Biomimicry San Diego offers a number of hands-on biomimicry experiential learning experiences designed for children and adults alike. The goal of these educational programs is to re-connect the San Diego community with nature, teaching participants how to learn from our local critters and how to apply nature's genius to human design challenges. Biomimicry San Diego team is dedicated to teaching and supporting biomimicry education throughout the region.
School Field Trip - Guided Nature Walks
Biomimicry San Diego facilitates a number of guided nature walks year around in San Diego County. Each experience involves a local naturalist and certified professional biomimicry experts and a group of "nature learners". The walks are scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays; featuring the following locations: Torrey Pine State Natural Reserve, Los Penasquitos Canyon Reserve, Cuyamaca State Park, and Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation.
Nature guided walks lead participants to natural attractions where wildlife and scenic locations are the focus of the tour. These guides are experts in the natural sciences, biomimicry and have the ability to engage participants with their knowledge of biology, geology, and the history of the location. The goal of the biomimicry guided nature walk is to lead a small group of individuals to an often protected but scenic natural area while having little or no impact on the environment. Participants are offered insight on the environmental impact of human actions as guides attempt to foster a general appreciation of the natural habitat.
What you will learn in our outside activities:
- Biomimicry Thinking
- Functional Biology
- Hand-on learning activities
- How to observe nature
- Learn from the local champions adapters
Local Habitat Immersion
San Diego County is comprised of many unique regional ecosystems that are very rich in biodiversity. In fact, San Diego has more biodiversity than any other county in North America, and along with the rest of California, is among the top ten biodiversity regions on Earth. The mild, Mediterranean climate (hot dry summers and cool, wet winters) and varied landforms create a number of distinct habitats, including: beaches; salt marshes and lagoons; coastal sage scrub; grasslands; chaparral; oak woodlands; mixed conifer forests; freshwater marshes and meadows; and desert. Scientists describe the region as a conservation hotspot due to large variety of threatened and endangered endemic species that live here.
In this educational session participants will be immersed on how to deeply understand local habitats and learn from these unique species. They will learn how to observe and identify local champion adapters, and understand unique adaptability and survival strategies. The educational sessions are scheduled on Saturdays or Sundays.
Fundamentals of Biomimicry - Introductory Workshop
The Fundamentals of Biomimicry workshop provides an introduction to biomimicry thinking. Innovative entrepreneurs who wish to make sustainability an integral part of their work need inspiring examples of how it can be done. This course engages participants in how we can learn from natural processes to create products and services that are models of resource efficiency and beauty. Participants will explore the principles of biomimicry in depth and look at a number of architectural and engineering applications that have used this discipline to achieve radical improvements in resource efficiency.
Biomimicry Educational Workshop Series
The biomimicry educational workshop is a four part series, you'll co-learn with professionals and students from a wide range of disciplines about the foundations of biomimicry and equip yourself to approach pressing design challenges by drawing inspiration from the natural world. You'll have a chance to explore the natural inspiring organisms in San Diego, led by local experts (e.g. local naturalists, biomimicry certified professionals) who will reveal to you a whole new way of viewing and valuing the natural world!
Deer Antlers Inspire Basis of Super-Tough Materials
What makes the antlers of a deer so bone-crushingly strong? Scientists at the University of York in the UK weren't not sure exactly how the moisture level in deer antlers affects their strength. They studied antlers that were cut just before the stage when stags start dueling, when they need their antlers to be at their strongest, and discovered that during this period, the antlers dry out. Dry, stiff materials are usually brittle and easily breakable, but deer antlers proved to be 2.4 times stronger than wet bone. This revelation seems to have solved a puzzling problem for engineers: making a material that is both stiff and tough. The structure of deer antlers will likely become the basis of incredibly durable industrial materials. (Source: WebEcosit.com)
Honeycomb Structure
A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain larvae, and store honey and pollen. The axes of honeycomb cells are always quasi-horizontal, and the non-angled rows of honeycomb cells are always horizontally (not vertically) aligned. Thus, each cell has two vertical walls, with "floors" and "ceilings" composed of two angled walls. The hexagonal form creates large volume spaces with the least amount of materials