BioLearn

🌀 Biomimicry is alive in schools! 🌱

We’re happy to see that Biomimicry Days, first introduced last year, have inspired schools to keep the tradition going this year.

Here’s a short report from teacher Mária Švorcová about how Biomimicry Day unfolded in a village school in the north of Slovakia:

✍️ “We started preparing in advance – I created a bulletin board, placed posters at the school entrance, and informed students and school staff ahead of time. In biology classes, we showed a presentation about biomimicry and encouraged students to search for ideas in nature.

A total of 83 students from the second stage worked in small groups, creating their own bioinspired innovations and presenting them to their classmates. We also set up small exhibitions in the classrooms.

We spent part of the day outdoors using BioLearn cards – the students loved this activity. They created natural artworks, observed the structure of bird wings and feathers, and even built their own flying models, inspired by real bird wings, which they decorated and tested in a flying competition.”

🌿 Thank you, Mária, for this beautiful example of how nature can be our greatest teacher.

👉 Have you tried a Biomimicry Day at your school? We’d love to hear your story!

Biolearning For the Future: A Journey Continues! 🌍

We’re still filled with excitement from the recent international Biomimicry Educator Conference! Missed it? No worries—we’ve got you covered with a recording. Tune in for exceptional presentations from our expert team Sam Stier, Richard Dawson, and Saskia van den Muijsenberg. If you want to experience a big dose of excitement for biomimicry, you definitely won’t regret it.

With the Biomimicry Educator Conference, we’ve wrapped up the *Biolearning For the Future* project, but our journey with biomimicry is far from over! 🌿 We’re excited to keep working with educators, bringing biomimicry into classrooms as an innovative way to connect with nature, spark curiosity, and learn from nature for a better future.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s been part of this project, from piloting activities on [BioLearn.eu](www.biolearn.eu) to —together, we’re helping young people uncover the wonders of nature. 🌱

🌿 BIOMIMICRY EDUCATOR CONFERENCE: A Huge Success! 🌿

We're still buzzing from the incredible energy of the conference! Here's what our team had to say:

💡 Key Highlights
- Sam and Richard truly shined in leading the international segment, making meaningful connections across borders.
- Saskia's presentation was excellent! She managed to deliver complex ideas in a way that was accessible and engaging for all.

🌍 There's a growing hunger for a biomimicry educators' community—more people than we imagined are eager to connect, learn, and build communities of practice. This is a crucial step toward advancing biomimicry education to new heights.

🎉 The enthusiasm was contagious, and we’re so grateful to all who made this event so special.

🎥 Missed the conference? No worries—the recordings and presentations will be available on our website in the coming days. Stay tuned!

We're thrilled to see the BioLearn community growing, allowing the genius of nature to inspire more young minds and adults towards a sustainable future. 🌱

🌟What inventions for sustainability and healthier planet have been inspired by hemoglobin, waterbirds’ feathers, snail mucus or cartilage nanostructure? Have a look at 10 biomimicry examples for 2024, see the link below.

🌟 If you are a teacher or your children are curious explorers, check out our website Biolearn.eu for dozens of hands-on activities that demonstrate how we can learn from nature.

😋 Ever wondered about a playful and delicious BIOMIMICRY DAY?"

😋Imagine crafting your own holographic rainbow chocolate alongside teenagers – a fun challenge that’s totally worth the effort! Afterward, unleash your creativity by designing innovative ideas and, of course, treat yourselves to some 🌈 chocolate bliss.

😋The video from the Open Biomimicry Day in Slovakia will show you that everyone enjoys it. And not just the magic of working with chocolate, but also creating innovations. You can find the link in the comments.

Onlangs waren we in Slowakije voor ons educatieproject BioLearn. Daar bezochten we ook een ecoschool. Docent Michal deed het geweldig en legde het verschil uit tussen kleur creëren met pigmenten of met structuur (zoals geregeld voorkomt in de natuur) en de gevolgen voor de leefomgeving. Daarna gingen de leerlingen aan de slag met chocola, en kleurden die door de structuur ervan te manipuleren. Superleuk. Ook doen? Bekijk dan de activiteit "Kleuren zonder kleurstof": https://biolearn.eu/nl/future/biomimicry-stories. Of doe een van de vele andere experimenten :)

👉 "I'm looking forward to the inspirational books and the gecko tape. I'm curious to see what suggestions the kids will have for using it. I think we'll try experiments with diffraction gratings and splitting light first," says Ivana Mikušová, headmaster of ZŠ s MŠ Slatina nad Bebravou.

🙋‍♀️ The interest of educators in biomimicry education from the four pilot schools in Slovakia is great and encouraging. Do you know why? Because after half a year of pilot testing, they see that kids enjoy experiments, and find biomimicry education useful in terms of exploring practical applications of natural science for a sustainable and healthier life.

🔎 And what's new in the Biolearn Forthe Future project in the last few weeks? In addition to translating materials for the website into Slovak, we have held three meetings with educators from pilot schools.

✅ We asked how the activity testing was going, but most importantly we introduced possible tools and teaching aids in the BioLearn box: e. g. models of natural organisms that inspire innovations, a gecko tape, Shinkansen model, water-repellent shoe spray based on the lotus effect, UV marker with torch as well as various cards, pictures and biomimicry books for the 8-12 age group.

The Biolearn For the Future project is funded by the Erasmus+ programme. 🍀

👉 Yesterday we introduced the first Biomimicry box in Slovakia at the Gymnázium Jána Adama Raymana in Prešov, which will make discovering inspiration from nature in school lessons even more interesting. 🍀

🧰 The box contains natural models (pictures or animal models), but also examples of innovations.

🙋‍♀️ We also tried our first touch with nano tape, inspired by the gecko's superpower to "stick" to different surfaces thanks to thousands of microscopic hairs on its feet.

👉 Včera sme na Gymnázium Jána Adama Raymana v Prešove predstavili prvý biomimikry kufrík na Slovensku, vďaka ktorému bude objavovanie inšpirácii z prírody na školských hodinách ešte zaujímavejšie. 🧰 Kufrík obsahuje prírodné vzory (obrázky či modely zvierat), ale aj ukážky inovácií. 🙋‍♀️ Hneď sme si aj vyskúšali prvý dotyk s nano páskou, inšpirovanou gekonovou superschopnosťou “prilepiť sa” k rôznym povrchom vďaka miliónom mikroskopických chĺpkov na prstoch. 🍀 #biomimicry #biolearn #erasmusplus

The pilot Biomimicry Days were full of exploration, learning from nature and outdoor education 🌱

👉 What is Biomimicry Day? It's an event run in schools where students aged 8-12 can try out varied activities with elements of inquiry-based learning. The aim is to discover a whole new way of looking at nature as a source of knowledge and inspiration for innovation.

🙋‍♀️ The pilot Biomimicry Days, implemented in four schools across Slovakia, have shown that the combination of nature and scientific innovation is very exciting for young people. Pupils first learned what biomimicry is as a new scientific approach and then explored the powerful strategies of plants and animals from which we humans have already taken inspiration for inventions in the field of functional materials, design or medicine.

🦅 And which activities were especially attractive for pupils? For example, how the spider web inspired the glass that protects birds from collisions or the hydrophobic surface of the lotus leaf with its microstructure, mimicked by material engineers to produce innovative waterproof jackets without using chemical impregnation. But the most attractive biomimicry exemplar was the bat (in the picture), an inspiration for better echo-locators.

📌 The National Biomimicry Days will take place around Europe from April to June 2024. The Centre of Environmental Activities from Slovakia, together with partners from the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Netherlands, are currently finalizing the methodological materials for their implementation.

🤝 BiomimicryNL Wild Awake Středisko ekologické výchovy SEVER Magosfa Alapítvány

One of the pilot schools from Slovakia organized a great this Tuesday. The whole school ZŠ s MŠ Slatina nad Bebravou took part in it. The headmaster Ivana Mikušová and her team did a great job. 👌

The school organized an exhibition of pupils' artwork, showcasing plants and animals with superpowers. 🦇🐝🐦🐧🦅🐪🐇🐜🦎🦈🦓🐎🐕‍🦺🐈🌳🍁🌻

Highlight of the day was a lecture by Associate Professor Zuzana Tončíková from the Technická univerzita vo Zvolene. She presented biomimicry, including examples of innovation designs from her students, e. g. a zero-waste bag or a fridge in the shape of a backpack for medicines.

In the practical part of the Biomimicry Day, a group of students were able to try out the application of biophilic design principles in practice. Their task was to suggest changes in the classrooms to make the pupils feel better. After they presented their ideas, they put them on paper and finally presented them. Feasibility was not a prerequisite, but it is still possible that some of their designs will be applied and bring the school space closer to nature, so that the pupils feel happier.

One of the first Biomimicry days in Slovakia was a great success. For the CEA team implementing the BioLearn project It is encouraging to see that biomimicry as a path to sustainable innovation is already finding enthusiastic teachers in Slovak as well. 🌎🌍🌏 🙏