Colaboración intercentros universitarios para el aprendizaje-servicio = Socio-emotional skills and their influence on perception and academic performance in natural science

摘要

Society needs people with different skills to carry out complex tasks. In addition, solutions to the problems of todays society require the cooperation of different disciplines. Can we help university students to learn to work in multidisciplinary teams? Carrying out an energy audit is a complex task. In order to analyze the energy consumption of a building, it is necessary to manage several variables in dynamic and changing processes. In the absence of accurate initial data, the errors in conclusions can be significant. However, we can also fall into the trap of an excess of precision, which makes fieldwork for data collection unviable and which contributes very little more to the final conclusions. Computer science students and architecture students can provide complementary insights to address the problem of studying the energy efficiency of buildings more successfully. Initially, students of Computer Science discuss with students in Architecture Fundamentals the specifications of the project (variables to be measured, characteristics of the building, data structure, etc.). Based on these specifications, they design the necessary IT infrastructure, basically a sensor network, a communication system and a storage system that allows subsequent analysis. On the other hand, the students in architecture receive the valuable data provided. First, they have to learn how to manage, analyze and interpret the large amount of data collected. In this way they have an empirical basis that allows them to draw conclusions validated by the data obtained. In addition to handling statistical data and results offered by the simulations, they have access to real data collected in situ, which allows them to fine-tune their conclusions. In the process, students of both fields mutually enrich their work. Architecture students explain their needs and computer science students focus their efforts on responding to the demands of a real and very useful problem that allows them to develop technical and transversal skills. Finally, society also benefits from this shared learning process. More specifically, the Escuela de Minas of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid offers a classroom to carry out the energy audit and obtains the learning results in a disinterested way.? The conclusions of the study allow them to undertake measures to improve the energy performance of the classroom. They obtain a roadmap that allows them to undertake the investments they can make with the right profitability criteria. But society in general also benefits, since the measures that the Escuela de Minas may undertake result in a reduction in energy consumption, which implies a reduction in CO2 emissions and, therefore, some mitigation of climate change, so urgent at the present time. In the academic year 2018-2019 one architecture student and two computer science students have carried out their respective TFG and PFM in this context, obtaining satisfactory results, both in the technical and learning side.