The Mechanical Engineering Department (DEM) of University of Aveiro (UA) is promoting a set of workshops on the development of transversal competences designed towards teachers on Engineering or STEM areas, on July 15 and July 19. These workshops are organized by Joelyn de Lima, from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The participation is free of charge, but requires previous registration.

Workshop Organization and Registration

Under the scope of the 3T PLAY project financed by The LEGO Foundation, a set of workshops will be presented by Joelyn de Lima (EPFL).

Joelyn de Lima, graduate in Biological Sciences, is a scientist and pedagogical consultant at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Currently her research and practice are focused in the promotion of matters of inclusion under the context of higher education institutes.

To register your participation in these workshops, please access the following link: https://forms.ua.pt/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=512818&lang=pt

Event Program

July 15 (Monday), 10:30am—12pm
How to support students to develop planning and risk management skills

Planning and risk management are important skills not only in higher education (e.g. course designs, theses, etc.) but also in many professional roles. Students often underestimate the importance of planning and risk assessment and, consequently, face unnecessary difficulties in their projects. Therefore, this workshop is designed to develop the following skills:

  • Identify the typical difficulties that students have in projects;
  • Develop professional skills, such as project management and decision making;
  • Work together and collaboratively on projects.

July 15 (Monday), 2pm–3:15pm
How to support students to develop skills that promote sustainability

Sustainability must be integrated into everything we do, including engineering and student projects. This experimental activity uses the selection of materials for a wind turbine to engage participants in a contextualized negotiation of multiple facets of sustainability. Participants begin by assuming one of four engineering roles to identify specific sustainability priorities based on their responsibilities and expertise. They then represent the perspective of their assigned role to optimize sustainability in the project. The objective is to develop the following skills:

  • Perspective taking, applied to various stakeholders;
  • Systemic thinking, applied to the facets of sustainability;
  • Negotiation.

July 19 (Friday), 10:30am–12pm
How to support students to develop coaching and peer teaching skills

Students learn more when they are actively involved in the learning process. Although practical activities, laboratories and projects are times when students are active, the benefits of learning can be expanded with guidance strategies. This activity will allow fellow students and teaching assistants to implement two evidence-based strategies, teaching with questions and giving process-level feedback, to help students develop relevant and transferable thinking skills.

It aims to develop the following skills:

  • Use questions to increase student engagement and, consequently, their learning;
  • Give process-level feedback to support the development of transferable thinking skills.

July 19 (Friday), 2pm–4pm
How to design your own activity to teach soft skills*

*Registration for this workshop requires participation in any of the other three.

This activity will guide students in identifying relevant transversal skills and designing corresponding experiential learning activities. Explicit use of scaffolding, using our trident framework, will ensure that the activity undertaken includes the three essential aspects of solid skill development: knowing, experiencing and learning from experience. This activity is designed for higher education teachers and helps them:

  • Identify relevant transversal skills for your students;
  • Design a prototype activity based on the trident board to develop students’ skill level.