Recently, our colleagues Dr. Mira Rochyadi-Reetz and Prof. Dr. Jens Wolling presented their interdisciplinary teaching project on waste separation at the conference "Innovative formats for education for sustainable development in higher education" at the University of Vechta.
The teaching project is part of the KLIMA-N project. It is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Empirical Media Research and Political Communication (EMPK) and the Department of Product and System Development of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering under the direction of Prof. Stephan Husung.
A key element of the project is the integration of existing courses: “Communication for a Better Future” in the Master's program in Media and Communication Science, and “Methods of Product and System Development” for Bachelor's students in Mechanical Engineering.
In both courses, students worked together on a real-world problem: improving waste separation in a campus building at TU Ilmenau.
In their presentation on September 1st, Dr. Mira Rochyadi-Reetz and Prof. Dr. Jens Wolling shared not only their experiences from the project but also evaluation results and key insights for future interdisciplinary teaching formats focused on sustainable development at TU Ilmenau.
One of the main takeaways was that the working methods and expectations in the two academic fields differ significantly. Therefore, detailed coordination between instructors is essential. It also became clear that motivational incentives are needed to make interdisciplinary collaboration attractive for students.
A particular challenge lies in ensuring that technical degree programs go beyond developing sustainable technical solutions — they must also incorporate the broader goals of education for sustainable development (ESD).
