Free 4-Week Online Biomimicry Course

Start: 
Mon, 2017/03/20
Location: 
Online

This course will be a fun introduction to biomimicry, a sustainability framework where we learn from nature’s best design ideas to help us solve human design challenges.  The course will run for 4 weeks from March 20-April 14, 2017.

Nature offers boundless inspiration for sustainable design, but how do we access the wealth of biological information available and apply it effectively to design? This course provides an introduction to the tools and principles of biomimicry, a new discipline that emulates nature’s best ideas and blueprints in order to solve human design challenges. Each week you’ll get outside to explore nature and learn a key biomimicry design concept that you’ll then apply to develop a novel biomimetic design.​ 

Prep for the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge

During this course, you’ll have a chance to interact with other people and learn about the Biomimicry Institute’s Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (BGDC). This year’s challenge focus is on climate change. In past years, people from the course have come together to form teams to apply to the BGDC. Team BioNurse, from Chile, came together in this course and went on to become 3rd place winners for the BDGC in 2015. Learn more about Bionurse.

At the completion of the course, students will have:

  • Defined and applied biomimicry concepts, tools, and principles by creating novel biomimetic designs.
  • Differentiated between nature’s design principles, strategies, functions, and patterns to apply them to human-made designs.
  • Observed nature and conducted research to learn from nature through real-world, outdoor observations.
  • Employed the biological solutions database AskNature.org to serve as a research tool for design challenges.

Course instructor

The course will be led by the director of MCAD’s Sustainable Design Program, Cindy Gilbert. Learn more about Cindy’s biomimicry background.

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