Abstract:

The use of project management techniques can bring important benefits in our daily and professional lives. It helps us to be more organized, manage our time better, be more productive and more efficient. However, despite their advantages, they have not been given much attention in the school curriculum and are usually only studied and practiced in the engineering field. Working on these techniques with high school students would better prepare them for further studies and adult life.

To help work on these techniques in the classroom, the project management institute has developed a Project Management Toolkit for Teachers (PMTT). Teachers can use the toolkit as a resource to help high school students gain professional project management skills. To complement this toolkit and accelerate the implantation of these techniques, it is key to develop specific didactic proposals that can serve as a guide to implement the toolkit in the classroom.

For the proposal to be well received by students, it must be presented in an attractive way, and the problem to be solved must be interesting and motivating. It is well-known that mobile robotics arouses interest in students as evidenced by the number of participants in robotics competitions.

Thus, this work presents a problem-driven proposal to put into practice the PMTT into the technology classroom. The students must solve a real problem of a mobile robotics industry. An automated guided vehicle (AGV) needs to detect obstacles at a certain height, due to a Request for Quotation (RFQ) from a prestigious customer to whom a fast and effective quality response must be given. Currently, the vehicle has a safety laser with which it can detect objects at a certain height but the customer, due to the specific circumstances of its installation, needs to detect them at a higher height to avoid collisions. With the approach of a real situation, we bring to the classroom an attractive project, with which students can identify themselves, give meaning to their knowledge and see the attractiveness of engineering and STEAM careers.

This didactic practical proposal is developed based on a set of contents, competences, objectives, a time scheduling, and an evaluation procedure.

Keywords:

Project Management Toolkit, Didactic Proposal, Technology Classroom, AGV.