Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!
Overview: Today we are going to take a look at a topic that you may not have ever learned about in school, yet it is something that impacts your life every single day. Today we are going to examine the exciting field of biomimicry! Biomimicry is the design and production of items or services that reflect processes that occur in nature. When we create and build things, like airplanes for example, we can mimic the biology of birds that depend on their wings to take flight.
Grade Level: 3-5
**For older students, dive deeper into this activity with our additional activity found down below in this blog post!
Theme: Earth Systems
Supervision needed? Yes
Essential Questions:
What is biomimicry?
How do humans use biomimicry to our advantage?
Materials Needed:
Activity One:
Multiple different surfaces
A plastic cutting board, piece of paper, sheet, get creative!
Multiple liquid materials
water, soap, honey, coconut oil, olive oil, etc.
Small object (M&M, penny, eraser)
Activity Two:
A flower or plant from outside (or from Fridays lesson) Try to choose a wildflower or a plant that is in abundance in your backyard!
Toothpicks, tweezers
Paper and pencil
Optional: Magnifying glass
Standards:
Tune in to the video below to learn more about this incredible topic!
Vocabulary terms
Biomimicry: the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes.
Engineer (noun): a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or public works.
Evolution: the process of growth and development or the theory that organisms have grown and developed from past organisms.
Explore engineering!
There are many different ways engineers can apply the principles of biomimicry to designing something and problem solving. Check out these three activities to explore the ways biomimicry can be used! Choose which activity sounds the most exciting to YOU, and go for it!
Activity 1: Exploring the Features of Slippery Surfaces
This activity is best suited for 5+, unless parental supervision and support is present.
Sometimes, simple biomimicry principles allow us to create an easy solution to an everyday problem. One example of this is how engineers haven taken a cue from a plant, called the pitcher plant. The pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant, meaning it eats insects. When insects land on the pitcher plant, they slip down a tube and get stuck inside the plant. This plant is extremely slippery due to a coating of liquid on the surface of the plant!
For this activity, you will need:
Multiple different surfaces
A plastic cutting board, piece of paper, sheet, get creative!
Multiple liquid materials
water, soap, honey, coconut oil, olive oil, etc.
Small object (M&M, penny, eraser)
Experiment: Explore which combination of materials and liquids create the most slippery surface possible! Record your findings and observe what elements of your design made the most slippery surface, and why!
Activity 2 Part 1: Deconstruction of a Flower
This activity can be done with all ages.
This activity is going to require a form of reverse engineering. We already learned that engineering is the process of creating a product or solution, and reverse engineering is similar. However, when you reverse engineer, you will be deconstructing something, observing it and recording information about your observations, and then use those observations to create something new!
For this activity, you will need:
A flower or plant from outside (or from Fridays lesson) Try to choose a wildflower or a plant that is in abundance in your backyard!
Toothpicks, tweezers
Paper and pencil
Optional: Magnifying glass
Step 1: Separate the parts of the plant/flower (look back to Fridays lesson for a review on the part of the flower!)
Step 2: Observe the colors and textures of the plant/flower. Why do you think there are certain colors on different parts of the flower? Why do you think there are different textures on different parts?
Step 3: Observe the shape of the plant/flower. Why do you think the flower is structured the way it is? Hint: Think about which way the plant/flower grows, which parts of the plant/flower on on the top vs. the bottom and why?
Step 4: Pour water over your plant. Observe what happens. Does the water roll off the plant quickly? Does it get captured/stuck in parts of the plant? Does the water get absorbed into any part of the plant?
Step 5: Answer these questions in your observation: Is the stem of your plant strong/weak/flexible? Can your plant capture lots of sunlight? How? Does your plant have any features to repel predators?
Alternative Activity: If you loved the first part of this activity and are eager to explore more features of nature, before you move on to part 2, get outside! Observe other plants and animals features, such as the way tree branches grow and sway with the breeze, the structure of a spider web, or anything that was mentioned in the video above!
Activity 2 Part 2: Observation/Imitation
Use your observations from part 1 and/or the additional activity to envision a new product that mimics some of the properties of nature that you just observed. Check out these examples to get yourself started!
Observation: The sunflower has very large leaves and petals. This feature may exist to allow the plant to capture lots of sunlight to help the plant grow.
Imitation: I could design a solar panel to mimic the shape and structure of sunflower leaves to capture sunlight for energy production.
Observation: The stem of the sunflower is extremely fuzzy. The fuzz helps keep the plant from losing heat and moisture.
Imitation: I can design a sweater to be fuzzy like the stem of a sunflower to help keep me warm.
Observation: Water rolls off the petals of the flower really quickly.
Imitation: How can I create a material that resembles the structure of a flower petal so that is is water proof/water repellent?