Problem-Based Learning in University Studies on Renewable Energies: Case of a Laboratory Windpump

Alain Ulazia and Gabriel Ibarra-Berastegi
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Alain Ulazia: Department of NE and Fluid Mechanics, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Otaola 29, 20600 Eibar, Spain
Gabriel Ibarra-Berastegi: Department of NE and Fluid Mechanics, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Alda, Urkijo, 48013 Bilbao, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: In the last eight years, the new faculty of Engineering in Renewable Energies at the University of the Basque Country in Eibar has developed several sustainability goals related to clean energy and climate change, but also in educative terms related to co-operative learning, motivation, and reflective thinking. The case of the laboratory-windpump challenge is paradigmatic in this sense, since it constitutes successful problem-based learning for the students in terms of the activation of heuristic tools (analogies or diagrams), critical discussions combining complex ideas about aerodynamics, mechanics and hydraulics, and a good group atmosphere. The conclusions of this work are supported by qualitative and quantitative results within a theoretical background based on the logic of discovery and its corresponding constructive-learning strategy, rather than on the logic of justification with given and well-known aprioristic assumptions.

Keywords: fluid mechanics; renewable energy; learn to learn; windpump; reflective thinking; higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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