Pictured above: 1-2 Assistant Teacher, Aila leading an "I Notice, I Wonder" activity with a zoomed-in burdock plant at the launch of the biomimicry study.
Katie Nowak and Xanthe Charov, first and second-grade teachers, designed a new unit with their students investigating biomimicry. Each class began with a “I Notice, I Wonder” activity, viewing a zoomed in burdock plant the natural inspiration for velcro.
“I notice… the curved ends.”
“I notice… the poke at the top.”
“I notice… the curves connected.”
“I notice… the curved stem.”
“I wonder... why it goes out diagonally?”
“I wonder... if it is hair?”
“I wonder... why it looks like velcro?”
This initial activity led students to “notice and wonder” with many images of inventions that were inspired by nature. Over the course of the unit, children talked with students studying biomimicry at USM, asked questions and investigated together, and created their own inventions addressing everyday problems with solutions found in nature.
Here is a little insight into a few of the favorite lessons:
Students looked closely at adaptations, including camouflage. Working in "nesting pairs," children designed and built a nest that took into consideration location and durability using resources found in the classroom habitat. Then they "lay" their eggs and colored them to be well-camouflaged in the nest.
Classes read An Egg is Quiet and A Nest is Noisy, to provide background knowledge and spur discussion. Students were interested to learn how resourceful birds are when building nests in the urban environment (they use plastic cups and straws?!) and why female birds are not as colorful as their male counterparts (they need to be hidden while sitting on their eggs).
Students also experimented to demonstrate how bird bones are hollow (and therefore light) but also strong enough to support a wing, by stabbing a potato with a straw and covering the end of the straw to trap the air (as happens in a birds' wing to give it strength), or leaving the end of the straw uncovered to let the air escape.
Another popular lesson was our "owl hearing test," which revealed how humans (with symmetric ear placement) have difficulty identifying where a sound originates when the sound isn't clearly coming from the left or right side of them (but somewhere in the middle). Students were blindfolded and had to guess which direction the sound was coming from. They also learned how an owl's asymmetric ear placement improves its hearing and is a beneficial adaptation.
After exploring biomimicry inventions, students had the opportunity to design and build their own inventions based on the adaptation on an animal of their choice.
An archerfish word finder
A pillbug portable bed that rolls into a purse
A jackrabbit cooling headpiece
A sharkskin mitten cover
An octopus suction cup
A pelican beak spoon
The inspiration was vast and each invention was unique in solving an everyday problem!