Deadline: March 28, 2024
Applications for the Biomimicry Institute Youth Design Challenge 2023-2024 are now open. The Biomimicry Institute’s Youth Design Challenge (YDC) is a project-based learning experience that asks middle and high school teams to design bio-inspired ideas that can provide solutions to critical real-world problems. It provides a framework for formal and informal educators to introduce biomimicry as an engineering design strategy, to integrate relevant purposeful STEM experiences, and to provide engaging instruction aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Design Brief: Solutions to a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)
Your Challenge:
Explore the wonders of the natural world and create a nature-inspired innovation* that addresses any global or local problem by:
- Helping communities solve a local challenge AND/OR Reversing/slowing the advancement of an issue that is negatively impacting the community.
What will your team do?
Your team will take on the role of innovators and work together to apply biomimicry (nature-inspired innovation) to address a social and/or environmental issue related to a chosen Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Suggestion: work on an issue that affects your local community!
As a coach, you will guide your students as they study how organisms in nature have adapted to similar problems and challenges, and you will support them in applying what they learn to innovative solutions. Final projects can then be entered into the competition for prizes awarded by the Biomimicry Institute.
Award
- The YDC Awards are designed to recognize student achievement in several aspects of the design project, correlated to the Project Rubric. Winning teams will have their work featured online.
Eligibility
- Open to students in middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12).
- A team consists of a pair of students or a group of up to eight students and one to two adult coaches affiliated with a school, educational organization, or homeschool.
Judging Process
- Coaches are asked to participate in the judging process during a preliminary review period in which they will rate a selection of student entries against the rubric. Award winners are then selected by a panel of expert judges from among the top-scoring entries.
Application
Entries are submitted online and include the following elements:
- Written project overview
- Project image
- Video pitch
- Project portfolio
- Team photo
For complete details about requirements, visit the Submission Guidelines page.
For more information, visit Biomimicry Institute.
