Competition for the best formula dron project. Will it be able to stimulate the students?

Abstract

Nowadays, it is very important to improve the motivation of the students in the first courses ofthe different Degrees of Engineering. To this end, it is essential to stimulate the engagement of studentsthrough their participation in the implementation of projects of interest that aim to improve the skillsexpected to obtain in the Degree. For this reason, the “Formula Dron Project” is launched through thesubjects of Economics and Statistics that are taught in the Degree in Telecommunication Technology Engineeringat the Bilbao School of Engineering. This initiative has two objectives; on the one hand, to increasethe motivation of the students both in the subjects defined and in the Grade itself, mainly in itselectronic reference, and, on the other hand, that it serves to be able to show the students of the Bachelora more real practice of the training obtained in this Grade. In order for the proposed project to bemotivating for the students, active methodologies are used and a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is proposed.The problem is presented to the students as a Competition for the creation of the best “FormulaDron Project”, and the detonating question of the method that is presented through a video made bythe teachers by Powtoon tool. From this moment on, students grouped into 3-4 people will follow thetasks set out in the student’s notebook. In the Economics subject the guidelines to follow for the creationof a company are given, since it has been considered that the implementation of the Project is equivalentto the creation of a company. To this end, different activities are proposed to be developed both insideand outside the classroom, which will be monitored through tools such as Padlet, that allows to carryout a complete feed-back between the groups and the teacher, facilitating the transfer of knowledge betweenall the parties involved. In the subject of Statistics, we work on the probability of the demand andthe short-term states of the economy in order to facilitate the simulation of the profitability of the projectthrough Excel software.