Objectives: The aim of this Pilot was to raise students' awareness of the level of development of their skills in innovation, creativity, critical thinking and teamwork.
Methods: Challenge + SINCOE Survey
To carry out this Pilot, a face-to-face project was carried out through a “challenge” that lasted 6 weeks (1 session per week). This project was called “Social and Environmental Innovation Challenge” and was worked on in groups (5-7 students). 10 groups were formed.
Throughout the classroom sessions and the time spent at home, the students identified a social and environmental problem to which they could provide a robotic solution, designed and developed it, built their prototype and programmed it, and finally presented it to the rest of their classmates. Next, the classmates from the rest of the team (assessment team) and the teacher had to assess the work presented and give constructive feedback. The assessed group reflected on the comments received and, if they considered them appropriate, incorporated them as improvements to their project.
The stages of this dynamic were:
- Problem Identification: Teams choose a relevant social or environmental problem that they want to address with robotics. It is important that the problem is current and sparks students' interest in making a positive impact. Technique used: Brainstorming.
- Design and Development: Teams work on the design and development of a creative and effective robotic solution to solve the identified problem. They must consider aspects such as energy efficiency, the use of sustainable materials and the social impact of their project.
- Prototyping and Programming: Students prototype their solution using the robotics and programming knowledge acquired in class. They must ensure that their robot can tackle the problem effectively and sustainably.
- Presentation: Each team presents its project to its peers and a panel of evaluators, explaining the problem addressed, the proposed solution, the expected social and environmental impact, and the sustainability aspects considered in the design. Tool: Power Point.
- Evaluation and Feedback: At the end of the presentations, the projects are evaluated based on their innovation, creativity, feasibility, social and environmental impact, and sustainability. Constructive feedback is provided to the teams to encourage continuous improvement and learning.
- Reflection and improvement: Students reflect on the feedback received, considering how their solution could be developed or adapted to address the problem more effectively.
Once the challenge was completed, the students answered the SINCOE self-assessment survey of the skills covered in this Pilot .
Environment:
The Pilot was carried out in a compulsory subject, “Legal Framework in the Business” of the Degree in “Industrial Computing and Robotics”. This subject is worth 6 ECTS and is taught in the 2nd year and had 59 students enrolled. The majority of students in this degree are male. The content of this subject does not have an innovative and creative character, it is quite the opposite because it is a subject that deals with the legal framework of companies.
However, due to the type of degree, it is expected that these types of students will be innovative and creative because in their future they will be dedicated to developing solutions in the form of robots that are innovative and creative to add value to society
Role: Students
Motivation: Very positive attitude from all participants.
Assessment:
After filtering out incomplete responses, a total of 20 responses were obtained: 17 men and 3 women (34% participation)
Below are some of the key observations.
- There was a general comment about how long the survey was, which is why some of the students did not finish it.
- Most students consider themselves flexible to changing their tasks and also aware of the interrelation of dependence of some members on others when working together, as well as a collective assessment of the group with respect to an individual one.
- The results indicate the following order of development of each of the competencies analyzed:
CritThink > (Creativity = NW) > Innovation > Initiative > TW