The question in the headline was examined by teams of Finnish and Danish engineering students in January at VAMK when we had the pleasure of receiving a visiting group of Danish engineering students from UCN Aalborg together with their teachers Niels Jørgen Andreasen and Mariia Kravchenko. The Danish students were joining VAMK`s mechanical engineering students in a “Waste to energy” workshop for two weeks.
This workshop was organized as a joint effort between VAMK`s Energy and Environment and Mechanical Engineering degree programs and UCN`s Energy Management degree program. The main responsibility was carried out by VAMK`s teachers Adebayo Agbejule and Vesa-Matti Honkanen and HODs Riitta Niemelä and Lotta Saarikoski and several UCN staff members. In the future VAMK´s students from both the energy and environment as well as the mechanical engineering degree program will visit UCN in order to participate in an energy related workshop organized by the Danish counterpart.
During the two weeks of the workshop the students were e.g. making an excursion to Jepua biogas plant, Westenergy incineration plant and Stormossen biogas plant. After the excursion the students had lectures in the field of waste, technology and environmental issues. The main task for them was to choose technology and develop a plan how to start a waste to energy plant in a certain country abroad. This assignment was carried out in multicultural teams where VAMK´s and UCN`s students were mixed.
The students presented their project work on the last day of the workshop and the results were very good. Both technology as well as team working skills were being developed. It can be concluded that this is a very effective way of learning and many students expressed their wish that the pedagogy at UAS:s could move more into this direction in the future. Also the teaching staff found the workshop method very useful and rewarding even though it demands more preparation and organizing work than the traditional classroom teaching.
See you next autumn in Denmark!
Visit to Jeppo Biogas plant in Jepua.
New knowledge about waste management at Stormossen.
Happy VAMK and UCN students and staff after the presentations.
Text: Lotta Saarikoski, Principal Lecturer, Head of Degree Programme
Photos: Lotta Saarikoski and Kodjovi Lotchi