Abstract:

University education systems have the responsibility, among others, to train people not only conceptually in a given area, but transversally. In addition, the need to perform different types of work in the course of life, as well as the adaptation to new contexts in situations of evolving technologies, require lifelong learning throughout adult life. The students we prepare in universities must, therefore, be prepared to face these changes.

In this paper, we develop the implementation of the cross-curricular competence of Computational Thinking, together with the introduction of sustainability in the area of Engineering. We believe that the preparation of these two fields enables students to better face the new systems in the digital era that we are beginning. We must not forget that in 2015, the United Nations established the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the major problem nodes that, hypothetically, will ensure a real future for humanity.

We present, from an introduction and state of the art of Computational Thinking and sustainability in education, some application experiences with students of different Engineering degrees, concluding the good acceptance by the students and estimating better results after their practice.

Keywords:

Computational thinking, sustainability, cross-curricular competence, digital competence, STEAM, technology, learning.