Abstract:

The project presented is part of the UPV/EHU educational model called IKDi3. It is based on cooperative and dynamic learning in which learning is also multiplied through research and sustainability. One of the subjects fitting in for this project is “Analysis and Management of Rural and Natural Spaces”, an elective subject taught in the Degree in Geography and Territorial Planning. Through Project-Based Learning (PBL), students must design a Green Infrastructure network in a certain territory integrating agricultural and livestock spaces as an adaptation measure against climate change. Likewise, it will be considered as a measure of protection and reinforcement for the valuable ecosystem services that these spaces offer (landscape, biodiversity, culture, etc.), and consequently, as a measure to promote green jobs.

PBL is a methodology that places the student as the focus in education and starts with a problem aimed to stimulate the students' curiosity. In this case, the problem is given by the situation the rural environment faces in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, managed mainly by agricultural, livestock and forestry activities. On the one hand, the abandonment of agricultural and livestock farms is causing a lack of opportunities in rural areas and the subsistence of the rural population; On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the effects of climate change affect the already vulnerable rural population more directly and drastically. Consequently, in such a scenario, and taking advantage of the territorial framework established by the revised Territorial Planning Guidelines of the Basque Country, the design of the Green Infrastructure in a certain territory as a case study will be used as a solution proposal to the problem described above. Likewise, starting from the premise that learning is a constructive and not a receptive process, this approach is transferred to the teaching of the subject based on the four constructivist stages of didactics:
1- awareness of previous ideas;
2- introduction of new knowledge for a better understanding of the socio-economic and territorial dynamics of the Basque rural environment;
3- application of new learning in problem solving, Considering the inclusion of agricultural and livestock spaces as elements of Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services an opportunity;
4- the promotion of critical awareness and social responsibility in the management of rural areas as a measure of the impact of the activity.

Keywords:

Cooperative and dynamic learning, Project-Based Learning, climate change, Green Infrastructure.