This is a seven-lesson module that guides students through the design process to create nature-inspired solutions to real-world problems.
The lessons prepare students to enter the Biomimicry Institute's Youth Design Challenge.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This collection of lessons emphasizes critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Each lesson provides everything needed for implementation, including presentation slides, teacher notes, and student worksheets.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should already have familiarity with the concept of biomimicry.
The module is designed to span fourteen 55-minute class periods.
There is group work that students will need to complete as homework outside of class.
To access the lessons, add the free Biomimicry and Science: Design Challenge to your cart and click "proceed to checkout." The resource is free, but you will need to provide your name, address, phone number, and email. Once you click "place order," you will receive an email with instructions to access the online platform.
The homepage you will be brought to includes all free content by EcoRise, so you will need to scroll down to the section titled Biomimicry Design Challenge.
Differentiation
Each lesson plan includes options for differentiation, community connection, cultural adaption, cross-disciplinary connection, and assessment.
Teachers can encourage students to submit their projects to the Biomimicry Institute's annual Youth Design Challenge. Typically, registration opens in the fall and submissions are due in the spring.
Scientist Notes
This lesson plan walks teachers through instructing the Biomimicry and Science: Design Challenge. The plan contains 7 individual lessons that build on one another and move students through the phases of identifying a problem and brainstorming solutions with biomimicry in mind. Biomimicry is a way to approach solving complex problems, such as climate change, in a way that emulates nature’s patterns and strategies. Resources, worksheets, presentations, teachers notes, and answer sheets are all provided for each of the seven lessons. The resources were also examined. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
HS-ETS1-2 Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
HS-ETS1-4 Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem.
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
HS-LS1-2 Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-3 Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.
