Abstract:

Using laboratory biogas plants are very important in the areas of research concerning the recovery of different organic wastes. Handling such installations for educational purposes develop a potential risk to student’s safety, especially when working in large groups during. Experiments’ recording and watching and discussing them with students is the most used method in order to remove the risks, but although safe, it is a non-participating one. Therefore, interactive strategies were developed to ensure the student participation to effective implementation of procedures through participatory methods and modern technologies. These methods include the following tools: online conference system, transfer and editing of experimental data in real time based on the use of collaborative tools, ēno interactive whiteboard and educational platform - enoeducation.ro. The research involved internships and PhD students in Environmental Engineering from "Vasile Alecsandri" University of Bacau. The assessment was conducted by interviews and debates after a period of six months. From the analysis of feedbacks it was observed that on short term perception, the degree of knowledge was relatively the same in both methods (traditional and interactive), while in the long term the degree of assimilation of the information was mostly higher in the case of participatory methods. Finally, a scale to evaluate the potential risk to student’s safety during the demonstration lessons was constructed and validated.

Acknowledgements:
This research was financially supported by the Romanian Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (Grant PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.2-1108, ‘Networked interactive ceramic whiteboards with integrated sound (ENO) for teaching and learning science and technology').

Keywords:

ēno interactive whiteboard, educational platform, biogas plants.