| The Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge is a hands-on, project-based learning experience that asks middle and high school students to design bio-inspired solutions to fight climate change. Last month, we announced the winners of the 2019 Challenge. If you’ve never heard of Hottentot bread and think it comes from a bakery, think again! It’s actually a plant in the yam family (Dioscorea elephantipes, also known as elephant’s foot), and its large tuber inspired the middle school winners of the 2nd annual Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge (YDC). Team Futuristas from Rhinebeck, NY (pictured above), designed a permeable tile for courtyards to limit the amount of water pooling on the hardscape surface in their village. The winning team at the high school level, RHS Biomimicry from Larkspur, CA, was inspired by the winged seeds of the Javan cucumber, Alsomitra macrocarpa. They devised a passive control system for tidal kites, a type of underwater energy generator. Other innovations honored in this year’s Challenge were inspired by the unique traits and strategies of hagfish slime, Namib beetles, oyster reefs, prairie dogs, and Saharan silver ants. Discover more about how the winners of the 2019 Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge looked to nature to create solutions to climate change. |
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