Enhancement Program

Designed by Nature: Biomimicy at Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens

Students from 9.6 recently had the opportunity to participate in the Designed by Nature: Biomimicry excursion at the Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens. Throughout the day, students developed their understanding of biomimicry, learning about examples of bio-inspired inventions and developing ideas around how nature and biology can be integrated into modern engineering. Students then became biomimics themselves, using their STEM knowledge to design a biomimicry-based project. 

This excursion ties in with the Year 9 Enhancement class’s current studies of Biology as well as the 2026 Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge that the class will participate in next year. 

Student reports:

The excursion was really educational and fun as we learnt how to use biomimicry in our everyday life. My favourite part of the excursion was the example of the Shinkansen train, where they used the shape of the Kingfisher bird's beak to make the train more efficient when travelling at high speeds and also helped to save more energy. I also really enjoyed walking around the park, looking at all the different species of plants and later on trying to make designs ourselves inspired by the Australian plants. I recommend having students in future to have this experience as well; to enjoy the wildlife and learning how we use biomimicry in our everyday life. 

Cheryl 9.6

The excursion was really fun, I really enjoyed the group project about the different inventions we can come up with with the wax that the pods produce. Our class had the opportunity to learn about the plants and their environment, through microscopes, binoculars and magnifying glasses. The mentor was also really sweet, I thought that the excursion overall was really interesting and fun. I would definitely recommend taking other students to this excursion to learn about Australian wildlife and plants. 

Chahat 9.6

I found the excursion really fun and exciting. This experience was an opportunity for the whole class to get outside in nature and learn about how nature’s adaptations affect and are utilized to solve modern day problems. My favourite part was when we got to explore the gardens and learn how plants adapt to the problem of trying to survive against the weather and predators in the wild. In this excursion, I learnt about biomimicry, the art and technique of using nature’s survival skills and using it to solve complicated issues, one of the examples used by the people there was the Japanese bullet train and how there was a clunking noise when the train went through the tunnel, to solve this issue, one of the engineers there designed the nose of the train to like a bird because they watched a bird dive into water with no sound. I believe this is a great opportunity for future students to take their learning outside the classroom into the wondrous nature at the Royal Botanical Garden.

Bec 9.6