Abstract:

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key parameter in agriculture, hydrology and climatology. In particular, crop water requirements are based on ET losses, and therefore accurate ET estimation contributes to optimize irrigation doses and to increase water use efficiency. The design and management of irrigation installations are among the most specific and defining competences of agricultural engineers. Therefore, the study of irrigation scheduling, and, subsequently, of evapotranspiration, is included in the curricular contents of different subjects in the syllabus corresponding to the Degree and Master Degree of Agricultural Engineering at Spanish Universities.

The application of mathematical computing tools is widely extended for solving technical problems in all engineering branches, because these disciplines end up relying on a mathematical basis. Therefore, a thorough training in such tools is provided in almost all engineering degree programs. Usually, a basic software training to solve purely mathematical problems is scheduled for the first course, while a more specific training for technical problem resolution in extra-mathematical contexts is scheduled for the following years.

However, this was not the case in the degree programs of agricultural engineering, and different proposals were made to offset this lack. Nevertheless, some problems were encountered when trying to put them into practice, because they were too demanding and/or because the preliminary general training to be acquired in purely mathematical subjects is omitted at some universities, like the University of the Balearic Islands. Accordingly, after being tested, those activities aiming at training students for solving engineering problems with mathematical software might require revision and updating.

This paper describes the problems encountered in the implementation of the original teaching proposals, and suggests changes to adapt them to the actual skills of agricultural engineering students, especially if no general mathematical training was provided in the first courses of the degree program.

The main changes to adapt those original activities consist in three issues:
a) enhancing the understanding of loop operations through a deeper analysis of the script debugger and the use of script breakpoints,
b) providing partial solutions of the problems, so that the students might check and correct the scripts autonomously, and
c) providing approximate scripts to be adapted by the students.

Keywords:

Script based calculations, agricultural engineering, evapotranspiration.