Acquisition of knowledge through creativity and leadership in a multidisciplinary environment

ABSTRACT

Involving students in collaborative projects and experiential learning helps develop transversal skills that, with passive learning, do not usually have specific training or reinforcement. Additionally, certain transversal skills such as the ability to communicate and coordinate in interdisciplinary work groups are essential for our graduates in their professional activity. The project consisted of a simulation of a real work environment in which a multidisciplinary team, made up of students from two different subjects of different degrees, must coordinate their efforts to propose a coherent solution to a problem. This project aims to reinforce the skills and competencies necessary both for the development of the rest of the subjects and for the subsequent exercise of the profession. These skills require reinforcement not only from the teacher but also from the classmates themselves, who would be competitors, students and the jury at the same time when assessing the results of the rest of the students. The problem to be solved focused on a proposal related to the supply of energy for a hypothetical agricultural industry, where agricultural engineering students carried out a design project for an electrical installation and the building students participated in the project by conducting an energy audit. Through collaborative work, it has been seen that students show a total willingness to work with students of other degrees and that the learning process improves since there is a greater interaction of skills and knowledge, which gives them an interdisciplinary vision of what it would perform a real job. Despite the difficult situation motivated by COVID pandemic, the project was successful and in total 25 students participated demonstrating that cooperative learning improves transversal skills.