Using STEM to Educate Engineers about Sustainability: A Case Study in Mechatronics Teaching and Building a Mobile Robot Using Upcycled and Recycled Materials

Abstract

Background: Sustainable design means to base design on any systems and methods that can fulfill any of the sustainability goals: reducing waste, recycling plastics, upcycle materials, etc., and having less of an impact on the environment. Therefore, a challenge arises: how to design products based on sustainable design. This research presents a case study, about how students in a university’s design department, used sustainability practices in their projects, to adopt sustainability as a major aspect during the design process of a product. Methods: The researchers used STEM methodologies to educate and guide the students to adopt recycling and upcycling practices to design and develop an educational mobile robot for Educational Robotics and Mechatronics applications. Results: Students were encouraged to develop their problem-solving approaches when developing their designed robots, for a mechatronics project given to them. In this way, the researchers fostered the active and motivated participation of students; an increased interest was found related to several factors, including challenge, competition, group participation, and more. Conclusions: This research aimed to evidence the use of upcycled and recycled materials in product development to fulfill some of the sustainability goals. The research’s results were very promising and has sparked an ongoing research.

Adding Machine-Learning Functionality to Real Equipment for Water Preservation: An Evaluation Case Study in Higher Education

“…Apart from the more conventional educational approaches dealing with engineering with electromechanical [39,40] and basic IoT [41] solutions applied in modern industry and agriculture, various educational projects aim to improve individuals' AI literacy. According to recent research [42], preliminary courses on AI are offered at various educational levels, from elementary school [43] and secondary education [44,45] to higher education [46,47].…”

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills for Sustainability in the Educational Robotics Classroom

“…Educational robotics is a specific learning context, supported by resources such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in which pedagogical mediation processes are required to enable students to acquire competencies related to constructive skills and robot programming through the creative ability and inventiveness of the student [3]. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning discipline and educational robotics are currently highly relevant training areas, although there are few studies linking robotics as a tool for developing educational sustainability [4].…”

“…According to the results obtained, educational robotics acts as a multidisciplinary learning tool that enhances the development of skills such as personal autonomy, collaborative work, and emotion management, motivates the acquisition of knowledge based on practice, promotes curricular sustainability, motivates creativity, and creates a new learning context where the teacher is the formative guide of the students and the students are the protagonists of their own learning. According to the research conducted by Chatzopoulos et al [4], education based on the interdisciplinary teaching discipline STEM fosters and promotes positive learning attitudes aimed at cultural and social sustainability. In robotics workshops, students develop a predisposition to developing skills such as teamwork, stress management and control, problem-solving, improved selfesteem and assertive decision-making, and the ability to think critically and on the basis of emotion management [36].…”

“…[42] considers that the design and assembly of robots are part of collaborative learning that promotes creative stimulation in addressing and solving various problems that arise during the development of activities, awakening and stimulating the curiosity of students. For this purpose, in educational robotics classrooms, the robots built by the students comply with the principles of sustainable design through collaboration in working groups and based on learning based on the pedagogical process of teaching in the educational classroom [4].…”