The cultivation of environmentally aware and sensitive attitudes and the promotion and embedding of green and recycling culture and practices are critically dependent on Education. Early introduction of learners to the notions of ecosystems, sustainability, recycling and the cyclic economy ensures a life-long adoption of such practices at the individual, the professional and the social level. In the present paper, an innovative educational method and scenario is proposed that is based on laboratory experimentation aimed at the reclaiming of components/parts from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) devices and the design and construction of new objects/products from these. The method is proposed for vocational education at the Upper High School level and for the electrical and electronics engineering curriculum; it is generic enough, however, to be reconfigured for other ages or curricula. The learning process is set up as a collaborative, learning-by-doing activity in the lab, where an analysis (disassembly and component reclaiming) phase is followed by a synthesis (construction of a prototype new object) phase. A pilot application is described along with its evaluation and results. The positive results as to the learning outcomes achieved and as to the environmentally sensitive culture actively promoted among students indicate that the proposed educational method is worthy of further research through full-scale deployment and formal evaluation. © 2019 Author(s).
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