Abstract:

In recent years, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has implemented several new developments in teaching activities at university, not only related to the degrees available or their duration, but also with particular respect to teaching tools. However, not all teaching methodologies can be applied in all degree courses or subjects, and it is necessary for the instructor to select the best one for each case. Therefore, it is important to carry out experiences that apply such methodologies, thus helping understand their strongest and weakest points.

In this regard, the present study describes a teaching experience carried out in three industrial engineering degree courses at Castilla – La Mancha University (Albacete, Spain), with the use of teaching tools, such as Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Flipped Learning (FL), in theoretical and practical fluid mechanics classes, respectively. A total of 126 second-year students were involved during the 2021/2022 academic year. It is worth noting that the percentage of women is significantly low, 20.8%, which is within typical ratios in the STEAM fields in technical degrees.

PBL was applied in a theoretical class, related to urban water distribution networks. The problem proposed is based on a previous experience carried out by the authors in 2018/2019. It is focused on attempting to analyse water and energy management in the proposed network. In this regard, the students are required to play the role of a group of technicians hired by the mayor of a village (the role of the teacher). A series of problems are explained during the experience, and the students are required to answer questions and try to explain the steps that they would follow to solve them. Two surveys, including one about the students’ opinions, were administered using Socrative software.

The second activity was applied in one of the practical activities carried out in the fluid mechanics laboratory. In this case, the students collected data related to Bernoulli’s principle using specialized equipment. It can be considered as an introduction to FL methodology, because the students just have a script about the practice session, but they never manage the experimental setup. The students have to complete a survey (Moodle software) at the beginning and at the end of the practice session, which is useful for us to understand the knowledge acquired during the practical activity, based on the knowledge acquired only in previous theory classes.

Regarding the PBL method, approximately 93% of the students evaluated it positively, because they actively participated, in contrast to the common theoretical classes, where the students take a passive role. However, approximately 7% of the students reported that the difficulty level of this activity was medium-low, highlighting that the main disadvantage of this activity is the lack of technical information and the multitude of valid solutions.

Regarding the experience in the laboratory practice session, most of the students reported improved results when comparing the pre and post surveys. These suggested that most of the concepts implemented in the practice were understood once the practical activity had been carried out, reaching 100% success in some of the questions proposed.

Keywords:

University, problem based learning, flipped learning, fluid mechanics.