A practical approach to statistics through SRP

Abstract

The paper explains the design and the first part of the implementation of a project within the subject of Statistics with first year students in a Bachelor’s degree in ICT Systems Engineering in Manresa School of Engineering, part of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. We use the methodology of study and research paths within the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic and under the paradigm of “Questioning the world”. The project topic is the “water”. The experience is linked to a broader UPC-driven project, called AquaeSTEAM, based on questions to spark new ideas and science and technology solutions to solve water-related problems. After narrowing down the issue to concrete problematic questions, the students analyse data published in IDESCAT, the Statistical Institute of Catalonia, related to water consumption, both domestic and industrial, factors related to climate change, such as temperature and pluviometry, among others, and will also carry out a survey to link all these studies with the water footprint. The implementation sheds light on the conditions needed to integrate project-based proposals in the traditional organisation of the subject. It also provides information about the changes that may take place to facilitate the integration, in both the subject’s content and instructional structure (lectures and tutorials). The conditions required are then compared with other experiences of study and research paths in engineering education carried out these past years in the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic.