Abstract:

This work describes the contributions to the teaching innovation of a project put into practice at the Higher School of Engineering of the University of Cádiz during the 2016/2017 academic year. This project was done with the students of the first year of the Degrees of Electricity, Industrial Electronics, Industrial Technology, and Aerospace Engineering.

The exact title of the project was "If I have seen further away is because I am sitting on the shoulders of giants. A little history of Women and Men in the history of Science and Engineering in the classrooms of the Higher School of Engineering ". And its starting points were: Firstly, the urgent need to rescue the History of Physics, now postponed in the teaching of Physics, and of Sciences in general. Second, the need to rescue some concrete individuals of that History, in particular, the female subjects. In the case of this second point, although the diversity of women's experiences in the field of science is being paid more attention, visibility of all women who have contributed to scientific knowledge is a task not completed yet.

Specifically, the teaching innovation project was developed in the form of explanations in class of the biographies and contributions of some of the giants of Science, specifically, Physics and Engineering. The second part was an exhibition of posters in the hall of the Higher School of Engineering of the University of Cadiz. These posters were showed grouped in pairs, giants such as Aglaonice de Tesalia versus Archimedes, Teano versus Pythagoras; Margaret Cavendish versus Faraday; Émile de Breteuil versus Newton; Hedy Lamarr versus Tesla ... up to a total of twelve pairs. As for the results obtained, we recovered, to a certain extent, the History (of Science) in teaching in the Engineering Degrees. However, above all, the most important result is the visibility of some of the great scientists, which are presented at the same level (of giants) as their male colleagues. Furthermore, we must point out the contribution of the project to the motivation of the students for the learning of Physics. Thus, this project reveals how to discover and describe the giants of Physics and Engineering by explaining their biographies, their contributions, their successes and their failures. This fact predisposes students to understand concepts more complex at the same time as taking those giants as a source of inspiration. All of which also shows how innovation in education can be referred not only to technical or formal aspects of the teaching-learning system, but also to the knowledge of the History of Science (in particular, of the people who have forged the knowledge that we enjoy today).

Keywords:

Teaching innovation, Engineering, physics learning.