Meteorology for Maritime Students. Literature Search for Relevant Information on Meteorological Subject and Promotion of Teamwork

Abstract

The Teaching Innovation Project to which we refer below has been focused to pupils of the subject "Meteorology", taught in the third year of the degree in Nautical Sciences and Maritime Transport. Furthermore, the general and specific skills enhanced in the students through this project, are very useful for many other subjects on their degree. The implementation of this project sought the achievement of several learning objectives. First, it was intended to improve the student's preparation in the subject, trying to make more attractive for pupils the usually tedious process of searching and analysis of relevant bibliographic information, not only from an academic point of view, but also from the perspective of the future sailor. Secondly but not least, it has been tried to promote studying and working habits through team activities. Although individual work creates habits of personal reflection, since the student marks his own learning patterns, it carries the risk of leading to subjective interpretations that are little contrast; therefore, is necessary to find a way to properly combine individual and group work. To achieve the aforementioned objectives, this teaching project has enhanced the active work of the student by conducting activities of five members designing thematic posters (chosen from a list of proposed topics), which are later exposed and discussed publicly. Through continuous interaction with fellow students in the preparation of the posters, we have sought to foster critical and self-critical capacity, as well as constructive competition. It promotes creativity and increase the investment of the student in improving their training. A poster is a type of academic communication of great educational interest since, in addition to its obvious importance in the academic field, it provides educational benefits that will be briefly explained below. By having a limited space, the student is forced to develop their ability for synthesize, through the use of graphs, tables, images, etc. This in turn requires applying their capacity for analysis, discerning essential and superfluous concepts. At last, the public exposition and discussion increases the responsibility that falls on the student facing their peers, which positively affects to the quality of the work. This teaching project has been carried out throughout the corresponding semester. With this purpose, a certain number of hours of practical classes were assigned. This affords the student to devote more time for the accomplishment of his work, as well as it allows the teacher a punctual and immediate follow-up of its development. The chosen format (poster size) favoured the attainment of several of the didactic objectives sought, at the same time that it served as an introduction to the student in the methodologies and vehicles of knowledge broadcasting at the academic world.

“On the Shoulders of Giants”. The History of Women and Men in Physics as a Teaching Innovation in Engineering Degrees

“…Therefore, different alternative methodologies have been tried successfully to increase the number of students that pass this kind of subjects: audio/visual resources, use of GPS and Google Earth, use of "rules of thumb", tutorials to promote self-directed programming learning, collection of practical exercises already solved, literature search for relevant information and promotion of teamwork, etc. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”