DESIRED OUTCOMES

Big idea/Conceptual Statement:

The study and imitation of natures structures and functions can lead to sustainable solutions to
major human challenges while respecting and conserving the natural world.
Essential Question:
How can the study of nature help us create more sustainable solutions to our problems?

Objectives:
1. Define bio-mimicry while providing examples from the natural world that have served as
inspiration for the design of man-made materials, structures or processes.
2. Explain how scientists use bio-mimicry to enhance engineering design or to create innovative new
products.
3. Classify man-made designs while inferring their original inspirations from nature while providing
explanations for their choices.
4. Apply their understanding of the process of reverse engineering to analyze the structure and
function of a plant/flower.
5. Using the flower/plant as inspiration, create a new design for a product or a system that provides
solutions to our problems.
6. Judge the efficacy and benefit of their own as well as their peers designs that have been inspired
by nature.

Standards:
Structure and Properties of Matter
MS-PS1-3: Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from
natural resources and impact society.
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-5: Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Engineering Design
MS ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to
ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts
on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

MS ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well
they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes:
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or
animals use their external parts to help survive, grow and meet their needs.

PLANNING OF LEARNING ENGAGEMENTS

Pre-requisites:

Students are familiar with the technology to be used: Nearpod

Knowledge of the parts of a flower and its functions.

Materials and Technology:

Materials

iPads/PCs for Nearpod presentation before class.

Access to a PC to show video/pics during class.
Laminated cards with inventions/nature
Realia: velcro items, a collection of different flowers/leafy plants, nest, hive
Tools to reverse engineer the flower: toothpicks, tweezers, cutting object, magnifying glass
Sheets of blank paper/poster paper
Colors, markers, colored pencils, etc
Worksheets/Books/handouts
Plastic bags to store the flower components
Posters for reference

Differentiation:
Readiness levels: The teacher will work through the examples of bio-mimicry with those students
who need more support while others may be able to work through independently. Based on the preassessment exercise, students will be grouped in a way so as to benefit from each others strengths.
Grouping will also change to allow different students to work together, including random grouping.
For students who are struggling or who need more help recalling scientific facts, there will be
supportive material throughout the classroom:
o Posters for: Parts and lifecycle of a plant, the scientific method, the nine laws of biomimicry
o A glossary page for all terminology involved in the lesson
o Reference books on the structure and function of a plant

Learning styles: The Nearpod presentation and the lesson appeal to different learning styles and
intelligences through the use of: worded content (linguistic), pictures & videos (visual, auditory),
movement around the class, manipulation of objects, drawing (kinesthetic & spatial), group work
(inter-personal), self-assessment (intra-personal), providing explanations and justification
(logical) classification of the natural world (naturalistic).

Interests: Examples of bio-mimicry span a range of different topics that will interest a variety of
students: sports, architecture, medicine, technology, etc. Students are given the chance to choose
the plant or flower they would like to analyze. They are provided with different materials and
tools to choose how they would like to analyze and sketch their plants.

5E Inquiry Cycle:
Engage:
Pre-lesson pre-assessment: Presentation on Nearpod

The open-ended questions allow the teacher to know where the students are and what they
already know as well as to get them thinking and raise their interest.
The presentation will pique the students interests by showing them the video by Janine Benyus
and the pictures as well as having them act as nature detectives themselves.
Content provided will introduce the idea of bio-mimicry: definitions, nine laws & different
examples. The students come to class prepared to discuss and take part in active learning.

Lesson Activity 1:
a. Show on-screen a picture of Velcro & distribute actual items with Velcro to class. Allow
students to manipulate the items.
b. T: How many of you have items at home (or on you now) that have Velcro in it? Have you ever
wondered how Velcro first came about/how it was invented/what was its inspiration?
c. Now show a picture of plant burs. T: What do you think is the connection between Velcro &
plant burs?
d. After a brief discussion, show slides/video on dog hair and plant burs connection.
e. T: This was perhaps one of the first examples of bio-mimicry. Can someone give me a definition
in your own words?
f. Go over a few of the interesting responses from the Nearpod presentation. T: Any problems?
Any questions?
Explore:
Lesson Activity 2:
a. T: As you can see some of the most common things which we take for granted may have been
inspired by nature. But is everything we design inspired by nature? What kind of things are not?
(ipods, printers, etc).

b. T: One of the ways we can practice becoming better observers and scientists is to see these
connections between the natural world and our man-made inventions. Remember the nature
detectives exercise? What is the benefit of this and other observation exercises for scientists?
Did you feel you were more in tune to what was happening around you? How can this lead us to
be inspired? At the heart of it, scientists are problem-solvers. If George De Mestral did not seek
to solve this problem of burrs sticking to his pants and dog hair, we may have never come up
with Velcro.
c. Show the students the laminated cards. Each one has 1 nature-inspired design OR an example
from nature. Explain to the students that half of the class has man-made and the other natural
cards and they must try to find the pair that matches their own. Once they have found one
another, they need to discuss why they believe they are pairs and the justification for their
choices. They will then paste them on the poster.
d. T: Who remembers the two ways we can mimic something in nature? (form and process). This
will help you in this activity. Lets take the example we spoke about in class.
e. Model the first example from the ones we did in class Plant Burs & Velcro. Can someone
explain to me why these fit together? What was being mimicked here?
f. Distribute laminated cards.
g. Students pair up, stick the cards in pairs on the poster on the board and write their explanations.
h. Explain to the students that they will be asked to share their findings with the class by describing
the 2 items they paired, how there was a challenge/problem and how the inspiration from nature
provided the solution.
Lesson Activity 3:
Introduce the idea of reverse engineering:
a. T: Now we have discovered what Bio-mimicry is, we have seen actual real-life examples and we
identified the connections between the natural world and man-made inventions. We also took
part in the very essential process of observation. T: What else do we need to do in order to really
investigate how to imitate nature? Is observing from afar enough? Elicit student responses
b. T: Has anyone ever taken something apart before to figure out how it works or to attempt to fix
it? Can you think of a time when you took something apart and learned more about it by
studying its pieces? (bike to better understand how the wheel was attached; my pen to see what
parts were in it; remote-control toy to see how the circuit board looked? Give examples from
own childhood. I couldn't always put it back together properly!
a. T: Congratulations! If you have done so, you are a reverse engineer. Write the word on the
board. T: Looking at the phrase, what do you think reverse engineers do exactly? How is this
related to Bio-mimicry? Elicit student responses
b. Provide the definition of Reverse Engineering as the process of better understanding an object
by taking it apart and studying its different pieces.
c. Pair/group the students differently for this activity.
d. Show the students the flowers/plants.
e. Provide students with the materials and explain that they will carefully take apart the flower,
sketch its components and fill out the worksheet.

i.
ii.
iii.

Describe the colors and textures of the flower. Why was the flower created with these materials?
Describe the overall shape and structure of the flower. What challenge might the flower be solving
by having this shape and structure?
How could an engineer mimic the material, color, shape, and structure of the flower to design
something new?

f. Remind the students to use the resources around the room if they need them.
g. Ask them to choose one or two flowers per pair.
h. T: Any Questions?
Explain:
Lesson Activity 2:
a. Once students have finished pasting the cards on the poster, they take turns presenting their
findings to the class as well as the justification for their pairings.
b. What was the problem or challenge posed? How did the natural world provide inspiration for
the solution? Did you find your pair easily? Did you find yourselves disagreeing? What kind of
things were you looking for to guide you? What was easy/hard? Did the pictures offer clues?
Encourage students to explain their reasoning in a logical way. Does anyone have a different
opinion?
c. What do you notice about all these examples of man-made designs? What kind of impact do
they have on the environment? Is there a cost to the environment in producing or using these
designs?
Lesson Activity 3:
a. Once students have finished filling out the worksheet, they will share their findings.
b. Students show the sketches they have drawn and they explain how they took the flower apart,
what they were thinking & what they learnt from this activity.
c. How is observing something in nature different from actually taking it apart? How does this
exercise help us in understanding how the different parts fit together and how they perform
their set functions?
Lesson Activity 4: (Next session)
a. Once the students have finished their brainstorming sessions on designing a product, they will
present it to the class while evaluating its strengths and weaknesses.
b. How is this design inspired by your study of flowers? What problem or challenge is this design
aiming to solve? Is it environmentally friendly & sustainable? How so?
Throughout this stage, the teacher is rotating around the class to aid the students, direct them in the
right way, offer support and provide clarification.

Elaborate: - Home Learning and next session

Lesson Activity 4:
a. Students are asked to brainstorm potential new products based on what they observed while
reverse engineering the flower. For example, products inspired by the flower might be new
waterproof clothing, a water catchment system for a house, lightweight building materials, a
skyscraper that can sway in the wind without breaking, etc.
b. Elicit from the students the benefits of brainstorming and the proper steps & etiquette.
c. If there is time during the session, have them start, otherwise they begin as home-learning and
continue the following session: each group brainstorms potential products for a few minutes.
Encourage them to write down or draw everyones ideas generated during the brainstorming
process.
d. Think about these questions as you brainstorm: What is the problem this design is trying to
solve? Is it eco-friendly? Is it sustainable? What are you mimicking?
Evaluate:
Pre-assessment: Nearpod
Through students responses to the questions on the Nearpod presentation, the teacher (as well as
the students themselves) can find out what they already know about the subject, if there are any
misconceptions, and their readiness to pursue the actual lesson. This knowledge can serve to
pinpoint areas that need stressing in class, key words that need clarification or background
information that needs to be covered first. It also serves to inform the decision of how to group the
students in the most efficient way possible.
Ongoing:
a.

Observations: during the session, the teacher makes note of students as they:
Answer oral questions in class.
Discuss in pairs & negotiate meaning.
Present their answers
Take apart the flower

b. Worksheet: Students answers to the questions on the worksheet will serve to demonstrate their
understanding. Drawings will show their skill in being able to analyze a plants different
components and its functions.
c. Exit ticket: Visual Thinking Routine: Sentence Phrase Word. The students responses will
be a good indicator of their overall grasp of the lessons objectives.

d. Self/peer-evaluation: Students will get a chance to judge the designs they have come up with
according to:
i. Is there a logical connection between the design and the flower/plant?
ii. Is the design solving a particular problem or addressing a challenge?
iii. Does the design reflect an imitation of Form/Process?
iv. Is the design sustainable and eco-friendly?
v. Is the design practical to produce and use?

ATTACHMENTS AND MATERIALS

References:

http://brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry/
http://www.robaid.com/bionics/bat-biosonar-biomimicry-for-improved-sonar-technology.htm
www.livescience.com
http://coolscitech.com/news/newsid=8.php
http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Synthetic_setae
http://www.eeweek.org/biomimicry-designing-nature
https://www.teachengineering.org/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/biomimicry.htm
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43625/title/Inspired-by-Nature/
http://mathinscience.info/public/biomimicry