CHALLENGES-BASED LEARNING AND GAMIFICATION FOR THE COURSE OF NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

Challenges-based learning is a structured model based on inductive methodological strategies, offers general concepts and approaches where students identify the challenges they will have to solve. The challenge-based learning strategy immerses students in real-world problems and makes them responsible for the search for solutions. While gamification associates the use of the game in educational environments. There is a close relationship between challenges-based learning and gamification, since in its rules it allows students to acquire a commitment to overcome different challenges proposed as learning activities. The objective of this work is to apply the strategies of challenges-based learning and gamification in the teaching of numerical methods in engineering. The script of a story was designed in which a young archaeologist locates the notes of a magician where he describes how to make a potion to make a person fall in love. However, the quantities of the ingredients must be calculated accurately as a minimum deviation could cause the mother or the grandfather of the person in love to fall in love, this is where the need to apply the theory of errors is present, as well as diverse numerical methods that allow to solve the challenges that the young person must face to elaborate the potion. The game was developed in 2D, based on the history of the archaeologist, through inquiry the student identifies the challenges that must be solved to obtain the key in each level of the game and continue with the next level until the outcome of the story is known. The challenges-based learning and gamification, was applied to a group of students in the winter of 2018, obtaining a better school performance of the student, greater motivation and a higher percentage of students approved in the course of Numerical Methods in Engineering.