Abstract:

A deep knowledge of science leads to the welfare of a community and its impact on the wealth of a society is beyond doubt; in this context, there is a direct correlation between the degree of education reached by the members of a society (or lack thereof) and the degree of prosperity. Being aware of that, the authors of the present work have carried out a project aimed at students of the Universities of Huelva and Seville, who belong to five degrees in Experimental Sciences. The “II Plan Propio de Docencia de la Universidad de Sevilla” has granted financial support for the implementation of the teaching innovation project [1]. The main objectives proposed in this project can be summarized as follows:

1. Students will learn to research scientific topics that do not have to be closely related to their academic background. Through the development of a critical thinking and bibliographic selection skills, they will be able to analyze and summarize essential information and, in turns, to familiarize themselves with the resources available at the Universities of Huelva and Seville through the platform REBIUM (Network of University Libraries).
2. The undergraduates will present the analyzed topics in a workshop entitled “Scientific Days”.
3. The results of the above mentioned conference will be compiled and published, so that the participants would improve their skills in presenting scientific results. It is also important to capture the interest of the other participants and the general public, as well as become good communicators in Science issues for Science spreading.
4. Bringing Science to Society in a friendly way.
5. The teachers will learn from this experience which topics are of special interest to their students and hence, the project will result in the development of more dynamic and interesting classes for undergraduates.
6. Lastly, teachers will continue their research in order to discover new teaching innovation techniques [2, 3] that lead to high-quality teaching and hence, towards teaching excellence.

References:
[1] https://ppropiodocencia.us.es/referencia_1_10B_16
[2] E. Galbis, M. V. de Paz, A. Alcudia, Experiences in cooperative groups focused on final degree projects in sciences, Proceedings of INTED2016 Conference, 7907-7914. ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7.
[3] E. Galbis, M. V. de Paz, A. Alcudia, Innovative approach to acid-base equilibriums, Proceedings of INTED2016 Conference, 7915-7920. ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7.

Keywords:

Teaching Innovation, Research, Experimental Sciences, Cooperative Group Work.