Model Design and Calculation with Polymeric and Composite Materials through Project-Based Learning

Abstract

[EN] The new educational paradigm requires new active methodologies to fulfil the market demanding needs. Students need to join the competitive labor market with optimal skills to achieve all their professional objectives. That is why the current teaching-learning process requires disruptive changes through the implementation of innovative methodologies such as the Project-Based Learning (PBL). The PBL is a methodology that allows students to acquire the key knowledge and skills through the elaboration of a project that gives response to a real problem. According to the Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience (Dale, 1946) the PBL is an active methodology since it is located at the basis of the pyramid in the layer of: `Direct Purposeful Experience ¿ Go through a Direct Experience¿. Based on Dale¿s results, students will remember 90% of what they do as they perform the project. In light of this, and with the main goal of prepare suitable professionals, in the Mechanical Engineering Degree of the Universitat Politècnica de València, a PBL model has been defined. This model involves the following three subjects: (i) Polymer Matrix Composite Materials Engineering; (ii) Manufacturing processes of polymer matrix composite materials and (iii) Advanced design with polymers: Project with composite materials. All these subjects are taught in the second semester of the 4th year of the Mechanical Engineering Degree. The PBL model, which consists of the design and calculation of a pressure tank by using CAD/CAE tools such as SolidWorks, will be developed concurrently among the three subjects. In this article, the PBL model is defined as well as the steps and considerations that have been followed and taken into account for its definition.