Even in temperate regions such as Germany, the consequences of climate change are increasingly being felt in the form of heat waves, floods, heavy rainfall events or intense storms and their greater frequency. Current results of climate research have shown that climate change is increasing the risk of extreme weather conditions such as drought, heat and heavy rain, also in Germany. These problems lead to increasing complications in infrastructure, not only in Germany, and repeatedly pose new challenges for engineers.
Incorporating the latest findings on the effects of climate change and current adaptation strategies into university curricula is therefore particularly important in the engineering sciences in order to inform students about upcoming changes. In this way, more flexibility or the necessary adaptation measures can be directly integrated into the planning and operation of technical facilities and infrastructures in order to be prepared for future changes. Therefore, Klima ROBUST will develop a hybrid teaching-learning module to provide teachers and students of different engineering disciplines with new content on climate, environment and weather impacts on technologies in a multi-perspective and interactive way. The educational module will contain open educational materials (OER) and include three toolboxes that require different levels of prior knowledge, but are divided into individual, self-contained components. Following the conception and presentation of the prototypes, a trial of the module or individual components thereof is planned for the winter semester 2022/23.
The following sub-goals are being pursued in the Climate-ROBUST project:
- (1) the preparation of an overview of the environment- and climate-induced challenges to technology of critical infrastructures and civil protection and disaster management in Germany as well as the already established or missing educational content at German colleges and universities in different engineering sciences.
- (2) the development of the interactive educational module Climate-ROBUST (based on online and face-to-face parts) for the introduction of the topic "Climate change and climate adaptation from the perspective of adaptation of technology for engineering sciences".
- (3) the testing of the developed educational module in cooperation with at least five German universities in study modules suitable for this purpose.
- (4) the evaluation of the application and acceptance of the educational module Climate ROBUST and the blended learning concept by teachers and students.
- (5) the parallel establishment of a network of learners, teachers as well as researchers and actors in climate adaptation technology (based on a digital network platform).
The project is funded by the BMUV Project executing agency ZUG
