Abstract:

During the academic year 2023-24, a pilot project of educational innovation has been developed based on the work and cooperation of ten university students from different disciplines (nautical sciences and biology) on board the training ship SALTILLO. The students have cooperated in the nautical tasks of the ship and others related to biology, while exchanging knowledge to develop their final degree or master's degree projects related to the sustainable development goals related to the sea. In the same way, similar cross-border research (e.g. the Ocean i3 cross-border project) has noted shortcomings in developing the transversal competences of teamwork and social engagement in an interdisciplinary group. Therefore, the final objective of the project is to evaluate the training ship as an integrating and developing centre for these transversal competences.

Methodology:
The students met during the course in interdisciplinary conferences before embarking on the training ship where they collected and analysed seawater samples, developed nautical skills and shared the topics, methodology and results of their particular research work. After these meetings on board, a survey was carried out among the students participating in the project. The questionnaire was based on the indicators published in the catalogue of transversal competences of the University of the Basque Country.

Results, conclusions and limitations:
The results positively evaluate the school ship as an optimal means for the development of the transversal competences of teamwork and social commitment in an interdisciplinary group. However, there are limitations due to the short number of participants and the reduced frequency (monthly) of the meetings on board.

Keywords:

Team-work skill, commitment skills, interdisciplinary, training ship.