Interested in learning more about biomimicry so you can teach about the topic to your students? Do you wish you had a firm grounding in the subject? Professional development is essential support for educators teaching about biomimicry, and we are pleased to support their efforts to do it well. Whether you are completely new to biomimicry or relatively familiar with the subject, this course will provide you with a solid foundation about what biomimicry is, why it is important, and broad pedagogical considerations about how to teach this fascinating subject to your students.

What you will learn:

    * What biomimicry is, and why it is important
    * Core principles and concepts that underpin the field
    * Pedagogical considerations and teaching tips for bringing the subject of biomimicry to your students, whatever their ages
    * How biomimicry relates to teaching general science, biology, chemistry, physics, sustainability, design, engineering, educational standards, etc.
    * New inspiration, capacity, and confidence to expose your students to biomimicry
    * How to find new tools and resources for additional exploration

The course can be taken completely on-line, at any time, through this website. A Certificate of Completion is provided upon successful completion of the course.

We are very pleased to announce that this course has been approved for 6 recertification credits in Montana and Wyoming, and for 6 clock hours in Arizona. The course is recommended for in-service credit by the P/NW BOCES Center for Environmental Education (New York).

Additional Credits Available: The Biomimicry Institute offers teachers the opportunity to create and pilot a lesson plan in biomimicry for their students, for additional credits/clock hours. Please contact Education Programs Assistant Grace Decker for more information about credits available. 

The course is comprised of a sequential series of sections and chapters organized as follows:

Course Introduction

Section I:     Defining biomimicry

   Chapter 1     Mimicking natural forms, processes and systems
   Chapter 2     Defining biomimicry in contrast to other ‘bio’ terms
   Chapter 3     A Biomimicry Primer by Janine Benyus
   Chapter 4     Wrapping up

Section II:     Why biomimicry matters

   Chapter 1     Nature as a source of valuable technological ideas
   Chapter 2     Biomimicry as a tool for inspiring and educating young people

Section III:     Teaching biomimicry to your students

   Chapter 1     The pedagogy of biomimicry: How do you present it?
   Chapter 2     Dispelling misconceptions

The on-line introductory course costs $65 and may be purchased here.  To begin, sign up for an account. After purchasing the course with a credit card, you will be sent a user name and password that remains effective for four weeks and gives you access to the course materials. You may take the course at any time during this time period, in one-sitting or in installments. You can return to the sign-in page to return to the course material at: http://learn.biomimicryinstitute.org/

We’ve designed the 6-hour course to provide youth educators with a strong conceptual grounding in biomimicry, as well as pedagogical perspectives for teaching about the subject to young students ages 3-18. The course covers foundational information about biomimicry relevant for educators both new to and intermediate in their experience with the subject area. Materials used in the course include video with voice-over narration, reading selections, on-line videos, assignments, review quizzes, and a pre- and post-assessment. The course is not designed to model or explain specific classroom activities or lesson plans (instead, classroom activities and lesson plans can be found here). The course is comprised of 6-hours of contact time, but plan up to about 8-hours total for note-taking, pausing presentations, etc.

If you have any questions about this course, please feel free to contact our staff with any questions you may have. 

Course System Requirements: A modern web browser (we recommend Mozilla Firefox) with JavaScript and Flash support enabled. Click here if you need to download Adobe Flash Player. Some documents may be provided in DOC format, which requires software such as MS Office or OpenOffice. Lesson portions of the course are delivered as online videos, and require a computer capable of video and audio playback, and an active Internet connection.