How nature inspires innovation

1. Discuss the questions.

• What is a product designer?
• What skills are essential for a product
designer? Why?
• What features should the following objects
have to be considered well-designed?
o smartphone
o school building
o suit

2. Read the words in the box. Then, answer the questions using them.

angular asymmetric crooked curved

intricate protruding sleek spiky

a) How do you describe something that has sharp points on it?

b) How do you describe something that is not straight but smoothly rounded?
c) How do you describe something that is smooth and shiny?
d) How do you describe something that has two halves or parts that are not the
same?
e) How do you describe something that sticks out of a surface?
f) How do you describe something that has many small details arranged in a
complicated way?
g) How do you describe something that is uneven, twisted, not straight?
h) How do you describe something that has sharp corners?

Copyrights by ESL Brains

 How nature inspires innovation

3. Describe the products in the pictures and say what their design strengths
and weaknesses are. Use the words from ex. 2.

4. Discuss the questions.

• Do you know what the words ‘to mimic’ and ‘mimicry’ mean?
• How can product designers use mimicry in their work?
• In your opinion, is mimicking things that already exist plagiarism?

5. Watch the first part of a video [https://youtu.be/iMtXqTmfta0] (to 03:41) and

discuss the questions.
a) What is biomimicry?
b) How did biomimicry help solve a problem with the train?
c) Think about the world around you. Can you think of any objects or systems
that might have been mimicked from nature?

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons [1],[2],[3].[4] under CC-BY license Copyrights by ESL Brains
 How nature inspires innovation

6. Look at the pictures and match the things in the box to what they might
have been inspired by. Explain your choice.

autonomous cars building paint economic system

a) lotus leaf b) ants c) forest

7. Watch the second part of the video (from 03:42) and check your ideas from
ex. 6.

8. Read the statements. Say which of them you agree with the most. Explain
why.
• There is a lot to learn from the natural world when it comes to creative
solutions.
• The best source of inspiration is the pieces of other artists and inventors.
• There are no new ideas. Anything new is just a variation of what already
exists.
• Biomimicry might one day make all products’ and systems’ functionality
identical to the natural world.

9. Look at the technologies that were inspired by nature. Try to guess what
they were inspired by.
• syringe • LED lights
• Velcro • racer swimsuit

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 How nature inspires innovation

10. Look at the items. Choose one or both to talk about and discuss the
questions.

• Do you encounter any problems associated with the item(s) in your daily life?
• Can you come up with any ideas about how these problems might be fixed
using the biomimicry approach?

Copyrights by ESL Brains