Chemical Engineering Meets Sustainability: Aalto's Collaborative Approach

This collaboration between the Aalto Co-Educator (ACE) team and the School of Chemical Engineering is an example of the successful strengthening of sustainability themes into an existing course. The collaboration was spearheaded by motivated teachers who stepped up to co-create and thoughtfully refine existing material. The ACE team's aim was to facilitate the conditions for an existing course to undergo new thinking and development.

The process began with individual interviews with the five members of the teaching team, followed by comprehensive whole-team curriculum mapping workshops. The interviews and workshops offered a holistic view of who was teaching what, allowing the team to see how all the pieces of the puzzle interconnected. Upon reflection, the team recognised that while sustainability was incorporated, there was room for deeper exploration of the themes.

One of the co-lecturers, Eero Hiltunen, reflects: “This Co-Educator project organized busy people together (on several occasions) and facilitated a mindset to modify the course. The team helped us to further clarify the goals of the course. We also analyzed what subtopics are most relevant - in a more systematic manner and with a more open mindset than previously.”

With support from the Aalto Co-Educators, the teaching team stepped beyond a theoretical approach and integrated a segment of the course about the life cycle of a product, where students (literally) get their hands dirty while reflecting on sustainability solutions. 

Now, consider the humble bicycle. You might wonder what a rusty bicycle has to do with first-year chemical engineering studies, but teachers wanted to encourage students to reflect on their future roles as chemical engineers and consider the broader decision-making processes beyond individual projects. 

In groups, students were assigned the task of dismantling a specific part of the bicycle. Each group took their part back to workstations and disassembled it into as many smaller components as possible. This task required teamwork, strategic thinking, and physical effort.

After students dismantled their portion of the bicycle into as many components as possible, they critically analyzed the materials, design, and recycling potential of each component. Why were particular materials chosen? How can they be reused or recycled? These questions form the foundation of discussions and reflections that take place throughout the course.

Via co-creating a course that fosters a deeper understanding of sustainability through hands-on experiences, Aalto University equips its students to become future leaders in creating solutions for a more sustainable world. 

The Aalto Co-Educator team supports teachers and lecturers to integrate solutions for sustainability via a lens of radical creativity and entrepreneurial mindset in easy and functional ways. We have 8 dedicated, curious, and expert team members ready to support you. 

Please contact project lead Elina Kähkönen at [email protected] to discuss potential collaboration.