A novel pedagogical tool integrating sustainability competence into engineering degrees

Abstract

The environmental and social crisis has forced the University to have a considerable influence on the society in an active manner and it faces new challenges such as the need to educate professionals that take respectful decisions towards the environment, the sustainability, the social commitment and human development. Many universities, and specifically the Technical University of Catalonia UPC, have included in their curricula a compulsory competence regarding the Sustainability and the Social Commitment in a transversal way. In this paper authors propose a new pedagogical tool oriented to scientific and technological higher education related with modeling and simulation of dynamic systems. This resource consists of a set of didactic materials divided into different themes (water and waste management, renewable energy...). These materials are in web format, and this tool is aimed at helping faculty to integrate the competence into the specific competences of every subject. This pedagogical tool has been used, tested and assessed in “Dynamic Systems Simulation” subject in the Industrial Engineering Degree at UPC. The use of this pedagogical tool has provided satisfactory and encouraging results at all levels, knowledge, procedures and attitudes.