Abstract:

The Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València is organized into four curricular blocks:
(1) scientific and engineering fundamentals,
(2) agro-environmental and production foundations,
(3) specialization, and
(4) professional integration, culminating in the Final Degree Project (TFG according to the Spanish acronym).

Although the curriculum provides a solid technical education, the number of courses that develop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) competencies, such as programming, prototype fabrication, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, is limited.

In response, the TFG can serve as an integrated teaching activity to develop those competencies. A student designed and built an IoT weather station based on the Arduino platform. The sized IoT system proved to be a low-cost solution powered by solar energy, and its field results were finally compared with official meteorological databases from AEMET. The development process provided the student with the following competencies:
(I) hardware design and assembly,
(II) microcontroller programming,
(III) agroclimatic calculations,
(IV) energy sizing, and
(V) collaborative work and scientific communication.

All the material, including step-by-step guides, electrical schematics, and source code, has been made available as open educational resources, facilitating replication in other courses. Additionally, an artificial intelligence assistant was utilized to generate code examples and answer programming questions, thereby enhancing self-directed learning.

In conclusion, integrating the TFG as a project-based initiative that builds a weather station enables the concrete and reproducible incorporation of STEM competencies into the curriculum, enhances future engineers’ problem-solving abilities, and provides a pedagogical model that blends theory and practice for education in Agricultural and Biological engineering.

Keywords:

Skills, agriculture, interdisciplinary, problem solving, technology, design thinking.