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Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy

Biomimicry practice and pedagogy unify biology and design for problem solving inspired by nature. Pedagogy that supports biomimicry practice can facilitate the development of novel solutions to address societal needs and challenges. Even though biomimicry affords the possibility to address sustainab...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Linder, Benjamin, Huang, Jean
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9326754/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35892360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7030090
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author Linder, Benjamin
Huang, Jean
author_facet Linder, Benjamin
Huang, Jean
author_sort Linder, Benjamin
collection PubMed
description Biomimicry practice and pedagogy unify biology and design for problem solving inspired by nature. Pedagogy that supports biomimicry practice can facilitate the development of novel solutions to address societal needs and challenges. Even though biomimicry affords the possibility to address sustainability, its current practice does not necessarily lead to doing so, which can result in exploitation of nature and increased unsustainability. Recognition of this risk exists but is not yet widespread in biomimicry pedagogy, and few structured methodologies are available to support learner’s efforts towards sustainability. The difficulties associated with incorporating sustainability within biomimicry are numerous and varied. In this report, we contribute to an understanding of incorporating sustainability in teaching and learning. We describe a pedagogical framing and conceptual scaffolding developed and used to bring sustainability into a biomimicry course for design- and biology-minded engineering students that integrates available biomimicry and design language, tools, and methods. We scaffold consideration of structure-function and conditions conducive to life separately, and then unify these perspectives in a way that is accessible to students. This approach centralizes sustainability in biomimicry practice and asks students to consider the ethics of design practice and responsibility to the natural world. We are encouraged by student outcomes, observing clear signs of creative systemic thinking and higher-level learning from nature. Based on pre- and post-design sprint results, students significantly shifted away from a narrower structure-function practice towards addressing conditions conducive to life. We propose that biomimicry educators and facilitators make a commitment to always include a sustainability approach within their pedagogy or explicitly acknowledge their delivery does not provide for it.
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spelling pubmed-93267542022-07-28 Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy Linder, Benjamin Huang, Jean Biomimetics (Basel) Article Biomimicry practice and pedagogy unify biology and design for problem solving inspired by nature. Pedagogy that supports biomimicry practice can facilitate the development of novel solutions to address societal needs and challenges. Even though biomimicry affords the possibility to address sustainability, its current practice does not necessarily lead to doing so, which can result in exploitation of nature and increased unsustainability. Recognition of this risk exists but is not yet widespread in biomimicry pedagogy, and few structured methodologies are available to support learner’s efforts towards sustainability. The difficulties associated with incorporating sustainability within biomimicry are numerous and varied. In this report, we contribute to an understanding of incorporating sustainability in teaching and learning. We describe a pedagogical framing and conceptual scaffolding developed and used to bring sustainability into a biomimicry course for design- and biology-minded engineering students that integrates available biomimicry and design language, tools, and methods. We scaffold consideration of structure-function and conditions conducive to life separately, and then unify these perspectives in a way that is accessible to students. This approach centralizes sustainability in biomimicry practice and asks students to consider the ethics of design practice and responsibility to the natural world. We are encouraged by student outcomes, observing clear signs of creative systemic thinking and higher-level learning from nature. Based on pre- and post-design sprint results, students significantly shifted away from a narrower structure-function practice towards addressing conditions conducive to life. We propose that biomimicry educators and facilitators make a commitment to always include a sustainability approach within their pedagogy or explicitly acknowledge their delivery does not provide for it. MDPI 2022-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9326754/ /pubmed/35892360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7030090 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Linder, Benjamin
Huang, Jean
Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title_full Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title_fullStr Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title_full_unstemmed Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title_short Beyond Structure-Function: Getting at Sustainability within Biomimicry Pedagogy
title_sort beyond structure-function: getting at sustainability within biomimicry pedagogy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9326754/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35892360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7030090
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