Photo by Nedim Kemer

What do science educators from Sweden, a college professor from Spain, a biology doctoral student from Portugal, business school instructors from Switzerland and the U.K., an entrepreneur from Bulgaria, architects from Turkey, and the founder of a biomimicry organization in Japan all have in common? They recently completed a one-week workshop with Biomimicry Institute educators at Findhorn Foundation College in Forres, Scotland, and are eager to use their skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm to promote biomimicry education at their institutions and beyond.

Using an experiential learning process, participants braved frequent Scottish showers to learn some basic tools and techniques of biomimetic design, such as learning to observe nature closely, identifying functional needs, translating biological principles into design terms, and using Life’s Principles to evaluate technologies and systems. The educators also shared an enormous amount of information and techniques with each other, building on the group’s collective knowledge.

Our Biomimicry Educator Training workshops emphasize action, and each educator began developing plans to implement what they learned into their own curricula, programs, and organizations immediately upon their return. Following the workshop, participants have already adapted their syllabi, scheduled internal biomimicry training workshops, taught biomimicry concepts to kids at public museums, and begun work on developing biomimicry toolkits for children.

If your interest is piqued, please consider joining us for one of our next training events. We will conduct a one-day biomimicry training in Boston, MA, in June 2013, prior to our annual Biomimicry Education Summit, and are partnering with Iberoamericana University, one of our Affiliates, to conduct a Biomimicry & Design Workshop in Veracruz State, Mexico, in July 2013. For further details on the latter, please contact instructor, course coordinator, and BEN member: Raúl de Villafranca.