Abstract:

Studies programmers in academic contexts must take into account the student’s capabilities, maturity and their future interests. Graduates are educated to face professional world which is different from academic world. According to this, the studies programmes should be aimed to bring students closer to occupational world, progressively. This paper shows an example of the learning process of students in Building Engineering Degree at Jaume I University (Castellón, Spain), where the Project Based Learning methodology is applied. The learning process of students in their first and third academic year will be analyzed focusing on the projects that were developed in the academic year 2011/2012. While first year students worked on traditional constructions, third year alumni analyzed prototypes presented in the competition Solar Decathlon 2010. Besides the higher complexity of the project developed in upper levels, students showed more maturity in decision making and team work, which is highly convenient for the professional skills.

Keywords:

Project Based Learning, professional skills, Building Engineering.