Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Campus Villarrica UC begins in 2022 with the inauguration of an important open-air museum

Located in the Interdisciplinary Complex for Sustainable Development, Michel Durand Q. (CIDS) of UC, the Regional Interactive Museum of Agroecology and Sustainability, MIRAS Araucanía, opens its doors to the public. During his white march, the museum became a relevant precedent in terms of education for sustainable development for schools and colleges in the area.

This initiative, created by the UC Center for Local Development (Cedel UC) and financed by the Public Science program of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation , summons the entire community of Villarrica and the region of La Araucanía, as it is an initiative that seeks to illustrate the behavior of the hydrographic basin and how the different elements of its biodiversity talk to each other.

“This is a regional milestone,” says the museum director, Martín Bascopé, a researcher at Cedel UC and an academic at the Villarrica Campus . “It has a component of cultural diversity, local knowledge, citizen commitments, and knowledge regarding agroecology and sustainability. that does not exist elsewhere ”.

“It has a component of cultural diversity, local knowledge, citizen commitments and knowledge regarding agroecology and sustainability that does not exist elsewhere” – Martín Bascopé, researcher at Cedel UC and academic at Campus Villarrica.

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Reflect and discover
During its white march, the museum put to the test the impact it can have on children and adolescents who attend the tour, the first target audience for which the space was designed.

According to the general coordinator of MIRAS Araucanía, Claudia Ríos, an agronomist in charge of the El Boldo Agroecological Garden, which is part of the tour, the experience allows children to contrast their knowledge with what the museum can provide them. ” They come to be shown, and, as they progress along the journey, they discover what they already know in relation to sustainability,” he explains.

With this, agricultural engineering refers to the different reflections that can be achieved from everyday life. “There are reflections about medicinal herbs and how they can help us in our daily health; New foods and new ways of eating them are also tested, such as kale leaves and edible flower species, so there is also a reflection on how we can diversify our diet ”.

The tour
When we speak of “opening its doors”, the term goes beyond the nature of the museum. And it is that of the five stations that it contemplates, only one is indoors in the Leandro Penchulef Museum, a room located in the Monsignor Paul Wevering building on the Villarrica Campus and that addresses one of the MIRAS lines: interculturality . With unique pieces in the country, the space recounts the Mapuche culture from different archaeological finds made in recent decades.

The rest of the stations are an invitation to the open air to enter the ecosystems that coexist in the Villarrica lake basin. In this way, the tour begins with the recreation of a nalca leaf that describes the movement of the waters within a basin. Next, through a walkway that connects with the Plaza del Encuentro of the CIDS , the museum will invite a station that will represent the five rivers of the basin, a space preceded by a moment of appreciation of the biodiversity of the lake, from the same walkway that borders the wetland present there.

This moment is followed by the appreciation of anamorphic structures that through their complicated shapes will describe different species of the lake. Later on, children and adolescents will have the opportunity to interact with small wooden signs located in a way that describe patterns of a Mapuche loom, and through which they will be able to learn more about 58 species of flora and fauna. In addition, each poster has a QR code that invites you to go deeper with images, videos, sounds, local knowledge data, distribution and conservation status of each species.

Then, everyone’s favorite is the Sala Sabores y Saberes station, next to the Huerta Agroecológica El Boldo of the CIDS, a 300-square-meter space on the shores of Lake Villarrica, with six large terraces and a medicinal border that meets the biological corridor function. In this space, those who attend will be able to interact and learn about the plants found there and learn more about their seeds and development . Finally, the tour will lead to a raffle where attendees can commit to specific actions regarding sustainability and caring for the environment.

Everyone’s favorite is the Sala Sabores y Saberes station, next to the Huerta Agroecológica El Boldo of the CIDS, a 300-square-meter space on the shores of Lake Villarrica.

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Open to the public
After its inauguration, the Regional Interactive Museum of Agroecology and Sustainability, MIRAS Araucanía, will be open to the entire community that wants to participate in a tour that will illustrate important aspects about our biodiversity and how we can understand our role within it.

“The museum allows it to be a family experience for both adults and children,” says Bascopé , “a memorable experience that will surely help to continue committing more people and citizens to agroecology and sustainability.”