The NMC Horizon Report 2015(p.6) identified deep learning approaches
(in the form of project and challenge based learning which connects curriculum
to life outside the classroom) and blended learning designs as the two trends
expected to have a strong impact on educational policy over the next five
years. The report also identifies that students have shifted from passive
consumers to creators of knowledge. The
application of biophilic design and biomimicry in schools would appear to
fulfil the some of the hurdles that exist in connecting what students learn
with the real world they live in, which in turn fosters the desire to create knowledge that they deem relevant. The
application of technology in this space to assist in a student’s creating
an understanding of the intricacies of these natural environments is crucial.
One example of this could be the development of a bushland ecosystem on the school grounds where students go to learn about how each of the ecosystems interact with each other. As the students move around this bush environment they experience the smells, sights and sounds which as the research has shown, can have a calming effect on them but also has the potential to increase their motivation to learn. As they move through the area they come across a small lizard on one of the trees but they do not recognize it. They take a photo of it with their iPad and upload it to the schools server which has a database of all the known life in the ecosystem. The photo is analysed and then fed back to the student with all the relevant information describing the lizard and the role it plays in ecosystem. Any additional observations the student make can be uploaded and stored on the database. At some point in the future, there may be an opportunity for those students to develop a fix for a project design problem based on their understanding of that lizard in that ecosystem.
These "new" sciences are already being implemented into some classrooms in the United States where schools are recreating natural environments by building backyard habitats at schools with the intent of students conducting research into the ways local ecosystems and organisms address and overcome specific challenges.
Biomimicry Oregon recently completed a pilot project on nature’s strategies for managing stormwater in the Willamette Valley. Although the project was specifically looking at this one localised area, the project team’s wider objectives included the integration biomimetic strategies and learning into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and environmental education.
High school subjects such as studies of society and the environment (SOSE), geography, industrial design, science and mathematics are good starting points for the introduction of Biomimicry in the classroom.
Leading the way in the application of Biophilia and Biomimicry in the class room across the science and music disciplines is The Icelandic Ministry for Education, Science and Culture which is currently in the implementation stage of the “The Biophilia Education Project” which was developed in Iceland in 2011. A number of primary schools in Reykjavík have participated in experimental teaching using Biophilia with great success[1]. The project utilises “songapps” to make connects between key elements in science, music and range of other subjects with the aim of helping students acquire the skills to develop their musical imagination, and to make music in an impulsive and responsive way, inspired by structures and phenomena in the natural world. Although this project uses the term Biophilia in its name, its aims and goals closely represent that of biomimicry.
As previously stated, for many, school is stressful and the technology designed to make things easier does not necessarily relieve that stress but has a tendency to compound it by increasing the expectation of effort from the learner. Louv (2012) stated that “An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world."
[1] Retrieved from http://biophiliaeducational.org/
One example of this could be the development of a bushland ecosystem on the school grounds where students go to learn about how each of the ecosystems interact with each other. As the students move around this bush environment they experience the smells, sights and sounds which as the research has shown, can have a calming effect on them but also has the potential to increase their motivation to learn. As they move through the area they come across a small lizard on one of the trees but they do not recognize it. They take a photo of it with their iPad and upload it to the schools server which has a database of all the known life in the ecosystem. The photo is analysed and then fed back to the student with all the relevant information describing the lizard and the role it plays in ecosystem. Any additional observations the student make can be uploaded and stored on the database. At some point in the future, there may be an opportunity for those students to develop a fix for a project design problem based on their understanding of that lizard in that ecosystem.
These "new" sciences are already being implemented into some classrooms in the United States where schools are recreating natural environments by building backyard habitats at schools with the intent of students conducting research into the ways local ecosystems and organisms address and overcome specific challenges.
Biomimicry Oregon recently completed a pilot project on nature’s strategies for managing stormwater in the Willamette Valley. Although the project was specifically looking at this one localised area, the project team’s wider objectives included the integration biomimetic strategies and learning into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and environmental education.
High school subjects such as studies of society and the environment (SOSE), geography, industrial design, science and mathematics are good starting points for the introduction of Biomimicry in the classroom.
Leading the way in the application of Biophilia and Biomimicry in the class room across the science and music disciplines is The Icelandic Ministry for Education, Science and Culture which is currently in the implementation stage of the “The Biophilia Education Project” which was developed in Iceland in 2011. A number of primary schools in Reykjavík have participated in experimental teaching using Biophilia with great success[1]. The project utilises “songapps” to make connects between key elements in science, music and range of other subjects with the aim of helping students acquire the skills to develop their musical imagination, and to make music in an impulsive and responsive way, inspired by structures and phenomena in the natural world. Although this project uses the term Biophilia in its name, its aims and goals closely represent that of biomimicry.
As previously stated, for many, school is stressful and the technology designed to make things easier does not necessarily relieve that stress but has a tendency to compound it by increasing the expectation of effort from the learner. Louv (2012) stated that “An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world."
[1] Retrieved from http://biophiliaeducational.org/