How do you get a multicultural group of biologists, designers, engineers, and business folks to unleash their collective creativity in the realm of biomimicry? One way is to send them on a week-long outdoor adventure together to practice deep observation and take inspiration from the volcanic, desert, cloud forest, mangrove, and rainforest ecosystems available in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.
We recently completed our 6th annual Biomimicry and Design workshop in Mexico in conjunction with our Affiliate partner, Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. We were thrilled to have faculty from 3 universities in Mexico participate, as well as one teacher from the U.S., and other students from as far away as Denmark and Colombia.
As with many of our workshops, a week of learning the tools and concepts of biomimicry culminated in a team design challenge. One team envisioned how we could redesign a city block to be more efficient and community-focused, based on the different functions occurring at different canopy levels within the rainforest. Another team assessed the issue of banana production and came up with an entirely new way to ripen and ship bananas that is less polluting and less toxic than existing methods.
At Lake Achichica a participant examines stromatolites - accretionary structures formed by ancient algal biofilms, responsible for much of the oxygen in our atmosphere.
You don’t need to have a rainforest in your backyard though in order to inspire your students or promote interdisciplinary biomimicry work. Try partnering with a local natural history guide to give your classes a tour of a local habitat or two and ask them to focus on the functions various organisms need to survive there. Or ask your students to explore a local trail or park and identify examples of how organisms are doing what they need to do in order to survive, whether that’s capturing water or energy, building structures, or protecting themselves from local weather conditions. Then have them work in groups to design a simple product based on the strategies they observed.
Get additional ideas from our curricula and resources, available for preview or for download to any BEN member.
Photo credits: Gaspar Segura and Gretchen Hooker
