The Designing Our Tomorrow project produced Creatividad silvestre | Wild Creativity Exhibit, a bilingual Spanish/English 2,000 square foot traveling exhibition that engages visitors in biomimicry, an approach to engineering where we can learn from nature’s strategies to design solutions for the challenges we face in our own communities and around the world.
Developed in partnership with Adelante Mujeres, Biomimicry Institute, and the Fleet Science Center, the exhibit is the first of its kind and this exhibit serves a model for others. The creation of the exhibit was guided by a theory of action, as well as theories and practices from a study of collaborative practices at interactive engineering challenge exhibits (C-PIECE Study), in particular, the C-PIECE Framework.
The exhibit’s theory of action guided the development of the exhibit and was informed by valuable insights and perspectives of a Youth Advisory Board comprised primarily of Latina girls aged 9–14.
The C-PIECE Framework was used by exhibit developers to support exercising engineering practices into the exhibit activities.
Examples of exhibits in action
A family adjusts the angle and spring tension of a ball launcher, learning about how fleas store and release energy .
By adjusting the angle of trampolines and drop height of a ball, a family learns about how kangaroos bounce to gain energy
Mimicking natural strategies from squirrels, dandelion seeds, and gliding birds, two youth create kite designs to test how much wind energy their designs can produce.
A family stacks prairie dog tunnel “mounds” of different shapes and heights at the entrances to change airflow within the tunnel.
In the exhibit, visitors explore stories of nature and engineering from communities around the globe. They experience the diversity and wonder of nature, are introduced to the fundamentals of biomimicry and look to the natural world for inspiration. Hands-on engineering design challenges give visitors a chance to practice designing their own solutions inspired by nature. The exhibition guides visitors through a process of exploration, inspiration, and innovation with exhibits in three categories:
Pillars
Components introducing biomimicry and creating a community space.
Community Challenges
Design challenges focusing on how biomimicry solves community issues.
Nature’s Inspiration
Interactive components exploring nature’s amazing engineering solutions
The Designing Our Tomorrow exhibit is on tour until 2030.