Abstract:

The subject Thermal and Hydraulic Machines has been teaching in the 3rd course of the Grade of Environmental Engineering for seven years at the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao. In the last academic course, several changes were introduced regarding the methodology employed in the seminars and laboratory practicals. The teachers generate all the required instructional materials for the students (laboratory guide, demonstration videos, bibliography…) and the students use these materials to prepare out of class, individually and/or in groups (jigsaw cooperative learning approach) one of the assigned practice. Every practice is divided in three parts: theoretical concepts, experimental procedures and laboratory data treatment to achieve the results required. Finally, in a 20 minutes oral presentation, every group explain the complete practice using the blackboard and doing a demonstration by the lab machines.

In the first session of seminars, the groups are created, the practices are assigned to the groups and the methodology to carry out is explained. Then, out of class, the students prepare individually the part of the practice assigned. Next, the technique known as jigsaw is applied (group of experts) and the teachers, in tutorials, controlled if the concepts are appropriately being acquired. In the next session of seminars, the teacher is available to answer the questions arise by the students in which students have also the possibility to handle the lab machines. After this class, the students meet in their original group and each expert transmits to the rest of the group (interdependency) all the concepts that they need to learn. Finally, in the oral presentation, the teacher ask randomly to explain the parts corresponding to the practice assigned to each group, and evaluated the presentation, the given explanations and the work developed along the application of the methodology.

During the last course, the students successfully applied the methodology and the teachers, in the tutorial classes, felt that the group of experts acquire appropriately the concepts of the practices. Although the marks corresponding to the laboratory practicals were slightly lower if compared to the previous academic course, the application of this methodology was successful.

Keywords:

Laboratory practicals, situated learning, flipped classroom, jigsaw.