As the world moves toward greener energy solutions, students at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering are increasingly drawn to subjects that prepare them for careers in sustainable energy.

“Every semester, a lot of master’s students want to write their thesis on wind turbines. It is quite a popular topic. They want to work with wind turbines because it relates to the green transition and green energy. And you need certain competencies to work in this area, which are difficult to obtain outside the university. So, they use this opportunity to strengthen their theoretical background in subjects such as multibody dynamics,” explains Giuseppe Abbiati.

Giuseppe Abbiati is an associate professor and the head of the Structural Engineering section at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. Among other things, his research revolves around developing new testing concepts for wind turbine components.

To address the students’ growing interest in wind turbines and multibody dynamics head-on, Giuseppe Abbiati decided to involve PhD Student Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen to deliver a course meeting the increasing student demand.

Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen had previously as a master’s student attended a similar – yet no longer existing – course on a closely related theme. Furthermore, since his current PhD research is dedicated to the particular topic of the course, it served as a perfect opportunity for him to develop his teaching competencies while working on his PhD project.

Bringing teaching and research even closer together

The resulting course, titled Modeling and Testing of Wind Turbines, teaches students how to develop models for structural analysis of wind turbines. The course content also provides an overview of how such models are validated against experiments.

“The course was developed based on work we have done together, Frederik and I. Usually, I teach alone in other courses that are about more standard knowledge. This is the first course where I have a clear overlap with my research, and where I am collaborating with someone who is fully dedicated to that topic. Which is great because, ultimately, the goal is of course to deliver research-based teaching,” says Giuseppe Abbiati.

Giuseppe Abbiati outlines the collaboration as follows:

“Before class, I plan what I need to present, and I define the tasks that need to be done in relation to the production of teaching materials. Then Frederik and I split the work between us. For example, Frederik produces examples of certain methods. In class, I am doing the teaching, and Frederik helps the students with the exercises,” explains Giuseppe Abbiati.

Thus, for the most part, Giuseppe Abbiati leads the teaching in the Modeling and Testing of Wind Turbines course, while Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen has a supporting role. However, Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen took the lead in relation to a specific theme of the course, where he delivered the teaching and developed an accompanying learning activity.

Science Teaching course creating fertile ground for course development

This case of collaborative teaching was initiated at the same time as Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen’s engagement with the Science Teaching course, a competence development programme offered by the CED for PhD students at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Technical Sciences.

In the Science Teaching course, Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen was tasked with designing and delivering a teaching session to develop his abilities as a university teacher. To make the theme of the teaching session as relevant as possible, Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen and Giuseppe Abbiati used the opportunity to address a topic they felt was missing in the overall course structure of Modeling and Testing of Wind Turbines:

“I talked to Giuseppe about what I should try to make a teaching session about, and we spoke about blade element momentum theory,” explains Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen.

“At the Science Teaching course, the CED showed us different creative teaching activities. I was a bit sceptical about whether they would work. But I tried a ‘strip sequence’ activity on a group of students and it worked surprisingly well,” he says.

The ‘strip sequence’ activity involves breaking down a process or concept into discrete parts – so-called ‘strips’ – and asking students to reconstruct the correct order or sequence. The activity reinforces learning by enhancing logical thinking and testing students’ understanding of a process.

“First, I did a general introduction to the theme of blade element momentum theory. Blade element momentum theory follows a very step-by-step approach. So, I printed the theory on a piece of paper, cut it into pieces, and asked the students to figure out how the pieces fit together and find the correct order. I got great feedback on the session, and it was a nice way to vary the teaching and learning activities,“ explains Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen.

Strengthening skills and building confidence

The experience highlighted the mutual benefits of collaboration in teaching. Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen developed his teaching skills by taking practical ownership of a course session, while Giuseppe Abbiati explored new ways of sharing responsibilities in course planning, ensuring an engaging and diverse learning experience for the students.

“I learned a lot through this collaboration. It is a perfect balance; to help with teaching instead of being completely alone and using extensive time preparing for classes. Initially, I found it a bit intimidating having to develop a course session by myself, but it turned out fine and made me more confident in my abilities,” concludes Frederik Nordtorp Kristiansen.

“It is nice that I can delegate the development of course elements. Frederik having to do this assignment through the Science Teaching course forced me to think about how we could collaborate and split the work. It was useful as an exercise for me to define exactly what was reasonable to deliver,” adds Giuseppe Abbiati.

Want to develop your teaching?

If you are inspired by the collaborative approach described, the CED offers a range of courses that can help you get started if you wish to rethink or adjust your teaching.

Some of our courses are tailored to different career levels, ranging from courses for student instructors to those designed for senior academic staff.

• Explore our courses, workshops, and online offers here.