FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS FOR THE CIVIL ENGINEERING DEGREE: PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL)

Beyond a solid technical knowledge, the engineer demanded by the current society is a specialist capable of working in a team, innovating and facing the achievement of projects with an integral approach. For this reason, in the subject of Fundamentals of Physics for the Civil Engineering degree (UCLM), it has been introduced a new pedagogical methodology focused on the Problem Based Learning (PBL). This method leads students to learn “how to learn physics” and to develop skills of oral comunication, write reports and concept comprehension, which allow them to obtain and to apply the new knowledge. An essential element of this reasoning process is that students identify what they do not know and why they need to know physics. In this sense, students assume responsability for their own learning and how to get information when it is needed. On the other hand, the teacher adopts a new role as a facilitator to guide and to provide resources. This communication presents the system implemented to improve the capacity of analysis and evaluation of first year students, by means of the resolution of complex problems (for example, the induction heating of electrically conductive porous asphalt or the sustainable asphaltic pavement for heat storage of the roads) related with real situations in Civil Engineering.