Abstract:

Service-Learning (SL) is an educational proposal that combines learning and community services. Its interest lies in the fact that participants learn to work on real needs of the environment in order to improve it. Social commitment is combined with the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.

SL has traditionally been associated with social sciences, being a fairly new practice in science degrees. This research responds to the first call for Service-Learning Projects promoted by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). The call aims to promote experiences that improve the quality of teaching by supporting experiential learning and developing student’s skills, and allows the UPM to participate and get involved in providing a service to society.

The practical teaching of environmental management, presents some problems to students in technical degree programs. Two significant ones are the development of effective and appropriate means of providing students with practical experience, and the difficulty of engaging students in a subject which may not be intrinsically appealing for many of them. A third problem detected, perhaps the most important, is the lack of professional skills, which represents the main barrier to access the working world.

One way to address these problems is to facilitate student involvement in a real project, which also solves a need for an external agent. Integrating all of the above, the Service-Learning project development is based on the design of an Environmental Management System in the Isabel la Católica Public School in the municipality of Navas del Rey (Madrid) by students in the degrees of Technology of Agricultural and Food Industries and Agro-environmental Engineering.

The objective is to achieve a more sustainable school, linking it to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. For this purpose, we took advantage of the fact that these students must do a practical work in order to pass the course through continuous evaluation.

The choice of Isabel la Católica Public School has been motivated by the quality of its educational strategy and planning, despite the difficulties that arise from being in a rural environment. The EcoAudit, promoted by the school and the City Council, is recognized by the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge as an effective learning tool in environmental matters. Its purpose is to improve the school's environmental behavior and performance by involving teachers and students in the third, fourth and fifth grades of primary school.

The work developed has highlighted the great potential of working with Service-Learning through projects in the field of environmental protection: it fosters the students social and environmental awareness, and, at the same time, develops other personal skills.

The performance of the students, in terms of learning abilities and skills, is evaluated through post-activity questionnaire. The experience has proved to be very enriching for the students, allowing them to acquire specific professional and transversal competencies (teamwork, interculturality, conflict resolution, ethical, social and environmental responsibility, among others) while developing a professional activity. The study could be useful for other teachers and lecturers interested in "learning-by" research methodology.

Keywords:

Service-Learning, Environmental Management, Engineering, Primary school.