scientix 11th spne brussels 18 mar 2016: ecity

VIRTUAL CITY ENVIRONMENT FOR ENGINEERING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING

2014-2015http://ecity-project.eu

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FUNDED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. THIS PUBLICATION REFLECTS THE VIEWS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THE COMMISSION CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USE WHICH MAY BE MADE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN.© eeGeo

Virtual CityDesign and manage your own city

Problem-based Learning8 scenarios avaliable to engage into engineering

2HTTP://ECITY-PROJECT.EU

VIRTUAL CITY ENVIRONMENT FOR ENGINEERING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FUNDED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. THIS PUBLICATION REFLECTS THE VIEWS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THE COMMISSION CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USE WHICH MAY BE MADE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN.

PARTNERS

Instituto Superior de Engenharia do

Porto, Portugal

University of Thessaly, Greece

Fondazione Ikaros / Santa Rita, Italy

University of Vigo, Spain

Virtual Campus, Portugal

University of Valencia,

Spain

Ayas Naime Ali Karatas Cok

Programli Lisesi, Turkey

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Motivations

• The difficulty that secondary education students have with Mathematics and other Science. This prevents these students to follow a technical academic path like Engineering.

• This is not due to lesser skills of these youngsters but mostly due to wrong teaching strategies. We cannot forget that this generation is the "net-generation" or "digital natives”.

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Goals

1. Design, develop and validate a pedagogical methodology, supported by a city-development game engine (SimCity like).

2. A validated pedagogical methodology to integrate the eCity platform in engineering schools

3. A motivational methodology to be used in secondary or vocational schools to integrate the eCity platform as a complementary activity for students to develop their interest and motivation towards engineering

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Target Groups

1. Students from secondary and vocational schools (initial levels) that need to be motivated to follow and engineering or technical academic career

2. Students from higher education in Engineering careers

3. Teachers/trainers from secondary and vocational schools which will support their students and benefit from the eCity platform as a complement to their teaching

4. Teachers from Higher Education and Engineering faculties that will be able to tutor their students and complement their teaching

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Problem-based Learning (PBL)

• Students develop their ability to go through a problem solving process, usually based on real-life situations.

• Engineering is one of the areas where PBL is a valid learning alternative.

• Games can be instantiated for learning as they involve mental and physical stimulation and develop practical skills.

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Analysis of Best Practices

Academic knowledge needed to play

Sophisticated design techniques

Multiple scenarios

Promotion of interes and creativity in

players

Promotion of social interaction

Promoting the use of games

Communication on social networks

Multilingual and multiplatform

Games development

Facilitate learning tasks

Evaluation

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Results: eCity Game Engine

• Windows

• Mac

• Linux

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Results: a set of 8 ready-available problems

9

Energy Distribution

Renewable Energies Internet Server

ProvidersMobile

Connection

Earthquake Protection

Flood Protection Pollution Public Transportation

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Results: Pedagogical and Motivational Methodologies

• Students playing the scenarios as an introduction to topics or as a motivation

• Engineering students themselves will develop new challenges and problems, applying the concepts learned at higher education

• Secondary/Vocational students will be solving the set of project-developed challenges plus the new ones with the support of engineering students

Thanks!

Manuel Caeiro RodríguezUniversidade de Vigo

manuel.caeiro@uvigo.es

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FUNDED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. THIS PUBLICATION REFLECTS THE VIEWS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THE COMMISSION CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USE WHICH MAY BE MADE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN.© eeGeo