Modeling and experimental practice in the basic cycle of bioengineering: a didactic proposal

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting an experience carried out at the Faculty of Engineering, belonging to the Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos, where a Bioengineering undergraduate program is offered. Subject contents are usually taught in separate courses with different perspectives. This approach lacks an integrative instance. Furthermore, students of the first years of the program who are dealing with basic subjects are often unmotivated because it is difficult for them to see why they need to know these contents and how they may relate them to their future professional work. Our proposal was carried out in the context of two courses: differential equations and electricity and magnetism. The experience was aimed at breaking the usual scheme that distributes content study into separate courses by promoting coordination between the subjects involved in the experience and by fostering experimental work since the early years of the course of study. To this end, an integrative practical work assignment intended to strengthen the interdisciplinary experimental practical formation of the future bioengineers from the first years and to encourage horizontal articulation between the two courses was carried out. It fosters the analysis of the properties of the circuit (resistance and capacitor) while articulating physical concepts, mathematical modeling, computer simulation and one technological application: the defibrillator. The results obtained allow us to infer that the introduction of a specific application in the first years of the course of study could motivate students and stimulate their desire to learn.