Abstract:

CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV is an outreach activity organized yearly by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). Within this framework, 1st year students of High School and Vocational Training Colleges are welcome by the University to spend several days in contact with the different UPV Departments. The objective of this initiative is to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand about the different degrees offered by the UPV and decide whether they want to actively join this path afterwards.
CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV helps the participants to choose their subsequent higher studies through the different activities that are carried out. UPV is listed as the best Technological University in Spain according to the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Furthermore, UPV is the only Spanish polytechnic University included in the 500 best universities in the world. In this way, the students participating in CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV are encouraged to become future students of the prestigious UPV.
CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV offers 32 programs on the three UPV campuses (located in Valencia, Gandía, and Alcoi), where this experience is combined with sports activities and offers opportunities to promote the exchange of opinions between the students participating in the different programs. The organized programs and the specific activities are managed by the different Departments of the University.
In this case study, the workshop proposed by the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department (CNED) during two consecutive years to motivate participants to study the Chemical Engineering degree (CEd) will be presented. During the days of this workshop, students were able to explore their vocations by carrying out different activities with several university lecturers. Every year, two different practical sessions were performed during two consecutive days, with 8 – 9 students. The subject of these sessions was selected considering current topics related to Chemical Engineering (with sufficient relevance) and the knowledge level of the students, which were always undergraduate. The sessions were also adapted to a reduced time window.
Each day began with a brief welcome, accompanied by a presentation, giving general information about the CNED, the Technical School of Industrial Engineering (TSIE), and the CEd. Then, on the first day, a laboratory practice about the identification of microplastics was performed. Thus, students managed to identify several plastics materials through different experiments. On the second day, the students worked on circular economy applied to the agri-food sector, through the extraction of high added-value compounds from by-products from the olive and orange juice industries.
To evaluate the impact of this activity, a questionnaire was conducted right after receiving the students and once again after the accomplishment of the sessions. It included questions about the structure of the University, the CEd, and the practiced concepts, such as circular economy and the microplastics current problematic. The results of the questionnaire indicated the satisfaction of the students and the assimilation of new knowledge.
Furthermore, this initiative contributed to promote the superior education at UPV. Among the 188 students taking part in CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV in 2019, 88 students decided to join the UPV in the course 2020/2021, 24 accessing the TSIE (all of them participated in CAMPUS PRAKTIKUM UPV), where the CEd is taught.

Keywords:

PRAKTIKUM, Chemical Engineering.