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In this paper, the task carried out by professors of different subjects of Survey Engineering is shown within a teaching innovation project with financial help of the UPC (Technical University of Catalonia). The tool has been developed for helping the students to solve practical problems which involve several subjects, and consists of the following parts: a data base of realistic problems with virtual observations of topography or photogrammetric surveys, the necessary theory to find the solution together with the mathematical tools to make the matrix calculus, and finally, in order to check the learning progress and the degree of assimilation of the subjects, a set of self assessment tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an experiment was carried out to test the theory of mental models of Johnson-Laird, which classifies subjects according to their previous knowledge. The subjects of the experiment were high school students of Valencia (Spain), to whom a problem solving test was administered. The results found seem to confirm that an inverse relation between the number of mental models implied in the problem and the percentage of subjects that solve it correctly, as the theory predicts. Moreover, subjects of higher previous knowledge do not always solve problems significantly better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]