Building with sand -simple outreach activities to promote GeoEngineering
Margarida Pinho-Lopes Pinho-Lopes1
1 University of Southampton
Resumo
The international technical and scientific community is becoming more aware of the need for promoting and attracting student to GeoEngineering. The future of geotechnical education may rely on such initiatives. In recent years universities felt the need to increase the outreach and attractiveness of engineering degrees in general. Many institutions run and fund programs focused on increasing recruitment and on promoting awareness of careers in technology. Secondary students are often little motivated to study science and technology, due to a lack of exposure or to some prejudice, by classifying such areas as difficult and dull. Many times, when choosing a university and a programme, candidates and their families are not aware of the different types of offers and how some programmes stand out from the others, for example, in terms of teaching and learning resources and innovations implemented. Open days, allowing the community to become aware and getting involved in scientific work under development, are good examples of engaging the community in science and technology activities in universities. Programmes including scientific activities such as experimental work, laboratory and field experiments, as well as cultural, sporting and leisure activities have been successfully developed by universities and very well accepted by families and the community. The school summer holidays are good opportunities for young students to get involved in those programmes. For example, University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal, has been successfully organising science and technology open weeks in November and Summer Academies in July over the last years. In the UK the objective of open days is different, as they are more directly targeted at recruitment. The target group are prospective students, usually for the following academic year, who have not yet decided on which course to apply for. The author has been involved in open days both in Portugal and in the UK, organising different outreach activities. This paper will describe some
Palavras-chave: outreach; open days; basic concepts; students perceptions; active learning