As we dive into winter, some of us are already planning for spring!
Spring brings change, and this year spring brings change to our popular free course Biomimicry: A Sustainable Design Methodology.
This year, instead of offering the course as a free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), we’ll be offering it as a low-cost course through MCAD’s Continuing Education program. We’ll cap enrollment to encourage students to participate more fully (e.g. post assignments and respond to more posts) and to allow us to give participating students more feedback. As before, it will be offered a non-credit introductory course.
If you’re considering joining our fully online MA in Sustainable Design program, this it is a good chance to engage with us and see what it’s like to learn online.
Introduction to Biomimicry:
A Sustainable Design Methodology
Course Description
Nature offers boundless inspiration for sustainable design, but how do we access the wealth of biological information available and apply it effectively to design? This course provides an introduction to biomimicry, a new discipline that emulates nature’s best ideas and blueprints in order to solve human design challenges. Each week you’ll get outside to explore nature and learn a key biomimicry design concept that you’ll then apply to develop a novel biomimetic design.
Learning Outcomes
After the completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Define and apply concepts employed in biomimetic design through the experience of creating novel biomimetic designs.
- Differentiate between nature’s unifying patterns, strategies, and functions, and apply them to human-made designs.
- Observe nature and conduct research to learn from nature through real-world, outdoor observations.
- Employ the biological solutions database AskNature.org to serve as a research tool for design challenges.
The course will be offered from April 6 through May 12, 2020.