FACING REAL PROBLEMS FROM A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH: A PILOT STUDY

The CTSA approach (from the Spanish translation of Science, Technology, Society and Environment) aims to develop of the scientific culture among students, providing them tools for their inclusion in a changing and diverse society and professional environment through gained knowledge and skills acquired in real contexts.

The main objective of this study is to implement, as a starting point, the CTSA approach in in different scientific and technical degrees, with different backgrounds from engineering to nursing studies, at the University of Cordoba.

The students will be distributed in five different groups according to:
i) scientists,
ii) technicians,
iii) general public and
iv) ecologists in order to investigate, develop and stand up for a proposed topic related to the renewable energies, which would be chosen by the teachers, and preferably a hot topic.

Firstly, each group must develop in an oral round the topic from the point of view of the collective they are representing highlighting the advantages and future perspectives. Secondly, there will be a debate session arguing about the disadvantages of other groups approaches. Lastly the main ideas will be written down marking the positive and negative sides and linked to possible and future solutions, indicating which of the five groups would the responsible of it.
The activity will be evaluated by the teachers using a common rubric per group where aspects as clarity of the exposition, solidity of the arguments, balanced participation, etc., would be considered. In addition, each group should deliver a report developing in detail, both the services and disservices associated to their arguments and indicating how the literature/information search was carried out.