The award-winning team at Lichen Labs developed an inspiring virtual course for 7th-grade life science courses to stimulate curiosity and interest in science. This interactive virtual course teaches both teachers their students and curious individuals the basic principles of biomimicry. The lessons can be delivered remotely, and the students can perform the assignments from home. 

We will learn how nature’s adapted structures, processes, and systems can be mimicked to solve human challenges and help us leap forward with innovations that are cost-effective, material and energy-efficient, and eco-friendly. Scientists and artists both observe our world. We will discuss the use of a scientific notebook for recording observations, drawings, a hypothesis, research notes, and ideas. Leonardo DaVinci observed nature with multiple senses and recorded observations and biomimicry ideas. Techniques will be introduced for nature drawing and journaling. Teachers and students will practice the basics of new ways of seeing, drawing, and labeling; recording the information in their Biomimicry Journal. We will practice “Biology to Design” by discovering how an organism’s adaptations have evolved in response to the environment in which the organism lives and how we might mimic those adaptations in a human design for use under similar conditions.