Abstract:

In a classroom environment it is a priority to reduce the impact of waste and also analyze its useful life. The students of the graphic design career looked for communities that were unconscious of clear concepts of reuse. Higher education institutions can, through their class or practical projects, develop proposals that help transform vulnerabilities in the priority sectors of attention, promoting a culture for the use of resources with emphasis on the reuse, reduction and recycling of waste.

As a work proposal, in the Polytechnic School of Litoral in the city of Guayaquil developed the program "Circular economy, life in new ideas" that covered areas of knowledge of the arts and humanities. To delineate the intervention, the philosophy of this program is based on the concept of design as a way to adapt and transform in order to meet the needs of the society.

The "Circular Economy" way of thinking, is a result from the assignments of the graphic design career, such as "Three-dimensional design" and "Basic design". Through classroom projects prepared by students who directed their knowledge to the problems in the Ecuatorian coastal communities. Those problems were related to the use of resources that can be identified as waste, giving them a second life.

The purpose of this document is to demonstrate that, by developing projects based on the concept of "Circular economy" based on real problems, students can propose creative and innovative solutions for the benefit of a community. It shows the process of actions in the classroom using problem-based learning through an educational design under the constructivist perspective, where the teacher is a mediator-facilitator of the students, which allows them to develop an open and flexible environment to link real life problems.

Among the techniques used are field observation, scouting, construction of graphic boards and focus groups through workshops to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the communities. The training in the use of common spaces was another technique that let the development of graphic design pieces created from the community and also the design of furniture for the exhibition of artifacts.

Among the most relevant results of this work, 18 institutional projects based on the circular economy concept were developed, with the participation of 159 students, 11 schools, 4 communes, 2 non-governmental organization and 1 recycle based company, with a reach of 3.396 people as direct beneficiaries.

The students involved in this project, developed the ability to work in groups generating commitments with the community, the activities ceased to be a homework in the classroom, to be a personal and professional life experience. They recognized that community work can undertake and generate sustainable solutions by developing their talent and creating strategic allies with the sponsoring companies.

The students' approach to the community generated a greater impact on the participation of the process of design, production and consumption of residue-based products. This generated student practices in learning spaces outside the classroom, exchanging these experiences with another educational institution.

After 3 years of intervention, it was identified that one of the communities intervened has been the protagonist of their own development, evidencing that the knowledge shared with the students became a business.

Keywords:

Problem-based learning, constructivism, circular economy, sustainable development.