Biomimicry Excursion

High Ability Students from Years 8 and 9 attended an excursion to the Royal Botanical Gardens on Tuesday 16th May to learn about how nature can be applied for practical use.

Teacher Comment: Students commenced the day putting their raincoats on and then turned their attention to nature. They used their five senses to observe adaptations within plants/trees and questioned natures form and function.

Subsequently, through observation students used the eucalyptus tree as inspiration to design an object that has a positive impact on humanity. Students worked in groups as ‘biomimics’ and finalised the day by presenting their ideas to all other groups. Some ideas were very creative and intriguing and if were developed would lead to a healthier and better planet.

Sarah Tonna

Science Teacher

Student Experience

We first learnt about what is biomimicry is and how it is used. An example is how they used the design of the kingfisher’s beak to develop a better design of the bullet train. We started walking around looking at the scenery, which contained fruit, seeds, pinecones and more.

The day was split up into two parts, learning about what biomimicry is and coming up with a design which could help the human species. The first part was where we walked around, looking at nature. Even closer than the human eye can see, with various tools including microscope and binoculars. As we advanced further, we saw mushrooms. These could have been dangerous. As they could have been the death cap mushroom, so we stayed clear of it. As we walked around, we had a task. A task to find example of certain things like example of how nature protects itself. An example of this is a peculiar smell on some trees leaves to protect it from animals. It was a fun time learning about plants and just seeing the scenery.

The second and final part of the excursion was an idea which could help the human species. From features of a eucalypts tree, such as how the leaves droop down to protect itself from direct sunlight. Some of the idea that we came up with was solar panels which changed direction depending on where the sun was, a droopy hat to protect from sunlight and an insect repellent made up of eucalypts oils. It was a fun experience and would highly recommend to other people.

By Joshua Siah 8G