Cristián Londoño-Proaño
Verónica Pérez-Gavilanes- Faculty of Education, Universidad Tecnólogica Indoamérica, Ambato, Ecuador
This study aims to analyze the impact of the digital science fiction story “The Infinite Name of the Stars” on motivation toward STEM (science, technology and mathematics) subjects in elementary school students. A mixed approach was applied, combining a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest quantitative design with ethnographic observation in the classroom. The sample has 110 students. The quantitative results showed a stable and positive attitude toward science, with slight increases in curiosity, taste for mathematics and preference for science fiction narrative materials. The qualitative findings revealed enthusiasm, imagination and symbolic appropriation, expressed in dramatizations, infographics, and drawings. The triangulation of the findings suggests that science fiction narrative favors meaningful learning by connecting emotion, imagination, and scientific knowledge. In conclusion, the digital story functioned as a narrative mediator to promote motivation and scientific literacy from the literary experience.
1 Introduction
Science fiction has long played an important role in the dissemination of science (Londoño-Proaño, 2023). Its ability to present future-oriented and speculative scenarios makes it a tool for teaching a wide variety of disciplines in both the sciences and humanities (Menadue and Cheer, 2017). As a narrative genre, science fiction can make complex concepts more accessible and engaging, supporting students' critical thinking and creativity (Barceló, 2015) and allowing them to explore possible futures and emerging technologies, thereby fostering problem-solving and innovative thinking skills (Londoño Proaño and Pérez, 2024).
In educational contexts, science fiction has been used to teach concepts of physics, computer science, and ethics, integrating knowledge from different fields and providing a more holistic and contextualized understanding of the topics studied (Vesga Vinchira, 2015). Audiovisual science fiction, such as films and television series, has also been used to improve science teaching, motivate students and make scientific content more attractive and relatable (Pérez and Matarredona, 2012; Petit and Matarredona, 2023). These approaches place science fiction as an innovative resource that promotes an integrated vision of knowledge and supports the in-depth study of basic concepts, facilitating the understanding of abstract or difficult ideas (Petit Pérez and Solbes Matarredona, 2015).
Narrative and imaginative approaches in science education suggest that science fiction can be understood as a theme or example, and a narrative structure that mediates between students' imaginations and their scientific thinking (Diyora and Diana, 2024). Drawing on Bruner's vision of narrative as a fundamental mode of thinking, and on imaginative educational frameworks such as those proposed by Egan, stories can be seen as cognitive tools that organize experience, elicit emotional engagement, and maintain curiosity. In parallel, research on scientific histories and narrative explanation in science education by Norris et al. (2005) and Klassen (2010), has shown that well-designed stories can function as open doors to scientific reasoning, as they provide coherent contexts, raise meaningful questions, and invite learners to formulate hypotheses, infer causal relationships, and evaluate alternative explanations.
This study is important because science fiction, as a narrative genre, can serve as a bridge between imagination and knowledge, linking emotion, curiosity, and learning. In school contexts where STEM subjects are often perceived as abstract, distant, or difficult, a science fiction story can present science as a human adventure that is close and meaningful to children's lives, which can transform the way they relate to scientific knowledge.
This research focuses on a digital science fiction story designed specifically for the classroom. In this study, history is treated primarily as a pedagogical intervention and not as a literary object. The story is deliberately constructed to create narrative tension around a scientific problem, position child protagonists as agents who inquire, make predictions, and make evidence-based decisions, and invite students to actively participate in the world-building of history.
The research question is: How does the use of a digital science fiction story in the classroom contribute to the motivation and interest of elementary school students in learning science?
The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of the use of the digital science fiction story The Infinite Name of the Stars on primary school students' motivation and interest in science, based on its implementation in the classroom.
The methodology is mixed. Quantitatively, we collected data on students' motivation and interest in science and mathematics, before and after the intervention. Qualitatively, we draw on participant observation made during class sessions, including field notes on student dynamics, questions, and reactions, to capture how narrative engagement with history is expressed in practice and complement quantitative results with rich, contextualized descriptions.
2 Science, science fiction, and the popularization of science
Science fiction is defined as a literary genre that explores the impact of science and technology on individuals and societies through speculative narratives (Barceló, 2005). It is characterized by its ability to imagine alternative futures, advanced technologies, and scenarios that stretch or reconfigure the known laws of physics and biology (Londoño-Proaño, 2020). Historically, science fiction has provided a space for the exploration of philosophical, ethical, and social issues, offering a critical perspective on both the present and possible futures (Londoño-Proaño, 2024b).
Asimov described science fiction as a narrative that deals with the human response to changes in the level of science and technology, emphasizing that the genre is as much about social and psychological consequences as it is about inventions in themselves (Londoño-Proaño, 2020). Survin (1979) similarly conceptualized science fiction as a literature of novum, in which the introduction of a significant innovation alters observable reality, inviting readers to consider its implications. In this sense, the speculative capacity of science fiction and its ability to ask “what if...?” about technological futures and their ethical, political and environmental consequences, makes it an invaluable means to reflect on the present. Kurlat Ares and De Rosso (2021) highlight that science fiction literature consists of texts that articulate scientific or technological knowledge within narrative structures, transforming abstract information into meaningful experience.
Therefore, science fiction is relevant because it glimpses possible futures (Beukes et al., 2017). In this sense, science fiction can be understood as a reflective and critical medium (López-Pellisa, 2022), a literature of ideas that uses counterfactual hypotheses to examine forms of social organization and technological development before they materialize (Barceló, 2015). This anticipatory quality has often been linked to the gender's ability to inspire technological innovation and stimulate scientific imagination (Londoño-Proaño, 2023).
Classical authors such as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells exemplify this anticipatory dimension. Verne's detailed descriptions of a submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas or of a giant projectile traveling toward the Moon in From the Earth to the Moon have been read as imaginative precedents for later technological achievements, in this case, the Apollo XI mission (Londoño-Proaño and Endara, 2024). Wells, in The War of the Worlds, explored themes of alien invasion and advanced weaponry that continue to resonate in contemporary technological and cultural imaginaries (Londoño-Proaño and Endara, 2024). More broadly, science fiction narratives have anticipated devices, infrastructures, and the social and economic consequences of dependence on non-renewable energy sources and other large-scale technological systems (Londoño-Proaño, 2023).
Science fiction can be classified into two types: hard and soft (Londoño-Proaño, 2023). Hard science fiction is characterized by meticulous attention to scientific detail and plausibility, presenting scenarios that remain largely consistent with established scientific laws (Barceló, 2015). Authors such as Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven are often cited as paradigmatic representatives of this trend, where scientific precision and technical exposition play a central role. Soft science fiction, on the other hand, focuses more on the social, psychological, and humanistic dimensions of speculative scenarios (Londoño-Proaño, 2023). Although he can use scientific concepts more flexibly, his main concern is how technological change affects human relationships, cultural practices, and social structures. Works such as Dune by Frank Herbert or The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin exemplifies this orientation, bringing sociocultural and ethical issues to the fore over technical detail.
In this context, The Infinite Name of the Stars can be placed within soft science fiction. History privileges the human, social, and ethical aspects of scientific exploration over the technological precision or rigorous exposition typical of hard science. As Endara argues, Cristián Londoño-Proaño's narrative embraces science as a space for pedagogical imagination, where curiosity, empathy, and cooperation become engines of learning (Londoño Proaño and Pérez, 2024). Rather than attempting to explain science with technical precision, the story invites readers to experience science through emotion and culture, transforming scientific exploration into a metaphor for personal and collective growth (Londoño Proaño and Pérez, 2024). For this reason, The Infinite Name of the Stars constitutes a representative example of soft science fiction with an educational focus, deeply rooted in Latin American cultural sensitivities and especially suitable to be used as a narrative mediator in school science education.
3 Science fiction and science education
Following Bruner, the development of human thought is a profoundly cultural process, in which education acts as a means to transmit and recreate the knowledge accumulated by society (Palacios, 1979). Learning is not a simple acquisition of information, but a form of inculturation, through which the individual appropriates the symbolic tools of his or her culture and transforms them into understanding (Bruner, 2013). In this sense, science fiction literature becomes a cognitive and cultural instrument, capable of linking experience with imagination. Science fiction, by presenting alternative models of reality, offers students the possibility of thinking scientifically from emotion and curiosity, aligning with Bruner's vision of learning as a process of construction of meanings mediated by culture and language.
On the other hand, science fiction has been crucial in the education and dissemination of science (Barceló, 2015). Its ability to propose future and speculative scenarios makes it a powerful tool for teaching both science and humanities (Diyora and Diana, 2024).
In academia, science fiction has been used to teach physics, computer science, and ethics, among other disciplines. Science fiction fosters critical thinking and creativity in students, allowing them to imagine and analyze possible futures and technologies (Diyora and Diana, 2024). Science fiction narratives capture students' attention, and help them develop problem-solving skills and innovative thinking (Londoño-Proaño and Pérez-Gavilanes, 2025). This ability to stimulate critical thinking and creativity is essential in modern education, where students' ability to adapt and respond quickly to technological and scientific advances is increasingly valued (Londoño-Proaño, 2024a).
The impact of science fiction on education is also seen in its use as a tool for interdisciplinary teaching. Vesga Vinchira (2015) highlights that science fiction texts can integrate knowledge from different fields, providing students with a more holistic and contextualized understanding of the subjects they study. This interdisciplinary approach enriches learning, and prepares students to tackle complex problems in the real world (Vesga Vinchira, 2015).
Science fiction has been used to improve science teaching through audiovisual resources such as films and television series. Pérez and Matarredona (2012) explain that these resources can motivate students and make science more accessible and engaging. Science fiction narratives help to illustrate scientific concepts in a vivid and memorable way, facilitating the understanding and retention of information (Pérez and Matarredona, 2012).
On the other hand, science fiction has proven to be a powerful tool for science education in non-formal contexts. The popularity of the genre has allowed scientific concepts to reach a wide audience beyond traditional academic settings (Barceló, 2015). This has contributed to greater scientific literacy among the public, fostering a culture of curiosity and continuous learning.
Science fiction is a valuable educational tool that facilitates the understanding of complex concepts, fosters critical thinking and creativity, and promotes interdisciplinary integration (Chapela, 2014). Its ability to popularize science and make it accessible to a wide audience underscores its importance in modern education (Chapela, 2014).
4 Narrative and imaginative approaches in science education
Work in cognitive psychology and education has long suggested that narrative is not simply a decorative way of presenting information, but a fundamental mode of human thought. Bruner (2013) argues that narrative is one of the basic ways in which people organize experience and construct meaning, complementing the more paradigmatic forms of reasoning that are usually associated with formal science. From this perspective, stories provide coherent structures that relate events over time, highlight purpose, and invite the interpretation of causes and consequences, characteristics directly relevant to learning in science classrooms.
Martin and Brouwer (1991) explicitly introduce the narrative element into science education. Roach and Wandersee (1995) develops the story form model and the use of historical vignettes to put people back in science. These approaches emphasize that stories can humanize science, situate abstract concepts in meaningful contexts, and make learning experiences more memorable. Rather than presenting decontextualized facts, narrative-based teaching situates scientific ideas within plots, characters, and conflicts, thus helping students to see science as a dynamic human endeavor rather than a static body of knowledge. This means that science fiction narrative in science education can make science more meaningful, relevant, and accessible to the public, while promoting learning and encouraging the exploration of new modes of communication (Avraamidou and Osborne, 2009).
Imaginative education frameworks, especially those developed by Egan (2007), further deepen this vision by foregrounding the role of imagination, emotion, and wonder in learning. Egan (2007) proposes that teaching can be conceived as storytelling, where curricular content is shaped into narrative forms that resonate with the cognitive and emotional tools of students at different ages. From this perspective, narrative is a way of packaging information, and at the same time, a way of stimulating memory and imagination so that students actively reconstruct and reinterpret what they are learning (Tobler et al., 2025). Emotional engagement, curiosity, and the experience of narrative tension are considered central drivers of sustained attention and deep understanding, rather than as peripheral motivators (Sánchez-Martí et al., 2018).
These imaginative narratives can serve as cognitive tools that connect students' everyday experiences with formal scientific ideas (Tobler et al., 2025). Fictional scientific stories have been used to provide rich contexts to concepts, frame research activities, and open debates about the nature of science and its social implications (Barceló, 2015). When students follow a plot in which characters face scientific problems, make decisions, and cope with consequences, they are invited to inhabit possible worlds where scientific concepts take on experiential meaning (Saşmazören et al., 2023). This narrative can support both conceptual learning and the development of interest in and identification with science.
In this research, we develop these imaginative narrative perspectives by treating digital science fiction as thematically relevant content, in a deliberately designed narrative environment. By constructing a story that sparks curiosity, emotional involvement, and imaginative engagement around a scientific problem, The Infinite Name of the Stars aims to function as a cognitive and affective scaffolding for students' emergent scientific thinking and STEM-related motivation.
5 Narrative explanation and scientific reasoning
Although narrative and imaginative approaches highlight the motivational and experiential value of stories in science education, recent work has also examined their explanatory potential. Norris et al. (2005) propose a theoretical framework for narrative explanation in science, asking what distinguishes narrative explanations from other forms of explanation and how they might work in science education. They identify a set of core narrative elements such as token events, the narrator, narrative appetite, temporal structure, agency, purpose, and the role of the reader or listener, which together define what counts as a genuine narrative account. From this perspective, a narrative explanation is not limited to listing facts or principles; it organizes events in a meaningful sequence that foregrounds causal connections and human purposes.
Norris et al. (2005) argue that this organizational function can be pedagogically valuable in science education because narratives emphasize interrelated sets of ideas rather than isolated concepts. By integrating scientific processes and phenomena within plots, narrative explanations can help students perceive coherence, identify causes and consequences, and relate abstract ideas to concrete situations. These are precisely the kinds of cognitive operations involved in scientific reasoning: generating hypotheses about what might happen next, inferring causal relationships between events, and evaluating alternative explanations in light of the available evidence.
Building on this theoretical foundation, research on scientific histories has explored how specific narrative structures can support learning. Klassen's (2010) study on the construction and analysis of scientific histories uses Norris's framework to derive criteria for what makes a good scientific history and shows how such histories can be used as open doors for instruction. In this approach, a carefully crafted story is used at the beginning of a teaching sequence to create an engaging context, raise productive questions, and motivate students to engage with subsequent scientific explanations. Empirical studies by Klassen (2010) indicate that asking students to write questions immediately after hearing a story reveals their biases and stimulates deeper inquiry, linking narrative engagement to the processes of questioning and conceptual change that are central to scientific thinking.
These contributions suggest that narratives in science education can capture attention or humanize content. When deliberately crafted as narrative explanations, scientific histories can offer structured opportunities for students to practice fundamental elements of scientific reasoning: identifying problems, proposing and revising hypotheses, tracing causal chains, and reflecting on the meaning of results.
In the present study, this perspective informs our design and analysis of The Infinite Name of the Stars as a science fiction story intended to capture students' imaginations, and reinforce their reasoning about scientific problems in the context of primary science education.
6 The infinite name of the stars
In this study, The Infinite Name of the Stars was conceived and implemented as a pedagogical intervention rather than as a mere literary text for analysis. The story is a work of soft science fiction that places scientific exploration in a human and sociocultural context, privileging themes such as curiosity, cooperation and ethical responsibility over technical detail. Its approach invites students to experience science as a space of wonder, cultural meaning, and collective decision-making.
The Infinite Name of the Stars is a science fiction short novel that follows the story of Narciso Pechiche, a fisherman who lives with his wife Trinidad on an island in the Santiago River, in the town of Limones, province of Esmeraldas, in northern Ecuador. Her daily life in an Afro-Ecuadorian community marked by poverty, marginalization and violence is disrupted by two seemingly unrelated events: Trinidad discovers a lump near her chest that could indicate cancer, and a strange object, which the military initially identifies as a meteorite, falls from the sky and crashes near her home. When Narcissus picks up the object, he discovers that it is actually an extraterrestrial artifact known as a porthole, a technology capable of connecting his environment with other places and scales in the universe. From this contact with the new technology, a chain of events begins marked by the fear of criminal gangs, the presence of the army and, finally, the unexpected arrival of the owner of the artifact, a space anthropologist who establishes contact with the community. The transferor thus becomes a narrative device that links local illness, violence and precariousness with a horizon of cosmic knowledge and hope, showing how science fiction can articulate reflections on the future without detaching itself from the Ecuadorian social and cultural context.
The story is presented as a digital narrative book that combines written text with a series of illustrations created using artificial intelligence. These images are integrated into the same file and were used in prints and digital projections during the classroom sessions. The work does not include external web-based resources or interactive online platforms. In our design, this multimodal composition is not incidental: the combination of AI-generated narrative and visuals is intended to encourage students to interpret scenes, characters, and technologies both verbally and visually, supporting forms of visual and narrative literacy that complement the written plot. By reading the text and discussing the images, students are invited to connect what they see and imagine with scientific, mathematical and socio-environmental issues, thus reinforcing the link between narrative engagement and emerging scientific thinking.
7 Materials and methods
7.1 Research design
This study adopted a convergent mixed-methods design that combines a quasi-experimental pre-test survey with ethnographic participant observation of classroom implementation of the digital science fiction story The Infinite Name of Stars. Quantitative and qualitative streams were implemented and integrated in parallel at the interpretation stage to gain a more complete understanding (Hernandez-Sampieri et al., 2014) of how the intervention relates to students' motivation toward STEM subjects and their everyday classroom practices.
The mixed-methods design was chosen because attitudinal changes toward science and mathematics are not always captured with short-term quantitative measures, while classroom observation allows documenting processes of commitment, imagination and symbolic appropriation that complement descriptive statistics.
7.2 Context and participants
The participating population was composed of 110 students enrolled in the sixth and seventh grades of elementary education in a private school in the city of Ambato, province of Tungurahua, Ecuador. In the Ecuadorian education system, these courses typically include children aged approximately 10 to 12 years. The two intact classes were selected through non-probabilistic convenience sampling, as school authorities and teachers were willing to implement the project within their regular science classes.
Of the total participants, approximately 70% were boys and 30% girls, reflecting a predominantly male composition in the sample. The institution is located in an urban context and has a technological infrastructure suitable for digital activities and interactive readings (projectors, internet connection, and computers). It is a private educational center whose teachers showed a favorable disposition toward innovative pedagogical resources. This context facilitated the implementation of the proposal, but also limits the external validity of the findings, which should be interpreted with caution when extrapolating to rural or public schools.
7.3 Pedagogical intervention
The intervention focused on the digital science fiction story The Infinite Name of the Stars by Cristián Londoño Proaño, a science fiction narrative with an explicit educational and humanistic orientation. The story presents ecological and cultural technologies and themes, inviting readers to reflect on the relationship between humanity, science, and the cosmos.
The work was used as a narrative mediator for learning science. Its digital format allowed it to be projected in the classroom and read collectively on electronic devices, while the accompanying didactic guide proposed interdisciplinary activities linked to natural sciences, social studies and mathematics. In this way, the story served as a pedagogical intervention designed to connect the imagination, scientific concepts and cultural context of the students.
The story The Infinite Name of the Stars has an extension of 67 pages including images, it has 12 chapters. The reading time was 40 min in the classroom plus the time needed as an autonomous activity. The intervention was carried out for 2 months with 2 sessions per week for each of the sixth and seventh grade groups.
7.4 Instruments pretest–posttest questionnaire
The main quantitative instrument was a structured 20-item questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The items were designed by the research team, informed by previous literature on students' attitudes toward science and STEM learning, and discussed with participating teachers to ensure age-appropriate writing and relevance to the classroom.
The questionnaire was applied twice: once before the intervention (pretest) and once immediately after the implementation of the story in class (posttest), with identical content in both measurements to detect possible changes in the students' self-reported attitudes and motivations.
The items were analytically grouped into the following conceptual dimensions: curiosity and scientific thinking (e.g., enjoyment of asking questions and understanding phenomena), interest in natural sciences, interest in social sciences, interest in mathematics (or “taste for mathematics”), motivation to learn more science, inspiration/scientific models (e.g., identification with scientists or characters who do science), other attitudes toward science fiction, and a preference for teaching materials based on science fiction (stories, comics, films).
For each dimension, composite scores were calculated by averaging the corresponding items. The internal consistency of the 20-item global scale was adequate in both measures, with Cronbach's alpha = 0.83 for the pretest and 0.86 for the posttest, which supports the reliability of the aggregate scores. Given the exploratory nature of the study and the absence of previously validated scales that integrate this specific combination of constructs in the local context, the instrument is considered an initial measure whose psychometric properties should be further refined in future research.
7.5 Ethnographic observation and field notes
To capture qualitative aspects of classroom participation and practice, the researchers conducted participating ethnographic observations during all reading and follow-up activities. The observations were made in 64 sessions in two parallels of sixth grade and two parallels in seventh grade. It was observed with a total of 64 h of class.
Detailed field notes were taken on: teacher-student and student-student interactions; verbal and non-verbal expressions of enthusiasm, curiosity and emotional involvement; references to scientific concepts, technology, and environmental issues; creative products generated by students (drawings, infographics, dramatizations, etc.).
These notes constitute the main corpus of qualitative data, complemented with photographs of the classroom products when the school's ethical guidelines allowed it and were not disseminated, only evidence of what was done remained.
7.6 Procedure
The study was developed in five phases. The first phase was the preparation and training of teachers. In this phase, prior to classroom implementation, teachers attended a short workshop led by the researchers, which introduced the pedagogical potential of science fiction, reviewed the structure of The Infinite Name of the Stars, and presented strategies for integrating narrative reading into the natural science curriculum and, where possible, in math and social studies activities.
The second phase was the pre-test. In this phase, the students took the survey in the usual classroom under the direct supervision of the professors, who emphasized the academic purpose of the study and clarified that the answers were anonymous and would not affect the course grades. This procedure sought to guarantee seriousness in the response and reduce the social desirability bias.
The third phase was the implementation of the digital science fiction story. Over the course of a sequence of sessions, teachers implemented digital history in their sixth and seventh grade elementary classes. The activities were collective reading (aloud and supported by audio reader software in a group), guided discussion of relevant scenes, and interdisciplinary tasks such as drawings of the solar system and imagined planets, infographics on space travel and energy, and reflections on migration, belonging, Afro-Ecuadorian culture, mangroves, and climate change. In some activities, basic mathematical operations (e.g., working with distances, quantities, or simple calculations embedded in the narrative tasks) were integrated, which justifies the inclusion of the dimension of interest in mathematics in the questionnaire.
The fourth phase was during all sessions. The researchers conducted participatory observation, recording classroom dynamics and signs of enthusiasm, imagination, and symbolic appropriation in students' responses.
The fourth phase was the post-test. Immediately after completing the intervention, the same survey was reapplied as a post-test, again in classroom conditions and supervised by teachers. Due to the anonymous nature of the responses, it was not possible to link pre-test and post-test responses at the individual level of the students.
The fifth phase was a finalization meeting with the teachers of each of the sixth and seventh grades, where they delivered their final impressions of the intervention.
The ethical approval and consent procedures followed the school and university regulations. Participation was voluntary, and no identifying information was collected.
7.7 Data analysis
7.7.1 Quantitative analysis
All valid responses in each measurement were included in the analysis (pretest n = 110; posttest n = 99). Given the impossibility of matching individuals through different times, the pre-test and post-test groups were treated as independent groups.
The analysis was developed in three steps. The first step was descriptive statistics. For each item and dimension, means, standard deviations, and response distributions were calculated in the pretest and posttest. Descriptive comparisons allowed us to identify global trends and small variations in each construct.
The second step was the Reliability Analysis. The internal consistency of the complete scale was assessed using Cronbach's alpha for each measurement.
The third step was inferential exploration of the changes. To strengthen quantitative analysis beyond descriptive comparisons, we examined the differences between pretest and posttest means for each attitudinal dimension using appropriate inferential statistics such as t-tests with independent samples; or non-parametric Mann–Whitney tests when assumptions of normality were not met. Effect sizes (Cohen's d or range-biseries correlation) were calculated to estimate the magnitude of any change. In line with the descriptive results, the observed differences were small and did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance, which is consistent with the interpretation of the story as a short-term symbolic reinforcement of positive attitudes rather than as a strong attitudinal intervention (see Section 4).
Special attention was paid to the dimensions interest in mathematics and preference for materials based on science fiction, to explore whether the narrative, mainly oriented to science, had any impact on students' taste for mathematics and on their appreciation of narrative resources in STEM learning.
7.7.2 Qualitative analysis
Ethnographic field notes were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The procedure followed four steps. The first step was familiarization. The researcher rereads all the field notes from the different classrooms, identifying recurrent episodes of participation, emotional reactions, and references to scientific content.
The second step was the initial coding. Short codes were assigned to relevant extracts. For example, enthusiastic participation, spontaneous scientific questioning, connection with local reality, reference to technology, mathematical reasoning.
The third step was thematic development. The codes were grouped into the following themes: (1) Emotional engagement and active participation; (2) Imaginative exploration and emerging scientific reasoning; (3) Symbolic appropriation, local culture and socio-scientific reflection; (4) Multimodality, transmedia literacy and collaborative creation.
The third step was triangulation and refinement. Topics were compared between the sixth and seventh grade groups of elementary education and triangulated with quantitative trends to identify convergences and divergences between observed behavior and self-reported attitudes.
In Section 8, illustrative extracts from field notes and classroom products (drawings, infographics, dramatizations) are presented to support qualitative findings on enthusiasm, imagination, and symbolic appropriation of science through narrative.
7.8 Limitations
Among the main limitations of the research is that the study was developed in an urban context and in a private educational institution, which restricts the possibility of generalizing the results to other school environments, especially rural or fiscal, where sociocultural conditions, technological resources, and pedagogical dynamics can differ significantly. Similarly, the duration of the intervention process prevented the long-term effects of the sustained use of science fiction as a teaching tool from being observed. Despite these limitations, the results obtained offer relevant evidence on the potential of science fiction narrative to motivate scientific learning in basic education and constitute a solid basis for future comparative research in different educational contexts.
8 Analysis and results
8.1 Quantitative results
In this phase, all valid responses available in each measurement were processed (pretest: n = 110; posttest: n = 99). Since the survey was administered anonymously, without identifiers that would allow individual matching, the pretest and posttest were treated as independent samples. The 20-item Likert instrument (1–5) showed adequate internal consistency in both measurements: Cronbach's alpha was 0.83 in the pretest and 0.86 in the posttest, which supports the reliability of the aggregate scores for the different sets of items. This supports the reliability of aggregate scores by item set (Bernstein and Nunnally, 1994).
Globally, students reported consistently positive attitudes toward STEM learning and the use of science fiction in the classroom. As shown in Table 1, the overall mean of responses remained essentially stable between measurements (pretest = 3.50; posttest = 3.48 on scale 1–5), with a very small mean variation of approximately −0.02 points. Independent sample t-tests and non-parametric Mann–Whitney tests indicated that these global differences were not statistically significant and were associated with negligible effect sizes. Taken together, the quantitative data suggest that, at the scale level, self-reported attitudes were already high before the intervention and did not undergo a significant short-term change in the immediate post-intervention phase.
Table 1. Matching items and medias.
When the scores are disaggregated by thematic dimensions (Table 2), a similar pattern of stability emerges with small mixed variations. Perceptions linked to mathematics show a slight average increase of +0.073 points, natural sciences a marginal increase of +0.03 and social sciences a moderate decrease of −0.063. Indicators associated with curiosity/scientific thinking, preference for science fiction-based materials (stories, comics, films) and inspirational/scientific models remain largely unchanged, with mean differences equal to or less than ±0.01. None of these pre-post dimensional differences reached conventional levels of statistical significance, and all effect sizes were small, reinforcing the interpretation of a stable but already favorable attitudinal profile.
Table 2. Summary of pre-test and post-test media.
At the item level, a more pronounced decrease was observed in a specific statement within the dimension “motivation to learn more science,” with a mean variation of −0.624. This isolated fluctuation should be interpreted with caution, because it represents a single element within a larger construct and can be sensitive to contextual factors or measurement noise. Methodologically, this result underscores the convenience of including multiple elements per construct in future applications to strengthen the internal validity and robustness of each subscale (DeVellis, 1991).
The distribution of responses along the scale supports this reading. In most of the items, there is a strong concentration in the categories “Agree” and “Strongly agree,” with percentages close to or greater than 70%, while the responses of “Undecided” are minorities and the negative options (1 or 2 on the scale) are marginal. This ceiling-like pattern indicates that the participating students already valued science learning and were receptive to science fiction-mediated activities prior to the intervention. In this context, the digital science fiction story seems to function more as a symbolic reinforcement and narrative framing of existing positive attitudes than as a mechanism to produce large and quantifiable changes in self-reported motivation in a short period of time.
The qualitative findings presented in the next subsection help illuminate how this reinforcement operates at the level of classroom discourse, imaginative engagement, and emergent scientific reasoning.
8.2 Qualitative results: ethnographic observation findings
Ethnographic observations in sixth and seventh grade classrooms showed a consistent pattern of high emotional and participatory involvement with the digital science fiction story The Infinite Name of the Stars. Below we present the main themes identified in the thematic analysis, illustrated with classroom episodes and interpreted in the light of the narrative and imaginative framework described above.
8.2.1 Emotional engagement and active participation
In all classrooms, students showed strong emotional involvement and willingness to participate. They expressed curiosity about important elements of the story such as interstellar travel, imagined planets, futuristic technologies, and the relationship between science and science fiction, and spontaneously connected these elements to their immediate surroundings. In the researchers' field note, it was placed:
During the activity, a high level of emotional and participatory involvement in the classroom was evidenced. The students showed constant curiosity about the elements of science fiction addressed, especially the ideas of the future and parallel worlds, and actively participated in the dialogue. Based on their previous knowledge, they spontaneously established connections with their immediate environment, relating the stories to everyday experiences, known scientific advances and figures of scientists.
In one group, the teacher used an automatic reader to convert the text into an audiobook, supporting students' reading and turning the story into a multimodal experience. As the narrative progressed, students asked for specific scenes to be repeated, reacted audibly to moments of tension, and volunteered to comment on what might happen next. In another group, the story was read aloud collectively, with students taking turns and accompanying the reading with references to science fiction movies they knew. These connections to audiovisual narratives helped them build bridges between cinematic universes and literary science fiction.
These episodes exemplify what Egan describes as the central role of emotion, wonder, and narrative tension in maintaining attention and learning. Students did not relate to history as a neutral text, but as an emotionally charged experience that motivated them to continue reading and talking about science (Egan, 2007). They also resonate with Bruner's notion of narrative thinking, according to which people understand the world by following characters, plots, and conflicts that integrate action and meaning (Bruner, 2013).
8.2.2 Imaginative exploration and emerging scientific reasoning
A second theme involved the use of imagination as a resource for scientific thinking. In several activities, students were invited to visualize and expand on the scientific and technological scenarios introduced into history. A recurring example was the extraterrestrial technology of the portkey, a high-tech device that allows instant travel anywhere. The teacher and students connected this device to everyday notions of transfer and travel, and then asked where they themselves would choose to go if such technology existed.
From these discussions, students created creative infographics about the planet or scenario they selected, describing environmental conditions, possible life forms, and the challenges humans would face there. To complete these tasks, they were required to reason about physical and ecological constraints (e.g., gravity, temperature, available resources) and justify their decisions, thus engaging in basic forms of hypothesis generation and causal reasoning.
In other sessions, the storytelling prompted drawings and illustrations of the solar system, the universe, and the imagined planets, which served as a basis for discussing natural science concepts. The teacher explicitly linked these creations to curricular content in natural sciences, social settings, and mathematics, for example, by asking students to estimate distances, compare quantities, or solve simple numerical problems embedded in the history activities, developed by Londoño Proaño and Pérez (2024).
These practices illustrate how narrative can function as a door-opener to scientific reasoning in the sense proposed by Norris and Klassen. History establishes a meaningful context and a problematic space, and students use their imagination to generate questions, predictions, and explanations about scientific phenomena (Norris et al., 2005; Klassen, 2010).
8.2.3 Symbolic appropriation, local culture, and socio-scientific reflection
A third theme refers to the symbolic appropriation of history and its integration with the cultural context of the students. In one group, one episode described the protagonist, Narciso Peniche, eating and drinking typical dishes from the Ecuadorian coastal province of Esmeraldas. This led students to debate about local drinks and Ecuador's cultural diversity, linking the fictional trip to real places and traditions.
Later, another section of the story revealed that the protagonist is a fisherman and collector of mangrove shells. This sparked a class conversation about the mangrove ecosystem, endemic species, and the impact of human activities, pollution, and climate change. The students compared the fictional representation with images and stories they knew about real mangroves in Ecuador, and some reflected on the importance of environmental care in their own communities.
These exchanges show how science fiction can mediate connections between science, culture, and environment, turning history into a lens through which students interpret local socio-scientific issues. From Bruner's perspective, this represents a form of narrative construction of reality, where students are situated within stories that articulate identity, place, and moral decisions (Bruner, 1996).
In this sense, history operates not only as speculative entertainment but as what Barceló calls a “literature of ideas,” allowing students to examine possible futures and ethical implications before they occur (Barceló, 2015). It also aligns itself with imaginaries of Latin American science fiction that intertwine technological speculation with ecological and cultural concerns (Londoño-Proaño, 2024a).
8.2.4 Multimodality, transmedia literacy, and collaborative creation
A fourth theme relates to the multimodal and collaborative ways in which students engage with narrative. In addition to reading and discussing digital history, they produced drawings, infographics, and in one group, they even decided to adapt the story into a short play, assigning roles and staging key scenes. This dramatization forced them to reinterpret the narrative, condense the plot, and negotiate how to represent technologies, planets, and characters through gestures and dialogue.
The professors reported at the culmination meeting that this process facilitated the participation of students who were normally reserved, and that the story stimulated scientific imagination, empathy toward the characters and collaborative work.
The combination of text and images suggests that students used a repertoire of skills associated with transmedia literacy: moving between media, translating narrative content into different formats, and co-constructing meaning (Jenkins, 2006; Scolari, 2016).
From the perspective of imaginative education and narrative pedagogy, these multimodal practices show how a digital science fiction story can function as a narrative mediator in the classroom. An ecosystem of signs and activities in which students receive content, and actively reconstruct the world of history, relate it to their own experiences, and explore scientific ideas through multiple expressive forms.
8.2.5 Synthesis
In all classrooms, a playful and exploratory disposition toward reading and conversation about science was observed. One group's decision to transform the story into a theatrical performance, the enthusiasm for drawing and designing infographics, and the ease with which students connected the narrative to local contexts (such as Esmeraldas and mangrove ecosystems) are indicators of deep engagement and symbolic appropriation rather than superficial entertainment.
These qualitative findings complement the quantitative results. Although self-reported attitudes toward science and mathematics show only small, non-significant changes, ethnographic data reveal that The Infinite Name of the Stars created a narrative environment in which students practiced fundamental aspects of scientific thinking such as questioning, predicting, imagining alternative scenarios, and relating scientific ideas to social and environmental realities. In line with Bruner's (1996, 2013) narrative thinking, Egan's (2007) imaginative education, and work on narrative and transmedia literacy in education (Jenkins, 2006; Scolari, 2016), history seems to support meaningful learning not primarily by changing explicit short-term attitudes, but by shaping how students experience, talk about, and inhabit science in the classroom.
8.3 Integrating quantitative and qualitative findings
The combination of survey results and ethnographic observations reveals an interesting pattern. On the one hand, quantitative data show that students already had favorable attitudes toward science and STEM before the intervention and that these attitudes remained positive but changed only slightly afterward, with small non-significant increases in some dimensions, including interest in mathematics. On the other hand, qualitative data document forms of engagement such as enthusiasm, imaginative elaboration, and symbolic appropriation, which are not fully captured by short-term attitudinal measures.
This apparent disconnection can be interpreted in two complementary ways. First, the high baseline scores and short duration of the intervention limit the potential for considerable attitudinal changes detectable by standard Likert-type scales. In a context where students already like science, the added value of narrative may lie less in changing their explicit attitudes and more in shaping how they experience and practice scientific thinking during lessons. Second, qualitative evidence suggests that the story created a narrative environment in which students engaged in components of scientific reasoning such as asking questions, making predictions, formulating hypotheses about causes and consequences, and relating fictional situations to real scientific questions.
From this perspective, the depth of narrative engagement observed ethnographically may be more important than the magnitude of attitudinal change measured quantitatively. Narrative supports meaningful learning by providing a context in which students can mobilize curiosity, imagination, and reasoning about scientific ideas, even if this does not immediately translate into large changes in survey scores. Rather than contradicting quantitative findings, qualitative results illuminate what stable, positive attitudes such as active participation, imaginative exploration, and symbolic use of scientific ideas within a digital science fiction story look like in practice.
As for the relationship with mathematics, quantitative data indicate only a slight non-significant increase in students' taste for mathematics. This modest change is consistent with qualitative evidence, which shows that history and related activities incorporated some mathematical elements (e.g., reasoning about quantities or basic problem-solving), but that these were less central than the natural and socioscientific science dimensions. In this sense, the intervention mainly reinforced students' engagement with science and scientific reasoning, while providing only an indirect and limited stimulus for attitudes toward mathematics.
9 Discussion
The quantitative results showed an overall stability of attitudes toward science and STEM, with only slight positive variations in curiosity, “taste” for mathematics and preference for science fiction-based materials. These differences were not statistically significant. However, the ethnographic data provided a qualitative counterpoint that expands the interpretation of the educational effects of The Infinite Name of the Stars.
The stability of the average scores can be interpreted as a consolidation of pre-existing positive attitudes rather than as an absence of impact. Students were already predisposed to enjoy scientific subjects, and literary intervention acted more as a symbolic and emotional reinforcement than as a large, quantifiable agent of change. In this sense, science fiction literature seems to function as a narrative mediator (Bruner, 1996, 2013), reaffirming the link between emotion and cognitive interest instead of abruptly transforming perceptions.
Overall, the descriptive and inferential results indicate that the intervention maintained a favorable, curious, and receptive attitude toward STEM subjects. The quantitative stream suggests that the digital story did not significantly increase already high attitudes, while the qualitative stream shows that it deepened the ways in which students engage with science, both cognitive and symbolic. This pattern is consistent with constructivist views of learning, which emphasize that new experiences are assimilated into existing cognitive and motivational structures rather than producing immediate and dramatic changes (Driver et al., 1994).
The ethnographic records revealed a set of manifestations of meaningful learning that are difficult to capture using closed instruments: enthusiasm, curiosity, imagination, spontaneous participation, and peer collaboration. Activities such as the theatrical adaptation of history, the elaboration of infographics, drawings of planets or reflections on migration and diversity show that students transcended literal reading to build their own representations of science and its link with society.
From a pedagogical perspective, these practices illuminate several mechanisms through which science fiction promotes scientific inquiry:
(1) It stimulates curiosity through narrative tension. The story's plot, characters, and conflicts created what Bruner calls “narrative appetite”: students wanted to know what would happen next, posed their own questions, and requested additional time to read. This curiosity is a key component of intrinsic motivation, aligned with the theory of self-determination (Ryan and Deci, 2000), and a precursor to self-initiated research.
(2) It encourages the construction of hypotheses and causal reasoning. When discussing the translator device or inventing new planets and scenarios, students generated predictions, considered physical and ecological constraints, and explored cause-and-effect relationships. These activities reflect the processes identified by Norris and Klassen as central to narrative explanation in science: generating hypotheses about what might happen under certain conditions, tracking consequences, and assessing the plausibility of different explanations (Norris et al., 2005; Klassen, 2010).
(3) It invites ethical and socio-scientific reflection. The episodes related to mangroves, fishing and typical foods of Esmeraldas sparked debates about environmental degradation, local cultures, and social inequality. In these dialogues, students used the fictional world to reflect on real issues, engaging in ethical reasoning about human interventions in ecosystems and the responsibilities associated with scientific and technological development. This is aligned with the vision of science fiction as a literature of ideas that anticipates and problematizes the social implications of science (Barceló, 2015; López-Pellisa, 2022).
Viewed through the prism of imaginative education (Egan, 2005), these mechanisms show how emotion, imagination, and narrative structure can be harnessed to foster interest, and fundamental forms of scientific reasoning and ethical awareness in the classroom.
The findings should also be interpreted in light of the Ecuadorian context in which the study was conducted. The story is deeply rooted in local geography and culture, referencing places like Esmeraldas and mangrove ecosystems, and incorporating Afro-Ecuadorian characters, foods, and traditions. This location seems to have facilitated cultural identification. Students recognized familiar elements, shared personal experiences related to these environments, and connected the fictional trip to national realities.
At the curricular level, the intervention was implemented within a private urban school that already valued technological resources and innovative practices. This may partly explain the elevated grassroots attitudes toward science and the ease with which teacher's integrated history into the natural sciences curriculum and, to a lesser extent, into mathematics and social studies. The context thus offers both an opportunity and a limitation: on the one hand, it shows that Latin American science fiction with local references can effectively mediate between global scientific ideas and local socio-environmental issues. On the other hand, it suggests that more research is needed in more diverse institutional settings such as rural, public schools, different regions, where attitudes and resources may differ significantly.
The results have several implications for teacher training and curriculum design. First, the study indicates that science fiction can serve as a systematic narrative device to promote STEM interest and creative literacy, rather than being a sporadic motivational extra. The teachers in this study used digital history not only for reading, but also as scaffolding for interdisciplinary activities involving natural sciences, social settings, mathematics, and the arts.
From a constructivist perspective, this suggests that science fiction can be incorporated as a central element in inquiry-based units, providing a shared narrative context in which students formulate questions, make predictions, design representations, and discuss socio-scientific issues.
For teacher training, this implies the need to develop competencies in: selecting and critically evaluating science fiction works with educational potential; design narrative-based assignments that link episodes of history with curricular objectives in science and mathematics; facilitating classroom discussions ranging from fictional scenarios to real scientific and ethical questions; orchestrating multimodal activities (drawings, infographics, dramatizations) that take advantage of students' existing media knowledge (Jenkins, 2006; Scolari, 2014, 2016).
In addition, qualitative evidence suggests that narrative approaches can be especially valuable in engaging students who are usually more reserved, offering them multiple expressive channels (oral, visual, theatrical) to engage with. Therefore, curriculum designers seeking to foster STEM vocations in basic education might consider integrating science fiction narratives as recurring narrative threads between units, linking astronomy, ecology, technology, and mathematics content across common narrative worlds.
A balanced interpretation of the findings requires acknowledging both the strengths and limitations of the study. Quantitatively, the intervention produced only small, non-significant changes in attitudinal measures, in a context where baseline scores were already high and the duration of the intervention was relatively short. The lack of individual matching between the pre-test and the post-test (due to anonymity) prevented the use of more sensitive internal analyses. In addition, some constructs were measured with a small number of items, which may have limited the precision of the scales (DeVellis, 1991).
Qualitatively, the results are compelling but derived from a single institutional context with a convenience sample, and the analysis was based primarily on field notes rather than audio or video recordings. This methodological choice privileged naturalistic observation, but limited the possibility of a more detailed discursive analysis. Finally, although the story and activities addressed mathematical concepts, the link to mathematics was less central than to natural sciences and socio-scientific topics, which may explain the modest quantitative changes in students' taste for mathematics.
Despite these limitations, the convergence between quantitative stability and qualitative richness allows for a productive synthesis. The pedagogical value of The Infinite Name of the Stars does not lie primarily in provoking large measurable changes in attitudes in a short period of time, but in stimulating internal processes of identification, imagination, and scientific exploration. The digital book proved to be a narrative motivational tool that integrates emotion and knowledge within a contextualized educational environment.
Ethnographic observation confirms that reading history generated a space of motivation, curiosity, and symbolic production around science. This triangulation also suggests that traditional quantitative instruments, such as Likert scales, may be insufficient on their own to capture the complexity of narrative learning and the subtle transformations that occur at the motivational and symbolic levels. As (DeVellis 1991) points out, the measurement of attitudes requires context- and culturally sensitive scales. Our findings reinforce the value of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the educational experience more fully.
The study shows that science fiction, when used pedagogically, not only teaches science, but also teaches how to imagine it. Although quantitative indicators remained largely stable, classroom observations reveal processes of creative appropriation and activation of scientific curiosity that surpass numerical measurement. This finding supports the integration of fictional narratives, sensory experiences, and teacher mediation as complementary strategies to promote engagement with STEM and science literacy in Ecuadorian primary education.
10 Conclusions
This study examined the educational impact of the digital science fiction story The Infinite Name of Stars as a motivational strategy for STEM learning in elementary education. By combining a pre-test questionnaire and ethnographic observation in the classroom, it was possible to gain a comprehensive view in which numerical trends and processes in the classroom complement each other to illuminate how narrative and science interact in practice.
From a quantitative perspective, the descriptive and inferential analyses showed a stable and positive attitude profile toward science, technology and mathematics. Mean scores remained high from pre-test to post-test, with only small non-significant variations between dimensions. In this context, the digital story did not produce major immediate changes in self-reported attitudes, but rather acted as a symbolic reinforcement of already favorable dispositions toward STEM content. This stability can be interpreted as a consolidation of pre-existing positive attitudes and as evidence that the intervention helped to maintain motivation rather than abruptly transform it.
From a qualitative perspective, the ethnographic findings revealed rich processes of engagement and learning that are not easily captured with Likert-type scales. Classroom observations showed that reading the story generated enthusiasm, imaginative exploration, and symbolic appropriation, expressed in creative activities such as drawings, infographics, thematic dramatizations, and discussions on migration, diversity, and environmental issues. These manifestations indicate that science fiction literature can activate scientific curiosity and imaginative thinking, allowing students to reinterpret scientific ideas from their own cultural and emotional contexts and link them to local socio-environmental realities.
Taken together, these results suggest that the pedagogical value of history lies in linking emotion and knowledge through narrative. The Infinite Name of the Stars functioned as a narrative and cultural mediator that connected scientific concepts with the students' everyday experiences and supported meaningful and collaborative learning processes. It was not intended to have measured scientific literacy as a global construct; rather, the evidence points to specific components associated with it, such as interest in science, commitment to scientific ideas and reflection on the relationships between science, society and the environment, which are supported by the intervention. In this sense, history functioned as a gateway to scientific understanding not through memorization, but through creative exploration, questioning, and empathy with imagined characters and worlds.
The study also offers practical implications for curriculum design and teacher training. Experience shows that, under the proper mediation of faculty, science fiction can become an interdisciplinary resource that fosters critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, and collaborative work, while connecting science to local cultures and environments. Systematically integrating digital science fiction stories into the classroom, rather than using them as isolated motivational episodes, can provide a recurring narrative framework around which inquiry-based units in the natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences are organized. This requires teacher training that includes the selection and critical use of science fiction texts, the design of narrative tasks linked to curricular objectives, and the facilitation of classroom discussions that move from fictional scenarios to real socio-scientific questions.
A number of methodological limitations should be recognized. The study was conducted in a single urban private school in Ecuador with a convenience sample, which limits the generalizability of the findings. The absence of a control group and anonymous questionnaire administration prevented internal analyses and reduced the statistical capacity to detect small changes. Some constructs were measured with a limited number of items, which could limit the sensitivity of the scales. In addition, although the intervention incorporated some mathematical content, the link to mathematics was less central than the link to natural sciences and socioscientific problems, which may explain the modest quantitative changes observed in students' supposed taste for mathematics.
Future research should conduct longitudinal studies that could examine whether the repeated and sustained use of science fiction narratives throughout a school year leads to more substantial changes in STEM attitudes and identities. Also, studies with comparative designs, involving schools with different socioeconomic profiles and pedagogical traditions, could help clarify how contextual factors impact science fiction narrative interventions. Future work could also refine and validate instruments more sensitive to the specific forms of narrative engagement and imaginative scientific thinking documented qualitatively in this study.
This study suggests that a work of digital science fiction set in the local context, such as The Infinite Name of the Stars, can function as a narrative mediator that articulates emotion, imagination, and elements of scientific thought in elementary education. Continuing to design and research these types of narrative interventions can contribute to building more imaginative, contextualized, and humanized approaches to STEM education in Latin America and in other contexts.
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
CL: Supervision, Resources, Software, Writing – original draft, Project administration, Conceptualization, Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing, Data curation. VP: Writing – original draft, Resources, Methodology.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declared that generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript. In this research, generative AI was used to improve grammar and spelling. Human review and oversight were also provided.
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Keywords: education, pedagogy, science education, science fiction, STEM education
Citation: Londoño-Proaño C and Pérez-Gavilanes V (2026) Digital science fiction as a narrative mediator for STEM motivation in elementary education: a mixed-methods study. Front. Educ. 10:1720987. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1720987
Received: 08 October 2025; Revised: 25 December 2025;
Accepted: 29 December 2025; Published: 29 January 2026.
Edited by:
Bishnu Khanal, Tribhuvan University - Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal, NepalReviewed by:
Rizky Amelia, Lambung Mangkurat University, IndonesiaKamal Prasad Acharya, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Copyright © 2026 Londoño-Proaño and Pérez-Gavilanes. 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) and the copyright owner(s) 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: Cristián Londoño Proaño, Y3Jpc3RpYW5sb25kb25vQHV0aS5lZHUuZWM=