Abstract:

The infrastructures equipped with vegetation and living organisms on a university campus, such as the University City of Madrid, constitute a living scenario rich in ecological processes susceptible to different environmental impacts associated with the urban activity of a large city. Therefore, these infrastructures constitute a "living and dynamic laboratory", which can be incorporated into the applied training of different student profiles, as is the case of the forestry engineering, water engineering, and environmental technology engineering degrees and Master's degrees at the University Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). However, some of these infrastructures can also constitute a system of monitoring, mitigation, and environmental resilience, which constitutes a protective barrier for university staff and students, as would be the case of the 10 hectares that constitute the "Arboretum" and the "Fish Farm" of the School of Forestry and Environmental Engineering (UPM). This article analyses the outcome of these educational innovation activities developed over eight years (2015-2016 to 2021-2022), which has been based on: (i) the "Transversal Use of the Environmental Analysis Laboratory" and the Fish Farm of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Engineering and Management (IGFA) of the UPM; and (ii) the "Research-Based Learning" integrating the results obtained by the students of 2 engineering subjects.
Comparing the results obtained by the students between theoretical and practical classes has shown better performance in their practical training. In the subject "Pollution control in the natural environment" (within the Master's degree in Forestry Engineering), the average of the practical results (8.0 points on a scale of 10) was 19.18% higher on average than the average of the theoretical results (6.8 points on a scale of 10). Whereas in the subject "Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering" (undergraduate degree in Environmental Technology Engineering), the average of the practical results (7.2 points on a scale of 10) was 39.68% higher than the average of the theoretical results (5.2 points on a scale of 10). The article discusses these results and lays the foundations for introducing innovations from research-based learning projects supported by the described Environmental Analysis Laboratory.

Keywords:

Research-based learning, transversal laboratory use, arboretum, fish farm, forest engineering, environmental engineering