Biomimetics or Bionics

Outcomes:

Prescribed Focus Area:

Outcome 4.5: A student describes areas of current scientific research.

Essential Content: 4.5 a. Describe some recent scientific contributions made by male and female scientists, including Australians, and discuss the effect of their contributions.

Knowledge and Understanding:

Outcome 4.12: A student identifies, using examples, common simple devices and explains why they are used.

Essential Content: 4.12.a. Identify that technologies make tasks easier or more convenient.

Skills: Interactions

Outcome 4.16: A student accesses information from identified secondary sources.

Essential Content: 4.16.a. use a range of sources, including databases, CD-ROMs and the internet, to access information

Outcome 4.18: A student with guidance presents information to an audience to achieve a particular purpose.

Essential Content: 4.18.b. Select and use an appropriate medium to present data and information.

Outcome 4.21: A student uses creativity and imagination to suggest plausible solutions to familiar problems.

Essential Content: 4.21.c. Produce creative solutions for problems

Values and Attitudes:

Outcome 4.26: Recognises the role of science in providing information about issues being considered and in increasing understanding of the world around them.

Language Modes:

Reading & Writing, Speaking

Tasks:

·  Task 1: Investigate one current area of scientific research into biomimetics.

·  Task 2: Use your creativity and imagination to apply the principles of nature to an original design or product.

Expectations:

Task 1: Use a range of information sources such as the Internet to investigate one current area of scientific research into biomimetics. In your report include the following:

-  The scientist who invented the technology or product

-  A description of the research and the steps that led to the new technology or product

-  The benefits to society and the role science has played

-  What you find interesting about the research and the new technology or product

-  The environmental impact of the new technology or product

-  A list of sources of the information

Submit your report using one of the following methods:

-  Webpage

-  Power Point

-  Report

-  Pod Cast

-  Short documentary

-  Free Choice

Outcomes assessed:

-  4.5 and 4.5a

-  4.12

-  4.16 and 4.16a

-  4.26

Task 2: It is your turn to be a scientist and apply the principles of nature to an original new technology or product. The ideas in biomimetics are as endless as the natural world. Examples include a solar cell modelled after a leaf, a skid-resistant surface inspired by gecko feet, and a mining search-and-rescue robot that mimics a ghost crab. Last year, scientists at DaimlerChrysler created a concept car based on the tropical boxfish, whose boxy shape is surprisingly aerodynamic and energy efficient.

Use your imagination and the principles of nature to design new technology or an original product that addresses a current problem. Base your design on any living things. Share your research and creation to the class in a 3 minute maximum oral presentation.

The following approach is recommended for your oral presentation:

-  An overview of why you believe there is a need for this new technology or product

-  The purpose and possible uses of the design

-  A description of the principle/s or feature/s of the living thing that has inspired your design

-  An informative step by step description of your design linked to the principles or features of the living thing

-  An evaluation of the probable strengths and weaknesses of the design

-  Diagrams or drawings of the design.

Outcomes assessed:

-  4.12 and 4.12a

-  4.18 and 4.18b

-  4.21 and 4.21

Stage 4 Assessment Task 1a: Biomimetics

Research Report

Student’s name: …………………………………………….

Achievement: Please Circle: E H S WT ND

Comment:…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Performance Descriptor / Marking Guidelines
Excellent / ·  Sophisticated description of current research in biomimetics and the effect of its contribution on society and the environment
·  Uses a range of secondary sources insightfully
·  Sophisticated recognition of the role of Science
·  Composes a sophisticated report
High / ·  Effective description of current research in biomimetics and the effect of its contribution on society and the environment
·  Uses a range of secondary sources effectively
·  Effective recognition of the role of Science
·  Composes an effective report
Substantial / ·  Sound description of current research in biomimetics and the effect of its contribution on society and the environment
·  Uses a range of secondary sources soundly
·  Sound recognition of the role of Science
·  Composes a sound report
Working towards / ·  Limited description of current research in biomimetics
·  Uses limited secondary sources
·  Limited recognition of the role of Science
·  Composes a limited report
Not demonstrated / ·  Elementary description of current research in biomimetics
·  Uses little or no secondary sources
·  Little or no recognition of the role of Science
·  Composes an elementary report

Stage 4 Assessment Task 1b: Biomimetics Oral Presentation

Student’s name: …………………………………………….

Achievement: Please Circle: E H S WT ND

Comment:…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Performance Descriptor / Marking Guidelines
Excellent / ·  Identifies insightfully the benefits and contribution to society of their new technology
·  Demonstrates a sophisticated, creative and plausible solution to a current problem
·  Delivers a sophisticated oral presentation
High / ·  Identifies effectively the benefits and contribution to society of their new technology
·  Demonstrates an effective, creative and plausible solution to a current problem
·  Delivers an effective oral presentation
Substantial / ·  Identifies soundly the benefits and contribution to society of their new technology
·  Demonstrates a sound and plausible solution to a current problem
·  Delivers a sound oral presentation
Working towards / ·  Identifies the benefits and contribution to society of their new technology
·  Demonstrates a limited solution to a current problem
·  Delivers a limited oral presentation
Not demonstrated / ·  Describes the new technology
·  Demonstrates an elementary solution to a current problem
·  Delivers an elementary oral presentation

Sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionics

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/04/biomimetics/tom-mueller-text

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0711-rhett_butler.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4378162.stm

Bionics: Nature as an ingenious engineer and designer, http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0710-DaimlerChrysler.html
How is a water spider able to swim and dive without getting wet? This is one of the questions which the modern discipline of bionics tries to answer. The aim of bionics specialists is to translate nature’s solutions into human technology, for there is no doubt that nature is the best engineer and most ingenious designer of all.
The comparatively recent research area of bionics is actually an inter-disciplinary subject which combines engineering science, architecture and mathematics. The basic principle is to make nature’s ideas and problem solutions, which have stood the test of time over millions of years of evolution, usable for man.
The term bionics was coined by an American air force officer in 1958, but the world’s first student of bionics was the Italian Leonardo da Vinci. No less than 500 years ago, this ingenious all-rounder studied the flight of birds and designed a flying machine according to his findings. He also derived the principle of the helicopter from what he observed in nature. Later it was the turn of Otto Lilienthal to triumph with his "flying apparatus", which he had designed after careful study of the stork’s wing structure.
Fish are also very interesting objects of study for bionic specialists. For example, the nose of the dolphin is the model for a pear-shaped bow protuberance which enables ships to cross the oceans of the world with less water resistance and therefore a lower fuel consumption. And Airbus engineers have copied the rough skin of the shark to develop a striated foil coating for the wings of aircraft. The result is up to six percent less friction and considerable savings in aviation fuel.
Self-cleaning surfaces are based on the example of lotus leaves, highly resistant metallic foams are derived from the bone structure and the latest, self-sharpening cutting tools copy the principle of rodent teeth. Nature even provides ingenious solutions for day-to-day things such as the Velcro fastener.
Nature is also a model of sustainability
Bionics research does not mean copying nature. The aim is rather to understand its principles and use them as a stimulus for innovations. The inventions of nature, which have been developed and continuously improved over millions of years, provide an inexhaustible reservoir of ideas and inspirations from which not only technology can benefit. More than ever before, bionics can also further the cause of environmental protection. Many of the innovative concepts which engineers and scientists are adopting from nature correspond to the principle of sustainability. Nature always achieves its objectives economically, with the minimum energy, conserves its resources and completely recycles its waste – an example which is well worth following.

Some examples of biomimetics in action

·  Velcro resulted in 1948 from a Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, noticing how the hooks of the plant burrs stuck in the fur of his dog.

·  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and NASA are studying the navigational systems and locomotive strategies of insects to design the next generation of autonomous robots and vehicles.

·  Using a wind tunnel, researchers have found that the flipper of the humpback whale is a more efficient wing design than the current model used by the aeronautics industry on airplanes. Engineers are working to apply the aerodynamic findings to future airplane and automotive design. Similarly, engineers at Airbus, a European airplane-manufacturing firm, have used the rough skin of the shark as inspiration in developing a striated foil coating for the wings of aircraft, a design which has resulted in six percent less friction and improved fuel efficiency.

·  A research team at Bell Labs has found that tropical deep-sea sponge, Euplectella or Venus's Flower Basket, builds remarkably strong structures from extremely fragile materials, according to a press release from Lucent Technologies. This discovery led to unique insights in the production of commercial fibre optic strands. The same team also looked to the visual systems of brittlestars -- sea creatures related to starfish and sea urchins -- for inspiration to improve lens design.

·  "Gecko tape" is a product under development that has been inspired by the lizard's ability to climb up walls and walk along ceilings. The tape exploits "van der Waals forces" -- weak intermolecular attractive forces -- by mimicking the tiny hair-like structures, called setae that cover geckos' feet.

·  Scientists at the University of Leeds in Great Britain are studying the jet-based defense mechanism of the bombardier beetle to see if the insect can help them learn how to re-ignite a gas-turbine aircraft engine in mid-flight. The bombardier beetle is capable of spraying would-be predators with a high-pressure stream of boiling liquid.

·  DaimlerChrysler is developing a new high fuel efficiency concept vehicle based on the body shape of a boxfish, a common cube-shaped fish found in tropical marine habitats. The bionic car will offer 20 percent lower fuel consumption and up to 80 percent lower nitrogen oxide emissions according to a release from DaimlerChrysler.

·  In 2003, designer Mick Pearce was awarded the international Prince Claus Award for the design – based on termite mounds – of an office complex and shopping mall in Zimbabwe, which is ventilated, cooled and heated entirely through natural means. Ventilation reportedly costs one-tenth that of comparable air-conditioned structures; the complex uses 35 percent less energy than six conventional buildings combined – saving the owner $3.5 million in energy costs in the first five years alone.