Students are expected to acquire skills allowing independent and continuous learning of the subject. Therefore, critical reasoning and ability to process information, as well as motivation for quality and strictness are fostered. The acquisition of theoretical knowledge through frontal classes is complemented with continuous evaluation of short essays (redacted independently by students) and participation in discussions and practical classes. Students are expected to elaborate a larger group essay using the online application Chronozoom, to build up timelines which will serve as a way to illustrate the environmental thematic chosen by the students. That will be presented and defended in the class. Both essays will focus on current environmental problems or issues, where independent search and evaluation of information will be promoted.
Methodology will combine both frontal classes and practical activities, as well as group discussions.
In frontal classes, the general concept of the subjects will be exposed synthetically. PPT presentations and items’ scripts will be available in the Virtual Campus of the University of Oviedo. Students will integrate this information with the suggested bibliography in order to pass the theoretic exam.
Every week an activity on general or local environmental issues (such as a discussion group, classroom practices of group essay presentation) will take place.
- Discussion group and classroom practices.
The relevant information will be previously provided through the Virtual Campus. During practical activities, students will work in small groups, analysing and discussing short documents provided by the professors. Every student will submit a maximum of three essays on the proposed issues, with a maximum extension of two pages each.
The deadline for delivery classroom practices works will be determine by the responsible professsor. The deadline will be communicated in class and published on the Virtual Campus, within the "News Forum" of the subject. Works outside the established deadlines will not be accepted. Failure to deliver the aforementioned works on the date will automatically mean failure in the subject. Once the works related to classroom practices have been delivered and evaluated by the responsible professor, and for those students who have not passed them, a review period will be opened so that the students can rework the works. As in the previous case, the deadline for the delivery of the reworked works will be communicated in class and published on the Virtual Campus, within the "News Forum" of the subject.
Likewise, for those students who enroll in the course in January / February (enrollment extension), deadlines will be established for the delivery of the works related to classroom practices, which, as in the previous case, will be published on the Virtual Campus, within the "News Forum" of the subject.
- Collaborative works
The collaborative work will consist of the joint development of content by groups of students. Groups of 3 or 4 students will be formed. The issue of energy resources will be discussed, and each group will work on a specific resource to share and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different resource options according to their environmental effect.
A classroom practice session will be dedicated for topic selection and content distribution. The professor may accept, reject or modify both the subject and the bibliography to be used later proposed by the students. Once the professor´s approval is obtained, the work will be prepared.
In addition to the delivery of a pdf with the collaborative work, and throughout the following 3 weeks, each group will make the oral presentation of their contribution in the corresponding training session. They will present their work in a maximum time of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of debate / questions during which the authors must answer those questions that their colleagues or professors may ask them about the work done. Students will be able to assess the presentation of their classmates' work. At the end of all the presentation sessions of the work of each group, there will be a sharing of all the collaborative work.
The deadline for the delivery the collaborative works will be determine by the responsible professsor.The deadline for the delivery of these collaborative works will be communicated in class and published on the Virtual Campus, within the "News Forum" of the subject. Works outside the established deadlines will not be accepted. Failure to deliver the aforementioned works on the date will automatically mean failure in the subject. Once the collaborative works have been delivered and evaluated by the responsible professor, and for those students who have not passed them, a review period will be opened so that the students can rework the works. As in the previous case, the deadline for the delivery of the reworked works will be communicated in class and published on the Virtual Campus, within the "News Forum" of the subject.
Likewise, for those students who enroll in the course in January / February (enrollment extension) deadlines will be established for the delivery of collaborative works, which, as in the previous case, will be published on the Virtual Campus, within the "Forum News "of the subject.
Collaborative work will be subject to evaluation by the teacher according to what is indicated in the evaluation criteria.
Students who, for just cause (differential evaluation), present a individual work in an exceptional way, must follow the rest of the rules that are applicable to this type of work.