Author: Christine Lindley
Published: Oct. 28, 2024
First, what is biomimicry? This in itself was an education! “Biomimicry is the practice of learning from nature and using its processes, forms, and ecosystems to create more sustainable designs. The word comes from the Greek words bio meaning life and mimesis meaning imitate. Biomimicry aims to solve human problems by drawing inspiration from nature's engineering. The goal is to create more efficient, resilient, and sustainable human productions.”
The first session of the OLLI class Nature’s Blueprint: Exploring Biomimicry for Sustainable Innovations was taught by Dr. Sara El-Sayed. We covered how to reimagine the health of the planet through biomimicry. This session discussed the practice of imitating models in nature to create better forms, processes and systems. It was very interesting to learn what potentially new innovations are being researched to help save our planet.
The second session, taught by Christina Sullivan, investigated how to do nature journaling. As a mathematician (I taught mathematics at the middle and high school levels in Ft. Wayne, Indiana for thirteen years!), this was both intriguing and intimidating! My inclination towards nature journaling was from an analytical approach to observation, rather than an artistic or literary one.
My specimen was a Danaus Plexippus (Monarch butterfly).
We were all given a piece of drawing paper and had access to colored pencils, an eraser (very important for me), a ruler, a magnifying jeweler’s loop, and a specimen of our choice. We were to observe the different types of patterns in the specimen such as symmetry, Fibonacci spirals, branching, and fractals. We then sketched the specimen using the colored pencils on drawing paper. We were to note the date, time, weather, and location. Our observations were to be documented including numerical notations, any possible theories and any questions we had regarding the specimen.
My drawing was a crude one at best, but I am sure with practice, I will get better! Then I documented my observations as I noted the patterns of symmetry of the butterfly and the branching effect of the wings from the body. Documenting the numerical observations was easy for me as I noted there were four wings, two antennas, two eyes, four large orange patterns on the upper wings, etc. My mathematical background came in very handy for this part of the exercise!
Questions came readily for me as I wondered why there are so many white dot-shaped patterns on the wings, why are the wings shaped as they are, and do all Monarch butterflies have the same patterns on their wings? Even with my initial trepidation of taking the nature journaling portion of the class, I found the class to be highly educational and lots of FUN!
I would highly recommend this OLLI course to students interested in learning more about biomimicry. An added bonus, the first session was held in the ASU Biomimicry Center, while the second session was held in the ASU Hayden Library. Both locations are exciting to see and to learn what ASU is doing for the future of our planet.
