4th Grade Mechanimals

Two great things that go great together!  Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is an old concept gaining ground recently that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example. I think of it as "innovation inspired by nature."
I presented this Prezi presentation to the students:

Biomimicry in Design on Prezi

After brainstorming some of the special skills that animals have, we look at some of the works of Murray Tinnkleman and how he merged animals and machines together in a series of blueprints to highlight how machinery developed by humans have special skills and functions just like specialized animals in nature.  Now what if we put an animal's special skills to work by creating our own mechanimal?  These are some of the results: