Education in Sustainability and Promotion of Scientific-Technical Vocations in Pre-university Students Through the Construction of a Solar Vehicle

Sustainability policies must have a strong educational component, since they must remain in time and be accepted as part of the reality of the new generations. The necessary care of the environment has opened a window of opportunities for engineers and scientists, since the vast majority of products must be redesigned or adapted to a new regulatory framework stricter with the care of the environment. These new opportunities require qualified engineers, however, we are seeing how technical qualifications have fewer and fewer students (at least in Spain). To correct this contradiction, the authors have devised a project that consists of the construction of a solar vehicle by pre-university students, to later carry out a public competition in which to reward the best projects. In this way, the authors intend to motivate these students to enroll in technical degrees, while promoting ecological awareness and giving visibility to the social and educational work of university research groups.