Abstract:

Over the past decade, design of the curricula in Engineering in the context of the Bologna framework, proved to be a challenging task.
Learning objectives and outcomes of the different courses and educational programmes must be specified. In Spain, every Bachelor’s Degree consists of 240 ECTS credits, i.e. 4 years of study.

The "IKD educational model" (cooperative and dynamic learning) of the University of the Basque Country is centred in the student's learning. In order to move from a traditional instructor-centred to a more student-centred model, the learning environment needs to be motivating, challenging and activating. Competencies, such as communication, scientific research and teamwork, needed to be present in the design of the Bachelor's Degree Final Project (BDFP).

At the University of the Basque Country, the BDFP was implemented in the Environmental Engineering curriculum. The objective of the BDFP is that the graduates culminate the learning of the studies taken, where the development of the skills acquired is reflected, as well as their application. Throughout the degree, the student encounters an eclectic group of teachers with different backgrounds, interests and epistemological understandings. In the final year of the degree the student chooses a tutor to develop the BDFP under supervision.

It is important not only to consider the new context of the Bologna framework but also to take into account that the typology of Final Degree Projects (FDP) presented in engineering schools has changed and it seems that nowadays students find it hard to carry out classic engineering projects (installations, processing plants, etc.) and their interests are moving towards theoretical-experimental works (research projects) or technical, organizational and economic studies (consulting projects).

Due to our specialization, historically all the works of our tutorized students have been related to the acoustics area. As facilitators of learning and driven by the question “will a teaching method which encompasses concepts, procedures and attitudes produce better results in learning physics in a BDFP in the Environmental Engineering?”, our first challenge was to fit the common framework of the degree’s design and at the same time we endeavoured to move beyond the established traditions of work in final project and sought innovative ideas, methodologies, and approaches. The objective of this work is to present the results of an educational innovation in BDFP in environmental engineering based on an oriented research acoustics teaching approach.

Keywords:

Physics Teaching, Acoustics, Project Based Learning.