Athene Department Award for Good Teaching to Jürgen Mutzl and Dr. Kai Nitzsche

The institute congratulates the two award winners

2024/12/02 by

Award given on the TU's annual Teaching Day on November 20, 2024, for the 'Project Seminar' in the international master's program TropHEE – Innovative teaching format for technical and interdisciplinary skills.

The award recognizes the outstanding commitment of M.Sc. Jürgen Mutzl (Study Office FB 11 – Geo) and Dr. Kai Nitzsche (Soil Mineralogy and Soil Chemistry working group) in conducting the “Project Seminar” of the international Master's program “Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering” (TropHEE).

The 'Project Seminar' is an entirely English-language, innovative teaching format with technical and interdisciplinary content, which is carried out in cooperation with the university's Didactics Office (HDA). It includes an introductory event, the formation of working groups, intercultural workshops (“Working in Intercultural Teams”), workshops on scientific methods and presentation forms (especially poster creation), working on assigned technical topics, and the presentation of the posters created from them in an exhibition with short presentations by the respective working groups. In terms of content, the Project Seminar addresses global topics from the areas of water management and environmental technologies, which are typically linked to ​​'Climate Change'. In line with the focus of the course, the topics are based on case studies from developing countries. The students are also required to evaluate topics and questions against the background of globalization and ethical standards. The students acquire interdisciplinary skills, with a focus on organizational, cooperation and presentation skills.

The 'Project Seminar' is a successful form of teaching that focuses not only on the combination of technical and interdisciplinary skills, but also on intercultural and interdisciplinary aspects. The students work together in small teams that are typically very diverse and require a high degree of communication, cooperation and self-organization. Jürgen Mutzl and Kai Nitzsche are available to the students as central contact persons during the semester to advise them, provide technical and general input and act as a link to other academic staff, including professors at the institute, who may provide technical expert support for individual seminar topics.