Short description
Key concepts: biomimicry, surface tension, structural integrity
Duration: 1 hour
Studying how engineers and scientists mimic nature.
This activity consists of two parts: an experiment and a design challenge. The experiment is designed to teach concepts of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity, and how we can learn from hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions in nature to design materials with these distinct properties. The design challenge is a building competition, where students will apply an iterative design approach to create a structure that can support the most weight possible.