Una experiencia colaborativa entre Biología e Ingeniería Mecánica basada en proyectos COIL

Abstract

Opportunities to participate in multidisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) projects with a strong intercultural component throughout the standard training itinerary for undergraduate students at university level are limited (Lopes et al., 2021). However, it is possible to take advantage of the tools and platforms available online to carry out this type of collaborative learning projects in an interregional or international context or COIL projects --“Collaborative Online International Learning” projects (Rubin, 2017). In this particular project, the collaborative learning experience has focused on a project involving students of the Mathematics subject of the first year of the Biology degree at the University of Coruña and the students of the Applied Mechanics subject of the second year of the Bachelos degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Industrial Electronic and Automation Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao, belonging to the University of the Basque Country, where the vehicular language of teamwork has been English. Each project has been carried out in mixed groups from the two institutions to ensure its multidisciplinary and intercultural nature. These projects have been temporarily structured over six weekly deliverables in which, in addition to working on the biological and mechanical aspects of the competences of the studies of the two degrees, the cultural differences between the members of the work groups have been highlighted. The content of the project has focused on the computation of the volume, weight and center of gravity of a human bone (such as humerus, tibia, radius, etc.) using as data those obtained from photographs or radiographs of the bones. The performance of the numerical computations on these bones, are based on an approximation by sections which are assumed solids of revolution combined with numerical composite quadrature rules and alternatively the Pappus-Guldin Theorem. The results obtained throughout this project will be presented, emphasizing the communication skills and the transversal skills that have been trained in this type of activity developed in a highly collaborative work environment.