Friday, 20 November saw the official opening of a new Miljøtek centre at DTU Environment. The Miljøtek comprises a unique experimental teaching facility that features exhibitions designed to stimulate the curiosity of visiting high school students, and thus to boost interest among them in studying to become environmental engineers. DTU Environment is thus joining the growing group of ‘-tek’s at DTU, which already includes the Nanotek and the Biotek centres.
During the inauguration, the first high school class started working with the Miljøtek, running ecotoxicological experiments in the facility to test how toxic the chemicals in their hair shampoo products are to plants that live in water. A total of 22 high school students had put on their white lab coats and got to work.
The laboratory experiment rounded off a typical full-day visit to the department, where the students also take a class in environmental chemistry, run ecosystem calculations and find out more about the study programme. This time, however, the new Miljøtek provided the setting for both the teaching and the experiments. It was evidently quite a challenge for the students to keep their minds on their laboratory experiment when they were surrounded by a host of fascinating experimental setups.
“The lack of premises made the establishment of the Miljøtek a drawn-out process, but we’re here now, and it’s clear for all to see that our work has paid off. So we have every reason to be proud of our joint efforts,” said Thomas Højlund Christensen, Head of Department at DTU Environment, at the official opening ceremony.
Thomas explains that DTU Environment is focusing intently on recruitment through the media of high school visits combined with both social and academic ‘post-visit activities’ as a key supplement to DTU’s more traditional recruitment initiatives. Every year, more than 500 final-year high school students visit the department. In addition to the initiatives mentioned above, the department runs supplementary education activities for high school teachers, an ‘environment camp’ and teaching partnerships with selected high schools.
Around a third of all students from each new intake at DTU Environment have participated in visit activities.