Given the crisis-ridden conditions currently shaping our society and environment, it is essential to address these challenges substantively in higher education teaching. Central to this is working with students in awareness of democratic and societal responsibility and developing excellent and multifaceted scientific responses.

The seminar space, understood both as a physical space and as an expression of the university’s educational mission and a diverse learning community, must be made more open, democratic, and varied to fulfill this obligation. It should be based on the fundamental understanding of holistic research and learning that trains students to become capable, excellent, and resilient actors of their time.

In recent years, students have rightly increasingly demanded beyond-university teaching and learning venues for innovative and engaged education, because intensive and sustainable learning requires not only reading, listening, and observing but also feeling, experiencing, and actively engaging on-site.

To enable innovative teaching formats outside university buildings, we have applied for the acquisition of a cargo bike for UHH, which will serve as a mobile seminar room and can spark a transformative (Sparkle) in the university teaching and learning routine. This SPARKLE cargo bike will be designed to support teaching at outside-the-university learning and teaching sites and to create an interactive, flexible, and inspiring learning environment.

—More insights will follow soon—