Teachers TryScience

Give Me Biomimetic Shelter

Jun 08 2011

Source: biomimicryinstitute

Summary Information

Keywords:

biomimicry, engineering, design, ecology, ecosystems

Topic:

Earth Science

Geometry

Biology

Estimated Time Required:

5-8 hours

Target Grade (Ages):

Grade 8 (Ages 13-14)

Diversity Indicators:

This lesson is appropriate for all learners and encourages different ways of thinking and learning.

Watch this Lesson in Practice

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LESSON

Goals and Prerequisites

Goals:

To establish an understanding of biomimetic design processes
To encourage students to use nature as inspiration for problem-solving

Prerequisites:

Be able to develop a hypothesis
Be able to apply the scientific method and design engineering principles.

Instructional Objective(s)

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

Identify components of the design process
Articulate the rationale behind the use of biomimetic design
Design a shelter using a target region and species for inspiration
Revise their shelter design based on reflection and feedback.

Instructional Resources

Background:

What is Biomimicry?

Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. The What is Biomimicry? video below explains more:

What is Biomimicry

The core idea is that nature, creative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Through evolution animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. This is the real news of biomimicry: After 3.8 billion years of adaptation, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.

Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best adapted organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to harness energy like a leaf, grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, self-medicate like a chimp, create color like a peacock, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest.

The conscious emulation of life's genius is a survival strategy for the human race, a path to a sustainable future. The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone.

Biomimicry Design Spiral

Before students embark upon designing their shelter, teachers should introduce them to the Biomimicry Design Spiral.

Biomimicry Design Spiral (PDF)

This spiral will help students think about the engineering and design process in an organized way. The spiral emphasizes the reiterative nature of the process—that is, after solving one challenge, then evaluating how well it meets life’s principles, another challenge often arises, and the design process begins anew. For instance, an engineer might design a wind turbine that mimics life’s streamlining principles, but then ask how will it be manufactured? Will the energy use and chemical processing mimic nature too? It can, with another cycle through the design method. You can use the spiral for class discussion and to stimulate thinking about the engineering process. The Design Spiral steps include:

Identify
Interpret
Discover
Abstract
Emulate
Evaluate

This process is much like the one that engineers go through when designing a product. The What is Engineering? video below provides information on the engineering design process.

What is Engineering

You might also find the Asking Good Questions video helpful in generating class discussion.

Asking Good Questions Video

Materials:

Biomimicry Design Spiral (PDF)
Students must request the materials they require to visually represent their design. These materials might include posterboard, clay markers, popsicle sticks, glue, etc.

Procedure:

Students will use the Design Spiral to design a shelter.

Biomimicry Design Spiral (PDF)

A shelter can be a house, apartment building, etc. As an example, you can share with students the following video that shows how an arctic fox has inspired the design of a shelter.

Fox Sample Shelter

1. Students should select a region or species. They should thoroughly research their selection.

2. Using the region or species for inspiration and guidance, students will design a shelter that specifies the physical structure of the shelter, as well as heating and cooling mechanisms and an energy source. They do not need to addess water or food systems.

3. They must create a visual representation of the shelter. They can draw, build, or otherwise visually represent their shelter. Students are also responsible for a concise interpretation of their design to go with the visual representation. This should include a brief explanation of the design features, the problems they solve, and the inspirations for these features. The explanation should clearly state the various decisions the student made and why these decisions were made. Students should also include as much information as possible from the research they have done.

4. Students will also create a longer written defense of their design. It should include the following sections:

Location description, including climate, topography, ecology, and geology
Problem definition: What problems does this specific location require that you solve to have an effective shelter?
Observation and abstraction: What models from nature solve your defined problems in ways suitable to your location? What patterns of solutions occur? Who are the «champions» that have solved your problems and how have they done it?
Application: How did you apply the lessons learned from nature in your shelter design?
Reflection: What are the design flaws in your shelter? Which parts do you think will work well? Explain. How realistic do you think it is to build this shelter given current technologies and costs?

5. This process is meant to be reiterative. If students would like to make changes after their reflection, they could be given the opportunity to do so.

Extensions

Informational Video

The following video may help you create additional learning activities to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Differentiated Instruction Video

Additional Activities

You can also try the ideas below:

The design requirements could be expanded to include food, water, and waste management systems.

Students could actually construct a model of their shelter and create ways to test the success of their design. For example, if a shelter is meant to stand up against heat, students could design a way to test how temperature within the shelter fluctuates depending upon external temperatures.

Students could create business plans that take into account their reflections about how realistic their design is given current technologies and costs.

Students could create designs under different scenarios such as limited budget vs. unlimited budget.

Assessments and Rubrics

If you are interested in learning how to make your own rubric for this or other lessons, you may be interested in watching the How to Make a Rubric video below.

How to Make a Rubric

Or, you can choose to use or customize the one created for this lesson plan below.

Biomimicry Rubric (XLS)

Biomimicry Rubric (PDF)

Assessment Criteria

Self-directed Learner:

Did you turn in all pieces of the assignment on time?
Did you make good use of in-class time to work?
Did you seek help if and when you needed it?
Did you challenge yourself with the project, holding yourself to a high standard?
Did you manage your time well, spreading the work load for the project out over multiple days and work sessions? Information Processor:
Did you read the assignment carefully and follow-through with the specific details of what was required?
Did you identify the information you needed?
Did you access information from multiple, reliable sources?
Did you accurately assess the quality and reliability of your sources?
Did you extract key ideas and information in response to each of the sections of the project?

Knowledgeable Person:

Did you use the biomimetic design process, representing the steps in your written work?
Did you explain the basic site characteristics for your shelter location, including climate, topography, ecology and geology?
Did you identify “champion species” and models from nature that can help you solve your design problems, explaining their solutions to the problems you have identified?

Complex Thinker:

Did you apply the biomimetic design process to your shelter?
Were you able to generalize the problems presented by your site to generate a problem definition from which you could look for solutions in nature?
Did you draw reasonable abstractions from your observations of nature’s solutions to your design problems?
In the face of challenges locating information, did you think creatively about alternative sources, new ways to conceive of the problem you were trying to address, or other locations/species that might have solved similar problems in different locations?

Effective Communicator:

Did you cite your sources using proper APA format?
Is your writing free of grammatical and spelling errors?
Does your writing flow logically? Is it well organized and structured? Do your paragraphs have topic sentences and supporting details within?
Do you include all the sections of the project, clearly delineated? Do you use formatting to help guide the reader through the information?
Is your visual representation easy to interpret? Does it have the required annotations?
Do you include your name on your work? Did any emails you sent to turn in work have the assignment title and due date in the subject line?

External Resources

Ask Nature.org: An online community for people interested in biomimicry

The Biomimicry Institute.org: Promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.

Credits

Biomimetic Shelter Project: Torrey McMillan, The White Mountain School

RESOURCES

Original Resources

Asking Good Questions (MP4)

Biomimicry Design Spiral (PDF)

Biomimicry Rubric (PDF)

Biomimicry Rubric (XLS)

Differentiated Instruction (MP4)

Fox Sample Shelter (MP4)

How to Make a Rubric (MP4)

What is Biomimicry (MP4)

What is Engineering (MP4)

Lessons In Practice

Give Me Biomimetic Shelter Introduction

Introduction

Give Me Biomimetic Shelter Lesson

Lesson

Give Me Biomimetic Shelter Reflection

Reflection

Contributed Resources

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STANDARDS/CURRICULUM

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Comments

I viewed theWhat is

I viewed theWhat is Biomimicry? segment. Having been made curious during our Saturday session, I was most interested in hearing some examples of real-life biomimetics in nature, which were provided. The Velcro/plant burrs, wood glue/mussels & honeycomb structure were clear examples. After viewing, I was still curious about the other two examples. For example, I would love to have heard something basic about how lotus leaves self-clean, thereby meriting our aim to mimic them. Also, what is beneficial about the arrangement of a termite mound? The hot/cold animation that quickly followed was not clear. Finally, as an anatomy & physiology teacher, I would have liked a mammalian example. However, I know that you can not appease everyone, and there are some things that I would have to look up myself to present to my students.

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