Abstract:

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, signed by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a starting point to achieve a sustainable global development. Within the framework of Higher Education in Spain, the legislation RD 822/2021 determine the incorporation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the new study plans. This legislation states that these values and objectives must be incorporated as transversal skills or contents.

The aim of this article is to include the SDGs, through several practical activities, in the subjects related to Experimentation in Chemical Engineering of the Bachelor of Chemical Engineering. The knowledge area Experimentation in Chemical Engineering includes three independent subjects: Experimentation in Chemical Engineering I (2nd semester, 2nd year), Experimentation in Chemical Engineering II (1st semester, 3rd year) and Experimentation in Chemical Engineering III (2nd semester, 3rd year). Each one of these subjects has 4.5 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System), and the total of these credits correspond to practical credits, for the three subjects.

This communication is framed with two educational innovation and improvement projects (PIME), from the Universitat Politècnica de València, about SDGs. One of them is an Institutional Project (reference PIME 21-22/281) about SDGs innovation in all the Degrees taught in the in the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII, corresponding to its abbreviation in Spanish). Results from this project suggest a list (for each Bachelor and subject) containing the different SDGs that can be included in each subject. The other one is a particular project (reference PIME/22-23/348) about the inclusion of SDGs in the three subjects related to Experimentation of Chemical Engineering of the Bachelor of Chemical Engineering. Results derived from the first period of this last project (academic year 2022-2023), obtained from anonymous opinion surveys about student degree of knowledge and involvement in SDGs, demonstrated the importance of giving visibility to SDGs among the students.

In this context, after the analysis of the main results obtained from these two projects, it was decided that the selected SDGs to work in each subject were the following: SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action) for Experimentation in Chemical Engineering I, SDG 6 (Water and Sanitation) and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) for Experimentation in Chemical Engineering II, and SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) for Experimentation in Chemical Engineering III.

Thus, in this communication, several activities about the integration of the detailed SDGs in the three subjects mentioned will be described. In addition, the procedure and evaluation method of each activity will be detailed.

Keywords:

Sustainable Development Goals, Chemical Engineering, activities, integration.