diseases such as Hantavirus.
The Kimelün presentation was held on the university’s San Francisco campus, where Colegio Siglo XXI students came to live the experience from a first-person perspective and hear about the key research and experiments conducted in the area.
Linkages and challenges in the region
This effort is consistent with the work developed by the Vice-Rector for Communication and Public Engagement, where alliances have been created with various basic and secondary education institutions, giving rise to pedagogical trips, with the active participation of academics from the University.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor for Public Engagement, Boris Isla Molina, highlighted the role played by the university’s academics, who made their latest work and publications available to the community.
“Our academics have gone to great lengths to explain and translate their research into simple, friendly language. Inviting young people to take an interest in science and in the future, and have them propose solutions for our lands.
One of the platform’s academic collaborators is the renowned geophysicist and earthquake expert, Cristian Farias, who also participated as a speaker on the launch day and appreciated the opportunity to meet a younger audience.
“I try to talk about earth sciences with a sense of humor and try to connect with young people, which fortunately was achieved in this first meeting. It is necessary to do good dissemination, because when science does not reach society, it remains among scientists and it is important to take advantage of knowledge to provide real solutions. Professor Farias said.
Kimelün’s platform and Kimün’s fox are on Instagram with a variety of reels and short videos on @kimelun.uct and will soon also be on Tiktok.
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