The main objective of this study is to develop a technique to evaluate the cognitive dispersion that exists in the contents and subjects of the curricula. The problem perceived by the authors is that learning is difficult when students have a greater diversity of subjects in their daily classes, when there are too many subjects per course or curricular axis and when they have fewer hours/class per day, which probably represents them greater cognitive complexity due to the dispersion of the contents to be learned. The experience of the authors in the design of the curricula has implied assessing the cognitive dispersion of multiple cases and the role of academic planners in systematically avoiding it. This research collects the methodology and experience of other studies in various areas and applies them in order to obtain a Cognitive Dispersion Index that allows us to evaluate this aspect when designing the study programs.

An investigation was developed with the aim of elucidating the research processes that students follow at different educational levels to develop engineering projects within the Feria Nacional de Ciencias e Ingenierías de Coahuila, with the database used by the Consejo Estatal de Ciencia y Tecnología de Coahuila (COECyT), which consists of 135 projects from which 311 cases were obtained, evaluated by 62 expert researchers designated by the COECyT. Given that the evaluation formats were in Likert-type scales, they were transformed to a standardized centesimal scale and analyzed with statistics of central tendency, dispersion, correlation and discriminant analysis. The conclusion indicates that the development of student projects has original processes that are not subject to a strict methodology, rather, students develop their projects with the help of teachers proposing and developing solutions step by step, in each stage of the investigation, except in the formal requirements of the contest. We can also affirm that the projects have an average methodological identity of 50% in each educational level, according to the discriminant analysis.

This work is a study of children in the fourth, fifth and sixth years of primary school who carried out research projects for the 2018 science and creativity fair organized by the State Council of Science and Technology of Coahuila in coordination with CONACyT. The research was carried out with the purpose of having a profile of the research process that children carry out when they are asked to develop a project to present it at the fair. The results of the projects were evaluated by 17 evaluators and researchers selected by the State Council for Science and Technology with pre-established formats on Likert-type scales and classified into scientific, technological and citizen types. The original scales were transformed with a standardized method of the Spanish version of the SF-36 Health Questionnaire to work the data on a scale from zero to 100, in such a way that multivariate analyzes such as discriminant analysis and factor analysis could be performed. The results show a profile of child researchers where there are eight variables that constitute the basic structure as researchers and a complementary profile that refers to the information and communication of the results of their projects. These variables of his basic profile are: Identify problems, have Clarity about the Project, collect data appropriately, Make and record field observations, Plan and carry out an investigation in the local environment, with a defined purpose, relate their learning to the everyday life, uses reliable sources of information, and develops new knowledge.