Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

	Part A: Overview
30 minutes	Part B: What Is Biomimicry?
60 minutes	Part C: Design A Dream Car Inspired By Nature
60 minutes	Part D: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Overview

Begin this lesson by explaining to students that they will be designing a dream car based on the principle of biomimicry and producing a drawing or painting of this dream car to submit to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

The car they will be designing doesn’t have to be feasible, but it does have to meet the criteria set out in this lesson. In this case, students will be investigating biomimicry as a principle for design and basing their car design on these principles.

Although students won’t be building and testing their designs, all designs have to start with an idea; this lesson is about developing and communicating an idea.

Part B: What Is Biomimicry?

Step 1.

Begin by inviting students to view the following clip. As they watch, invite students to record anything they think is important or interesting.

The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps - https://youtu.be/iMtXqTmfta0

Once complete, engage students in a class discussion around the following questions:

What was this clip about?
What did you find interesting or important in this clip?
What would you like to know more about?
Can you think of any other examples of biomimicry? (Note: Students will be investigating examples of biomimicry in the next activity so if they can’t think of any examples, that is fine.)

Through your discussion, share the following definition for biomimicry (source):

You could also lead your students to the idea that people have been looking to nature for inspiration in technology for a long time, including for the first attempts at human flight, Early Flying Machines.

Explain to students that in the next activity they will be looking at other examples of biomimicry in technology and design.

Step 2.

Break the class into groups of 3-4 and explain that each group needs to research one of the following examples of biomimicry (you can assign groups these examples or groups could choose an example that interests them – try to ensure that each example is researched at least once):

Velcro
Using termite mounds to design buildings
Sharkskin swimsuit
Water vapour harvesting inspired by beetles
Climbing glass with gecko feet

Give groups 10 minutes to investigate their example and conduct research online to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet). Remind students of the Search Strategies for Googling when conducting research online.

What example are you looking at?
What problem does this example address?
How has nature inspired a solution?
What do you find most interesting or inspiring about this example?

Once complete, invite students to share their ideas with the class. You could do this by asking each group to share what they learnt with the class, or you could ask groups to team up and share their research with each other.

Part C: Design A Dream Car Inspired By Nature

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now design a dream car that incorporates at least one feature inspired by nature (biomimicry). In addition, their car must attempt to address one of the following two problems expected to affect parts of Australia as a result of future climate change (further information about climate change available below):

Hotter, drier temperatures
Rising sea levels

You could allow student to choose one of these problems to focus on, or you could choose one for the class to focus on.

Note: For more information about climate change, view the following resources:

Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic - https://youtu.be/EtW2rrLHs08
Climate Change: Crash Course Kids - https://youtu.be/SzcGTd8qWTg
Climate Change In Australia - https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/
Climate Change Impacts In Australia - https://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/climate-science-data/climate-science/impacts

Regardless of whether you make one or both available to students, students should begin the car design process by creating a mind-map for the problem/s they are focussing on. You could do this by breaking the class into groups and giving each group a sheet of butcher’s paper and inviting them to work together to create a mind-map that considers the following questions (suggested answers and/or discussion points also included below):

How might this problem affect our lives?
- Hotter, drier temperatures - buildings, roads and other infrastructure could dry or crack or bend or melt, more heatwaves and more bushfires, all living things could become stressed (possibly resulting in more disease and death), changes to food growing times and food shortages, water shortages.
- Rising sea levels - damage to coastal infrastructure including roads and buildings, rising water table may make some areas more saline with impacts to native vegetation and animals and farming areas, more flooding, storm surges could affect inland waterways and coastal habitats.
How might this problem affect conventional cars?
- Hotter, drier temperatures - melting roads, overheating cars, more reliance on air-conditioning so higher fuel consumption
- Rising sea levels - water affecting roads, salt increasing rust risk to cars

If time permits, you could also allow students some time to research answers online.

Step 2.

Now that students have a bit of background knowledge, explain that they will now work in groups to complete a '50 ideas in 5 minutes' brainstorm challenge.

In their groups, students need to come up with as many different solutions to the problem as possible in 5 minutes. The ideas can be as abstract and off-the-wall as they like, with the aim being to have as many as possible. Students will then be able to use these ideas to develop their own car design.

The aim here is for students to think about what features of nature could be incorporated into the design of their cars. To help students in their brainstorm activity, you could provide each group with a copy of the Nature Inspiration Images: these are interesting images of plants and animals that include a brief description of something about each plant or animal.

The group brainstorm could be run like this:

Give each group a sheet of butcher’s paper and each person a marker pen.
Before starting the countdown, ask students to write the following statement (completing it with the problem they are addressing) on the top of their paper: How might we use nature to inspire a dream car to address... (write problem here)?
Students should stand around the tables rather than sit in their chairs as this encourages more creative thinking.
They should:
- Write everything down as fast as possible on the butcher’s paper.
- Work fast: they only have 5 minutes.
- Not discuss the ideas...just get them recorded.
You could increase participation by offering a prize for the most ideas in the time.
Encourage groups to work quietly to come up with 10 ideas on their own first for a minute and then share with the group in the remaining time.
Give time markers as they progress - "Three minutes left! Two minutes! One minute left!"
Celebrate the winners and everyone's efforts.
Share a rough figure of how many ideas have been generated across the whole team - remind students how productive they can be in 5 minutes!
Post the paper somewhere public for everyone to see.

You could project a countdown of 5 minutes using this website.

If you have time, you could run this brainstorming challenge in its traditional form: 100 ideas in 10 minutes!

Step 3.

Once students have completed the brainstorm, groups should spend time discussing each other's ideas. They should give each other a chance to explain what they wrote down during the brainstorming activity and be encouraged to ask clarifying questions.

Step 4.

Each student now needs to start planning their dream car. Reiterate with students that the car doesn’t need to be feasible; instead, it can be a car of their imagination that can look however they want it to look and do whatever they want it to do, as long as it meets the following criteria:

Incorporates the principle of biomimicry
Addresses the climate change problem you investigated earlier

Allow students time to start planning their car. Students will need to create an annotated concept drawing of their car. The purpose of a concept drawing is to convey information about the car they are designing (see example below). Students can choose to do just one drawing that communicates all the features of the car or many drawings that as a whole communicate the features of the car.

Where relevant, students should include the following in their drawings:

Technical terms
Scale
Symbols
Pictorial and aerial views
Annotations

Give students a time limit for the sketching phase and encourage them to focus on the features of their car rather than creating perfect drawings.

Step 5.

Now, invite students to share their concept drawings in order to gain feedback. You could do this by inviting students to form groups of 3 – 4 students and have them share in their groups, or you could do this as a class and have students share their ideas with the class.

Students can provide feedback to each other based on the following questions:

Does this idea help to address the climate change problem?
How has this car been inspired by nature? What principles of biomimicry does this car incorporate?

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Once complete, provide students time to incorporate any feedback.

Part D: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest

Step 1.

Now, explain to students that they are going to translate their drawing into an artwork. Explain to students that designers are often required to create an artwork of their designs to show their design in colour with details about how it would fit into the world around it e.g. how it would look in its place (see example below):

In addition, explain to students that they will be submitting their artwork to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. Explain the following contest rules for creating your dream car:

You must create your dream car artwork by yourself (no working with a friend or in a group).
Your dream car must be hand-created using things like pencils, pens/markers, crayons, paints, etc. It can’t be made using collage or a computer/digital device.
It must be drawn on an A3 piece of paper (or smaller). You might like to use this Toyota Dream Car Drawing Template.
Find the contest entry information here (including dates, prizes and full terms and conditions).

You could also work with students to view some of the previous year’s finalists to Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. As you view these artworks, invite students to consider:

What do you notice about these cars?
What are the best things about these cars?
Have any of these cars incorporated any features of biomimicry? If so, in what ways?

Step 2.

Invite students to begin drafting their artworks. Explain to students that the artwork they are creating does not need to meet the technical standards of the concept drawing. Instead, the artwork creation is an opportunity for students to be creative and to dream big!

If you have time, you could also encourage students to experiment with different colouring or painting techniques and mediums, such as:

Techniques - pointillism, hatching, blending, patterns, perspective or shading.
Mediums – pencils, marker pens, acrylic paints, watercolour paints or pencils, crayons, pastels, etc.

Step 3.

Once students have created their drafts, invite them to share them with a classmate and to offer feedback on the artworks. Again, encourage students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback, and to consider the following when assessing artworks:

Have the main features of the car been communicated in this artwork?
How do the colours, techniques, and medium/s help or hinder the artwork and car design?

Step 4.

Once feedback has been provided, invite students to create the final version of their dream car on A3 paper, incorporating feedback where necessary.

Step 5.

As part of their entry, students are required to write a statement in response to the following: “Please explain the idea behind ‘Your Dream Car’ artwork”.

Ask students to create a draft version of their response, ensuring that they focus on being clear and brief and that they have explained what their car will do and how it will do it.

Again, invite students to share their statements with another student to seek feedback, and to check spelling and grammar.

Finally, have students scan or take a clear photograph of each entry and submit all entries using the online entry form.

Important! Students (or yourself) will need to hang onto their artworks after entering in order to be eligible to win prizes and have their artwork showcased.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What part of my dream car do I like the most and why? What are its best features?
How well did I incorporate principles of biomimicry into my dream car design?
What part of my artwork am I most proud of? (Think of technique, choice of medium, colours etc.)
What was hardest for me in this lesson?
How did I overcome this challenge?
If I could change anything about the process of creating this artwork, what would it be?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Using Biomimicry to Design a Dream Car

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