Abstract:

New technologies for engineering education require to find new systems to transmit them to students. Collaboration with companies is also a key asset to develop them. As it was done in “Erasmus + KA203 - Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education” project: “GLOCAL-Innovation future engineers' training for contemporary city's problems” (2019-1-PL01-KA203-065654).
Computer models for Civil Engineering and Architecture are related to some new technologies that are being developed more and more rapidly. Unmanned aerial systems and remote sensing for surveying or 3D printing models are some of the more relevant for Engineering and Architecture projects. The importance of an effective approach to teaching them in Engineering and Architecture Schools, as well as the difficulties faced when doing so, had been highlighted by many authors (Lazaridou et al. 2012; Kosmatin Fras et al. 2016; Gillins et al. 2017; Baik et al. 2018; Mesas-Carrascosa et al. 2019; Gruen 2021; Bolkas et al. 2023).
This is why, the main aim of our research related to this Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Experience was to optimize the methodology and results for the innovative Glocal’s Summer Schools. Those teaching strategies were used in the Summer Schools of Glocal 2, with a first face-to face part held in Klaipeda (Lithuania) for 2 weeks, followed by a Second part with e-learning using both UPM-Moodle platform and BUT-Teams (3 weeks), and finished in Madrid (Spain), with face-to face activities for 2 weeks. This Glocal 2 course was including 24 students, 8 from each partner university: Politechnika Bialostocka (BUT, from Poland), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM, from Spain) and Klaipedos Valstybine Kolegija (KVK, from Lithuania). Students had to work in teams to learn how to use drones for 3D scanning small urban objects, incorporate those data in a 3D model and use it for 3D printing their project proposal. Those teams were composed by 1 student from each of the partner universities, which means 8 teams in total. They had to design a small urban object, in a real location, each of them in different places in the cities of Bialystok, Madrid or Klaipeda.
We will present and analyse here the results obtained by those students’ teams in Glocal-2 Summer Schools, related to the specific teaching and students’ work of project development from 3D scanning to 3D printing. Our conclusions include the improvements that we have seen in the results of this course, compared to Glocal 1, despite the difficulties we have faced, the Covid-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine. We would like to share and discuss our conclusions with the academic community, looking for new ideas to be developed for next Summer courses.

Keywords:

STEM Education Experiences, Joint Education projects, Educational Research Experiences.