Abstract:

The Bologna Declaration within the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has promoted some changes in the educational system. In this context, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) promotes educational innovation in order to improve the level of learning and acquisition of professional competences [1-2].

Proof of this commitment has been the appearance of its own innovative projects such as the UPV Institutional Program of Transversal Competences, to improve students’ skills and abilities that complement technical training. This Institutional Program includes 13 transversal competences (TC) that all the students from UPV must acquire during their training.

This article is focused on the acquisition of transversal competence “Ethical environmental and professional responsibility” among engineering students. Particularly, in the Water Engineering subject taught in the Bachelor of electronics and automation engineering. Water Engineering subject being an optional subject in the second semester of the third year. This degree is taught in the Higher Technical School of Design Engineering (ETSID) of the UPV. The content of the subject can be divided in three parts: water treatment and purification, design of urban wastewater treatment plant and membrane technologies.

The proposed activities to develop the TC are two field trips and two lab sessions. On one hand, the field trips were to an urban wastewater treatment plant [3] and to the “Climate change observatory” [4], both located in Valencia. During the visit to the urban wastewater treatment plant the students visited all the facilities of the plant for 3 hours. The visit to “Climate change observatory” had a total duration of 2 hours, and during the visit the students had the opportunity to learn and know the most relevant aspects related with the climate change, the main factors causing this problem and get used to the concept of water footprint. On the other hand, two laboratory sessions were carried out in order to use the laboratory as a real learning scenario. During these sessions, students characterized and treated both urban and different industrial wastewater.
After development of both activities, the results showed that the students acquire the ability to know what to do and how to do it under certain circumstances and atmospheres from the point of view of the TC “Ethical environmental and professional responsibility”. The professor evaluated the level of acquisition of this competence using a specific rubric.

References:
[1] ANECA (2005). Libro blanco de titulaciones de grado de ingeniería de la rama industrial. AgenciaNacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación.
[2] UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE VALÈNCIA. Programainstitucional de competencias transversales UPV.
<http://www.upv.es/contenidos/COMPTRAN/> [Consulta : 13-07-2021].
[3] EDAR del Carraixet, Valencia (España). https://www.dam-aguas.es/portfolio-posts/edar-carraixet/ [Consulta : 2-05-2021].
[4] Observatoridelcanviclimàtic (Ajuntament de València), <https://climaienergia.com/> [Consulta : 8-05-2021].

Keywords:

Transversal competence, activities, acquisition.