Lesson Package | Mimicking Nature to Solve Problems

This Biomimicry resource helps students design solutions to human problems by mimicking how plants and animals use their external parts to survive, grow, and meet their needs. Aimed at early elementary grades, it provides a complete unit with a slideshow, matching cards, 5E lesson plans, response pages, a lab, evaluation tools, and word wall vocabulary. Through engaging STEM activities, students explore concepts such as design thinking, engineering, camouflage, and structure and function, while practicing science and engineering skills by creating and testing their own designs.

This Biomimicry resource is aligned with the following standards:
• NGSS 1-LS1-1. Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.*

And Utah SEEd for Second Grade

• Utah SEEd Standard 2.2.4 Design a solution to a human problem by mimicking the structure and function of plants and/or animals and how they use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs. Define the problem by asking questions and gathering information, convey designs through sketches, drawings, or physical models, and compare and test designs. Examples could include a human wearing a jacket to mimic the fur of an animal or a webbed foot to design a better swimming fin.

• NJSLS • 1-LS1-1 Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs