ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1658650
Practical experiences of artificial intelligence in science clubs
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad de Diseno Innovacion y Tecnologia, Madrid, Spain
- 2Benemérita Escuela Normal de Coahuila, Coahuila, Mexico
- 3Universite Laval, Québec City, Canada
- 4Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The 21st century presents us with knowledge and technologies like AI introducing new educational possibilities to improve human talent and performance. In recent years there has been an increase in the literature on artificial intelligence in education and research opportunities with practical experiences in communities in emerging countries. This study investigates how participation in science clubs focused on AI-related projects supports the development of complex thinking and scientific thinking among high school and university students. Drawing on a multiple case study design, the research analyzes six cases involving 83 students across four Mexican cities, all engaged in science clubs jointly organized by academic teams from Mexico and the United States. The results show that (a) participants in all analyzed cases of practical applications of AI demonstrated a high perceived level of complex thinking competency; (b) although no statistically significant differences were found, women, on average, tended to report slightly higher perceptions of complex thinking development compared to their male counterparts; and (c) a similar non-significant trend was observed for scientific thinking, with women reporting marginally higher self-perceived levels than men. These insights contribute to the global conversation on integrating AI into non-formal education to cultivate transversal cognitive skills applicable across diverse educational contexts.
Keywords: complex thinking, Educational innovation, higher education, artificial intelligence, science clubs
Received: 02 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ramírez-Montoya, Patiño and Cruz-Sandoval. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marco Cruz-Sandoval, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.