The course aims for students to understand that bio-inspiration is a holistic and systematic approach, rather than a form-searching exercise that merely mimics nature.
The students are expected to do regular observations of a natural entity that they choose and keep an observation diary. This exercise aims to familiarize students with nature and encourage them to engage with it.
As a warm-up exercise, they study some biological entities by analyzing their pattern, structures, forms, and behaviors to create bio-inspired fictional characters.
The term assignment is developing a bio-inspired product/service/policy for climate change, to mitigate/regulate, or reverse the ill-fated consequences of climate change. They design a system map to understand the problem context and identify stakeholders to address the potential fields that would benefit from a product or service designed using the efficiency of bio-inspiration.
It is noteworthy that actual participation in nature and dealing with environmental problems makes students more sensitive to climate change, and they express that this experience has affected their daily lives in terms of more eco-sensitive choices.
Additionally, the bio-inspired fictional character design study exceeded its intention as a mere warm-up exercise and turned out to be a catalyst for raising ecological awareness. That is to say, the study informed a research project that explores the potential of bio-inspired character design and narrative building to design a serious game.
