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The training of the students of electrical mechanical engineering is based on the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge in the areas of thermodynamics, mechanical, electrical and electronic design, quality control, safety and hygiene and materials. Bringing the application of this knowledge to the solution of real problems requires higher-order cognitive skills such as the development of complex thinking among others. Case-based Learning (CBL) is a methodology that favors active learning and the construction of arguments, allowing students to see theory in the practice in a real-life context. In materials engineering, characterization techniques allow to evaluate the properties of the materials and thereby determine if the material is useful for a given application. Traditionally students learn this content from following procedures, but deciding which technique to use causes those difficulties, especially when it is necessary to define the variables to be measured. Within the course of materials engineering, a case-based educational strategy was applied to a group of 19 students of electrical mechanical Engineering at a public University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico with the purpose of evaluating the knowledge acquired in the subject. The solution of the case "the Ouija of the Devil: the Molecular detector GT200", allowed to identify the level of knowledge on characterization techniques, the variables involved, the limitations and necessary parameters to carry out the measurements, on the other Side, the importance of scientific knowledge was identified to solve problems and its impact on decision-making in public policies and resource management. As this is a case associated with the acquisition of equipment by the Mexican government, whose functions were totally false, it allowed exploring the attitudes of t students towards the corruption and the necessary values to practice the profession. The proposed methodology was that of CBL, the learning evidence was analyzed under a qualitative approach.

We believe we are at the beginning of a new Big Bang. This great explosion places us at the dawn of a new era in learning Physics, and we would like to participate in this fascinating process. Mobile devices are exponentially growing amongst our students, so we are convinced that they must be used to promote active learning. In this work, we will focus on several apps from Wolfram Research Company: Wolfram Alpha, Wolfram Alpha Viewer, Physics I and Physics II. All of them have many possibilities to achieve an autonomous and active learning. These apps allow users to select different options from a specific menu, enter values of the required parameters and the app calculates by itself the magnitude involved in the process. In addition, these apps also allow us to study the major laws of Physics, to look for the different units of the International System of Units or even to manage the most common physical constants. We are convinced that there is a necessity of developing more applications for smartphones that will empower a meaningful learning of Physics using apps for the operating systems iOS, Android, Windows Phone and those that arise in the future. This opportunity, which is provided to us by the new technologies, cannot be unexploited. We must strongly engage into this topic to achieve a meaningful learning. AB thanks the “Generalitat Valenciana” of Spain (project PROMETEOII/2015/015) and the "Vicerrectorado de Tecnologías de la Información" of the University of Alicante, Spain (project GITE-09006-UA).

Teachers are deeply concerned on how to be more effective in our task of teaching. We must organize the contents of our specific area providing them with a logical configuration, for which we must know the mental structure of the students that we have in the classroom. We must shape this mental structure, in a progressive manner, so that they can assimilate the contents that we are trying to transfer, to make the learning as meaningful as possible. In the generative learning model, the links before the stimulus delivered by the teacher and the information stored in the mind of the learner requires an important effort by the student, who should build new conceptual meanings. That effort, which is extremely necessary for a good learning, sometimes is the missing ingredient so that the teaching-learning process can be properly assimilated. In electrical circuits, which we know are perfectly controlled and described by Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's two rules, there are two concepts that correspond to the following physical quantities: voltage and electrical resistance. These two concepts are integrated and linked when the concept of current is presented. This concept is not subordinated to the previous ones, it has the same degree of inclusiveness and gives rise to substantial relations between the three concepts, materializing it into a law: The Ohm, which allows us to relate and to calculate any of the three physical magnitudes, two of them known. The alternate current, in which both the voltage and the current are reversed dozens of times per second, plays an important role in many aspects of our modern life, because it is universally used. Its main feature is that its maximum voltage is easily modifiable through the use of transformers, which greatly facilitates its transfer with very few losses. In this paper, we present a conceptual map so that it is used as a new tool to analyze in a logical manner the underlying structure in the alternate current circuits, with the objective of providing the students from Sciences and Engineering majors with another option to try, amongst all, to achieve a significant learning of this important part of physics. AB thanks the “Generalitat Valenciana” of Spain (project PROMETEOII/2015/015) and the "Vicerrectorado de Tecnologías de la Información" of the University of Alicante, Spain (project GITE-09006-UA).