“Nature-enriched school teaching” Perhaps the holiest of grails in the world of biomimicry education has been how to get biomimicry into formal education. Formal educational systems are where vast numbers of young people spend many, many years. If you can get biomimicry into there, it’s been thought, you can change…
The Center for Learning With Nature and collaborators including faculty from the University of Louisiana (Lafayette) were recently awarded funding for a K-12/AI-related project. AI is already being used by K-12 teachers and students. Our hope is to try and create an AI tool that improves on what is…
After seeing Director Sam Stier give the keynote address at MakerCon in Utah last fall, the directors of SpectrUM science museum in Missoula, Montana, reached out to see if Mr. Stier would speak with local area teachers. SpectrUM then led a cohort of teachers in weekly meetings throughout the spring,…
The Biomimicry Experts for Sustainability Teaching project, a 3-year project funded by the European Union, is fully underway now. The project envisions developing a cohort of biomimicry expert teachers in several European countries, teachers who are actively championing biomimicry within STEM subjects, inspiring pupils with solution-focused learning for a sustainable…
Director Stier was invited to give the keynote address to the 2026 Nevada STEAM Conference, one of the largest conferences for K-12 educators in Nevada. The annual conference is hosted by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno in partnership with the Desert Research Institute, one of the world’s premier…
Learning With Nature Director Sam Stier was invited to give a workshop at this year’s International Bat Research Conference, held in Cairns, Australia, using bats as a case study for Nature-enriched school teaching. The International Bat Research Conference is the world’s preeminent bat research conference, convening every few years to…
The Center for Learning with Nature was asked to design Nature-inspired STEM activities for the Changemaker Camp at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. CLN Director Sam Stier developed several activities, including making and testing humpback whale-inspired wind turbines, making rainbow-casting iridescent chocolate using bioinspired color, using time trials to…
The Center for Learning With Nature’s Director Sam Stier’s book, Engineering Education for the Next Generation: A Nature-Inspired Approach, has now been translated into Korean, and is carried by the Korean publisher, Open Books.
The Center for Learning With Nature hosted 70 K-12 teachers from 25 different schools across the island of Guam for the 3rd annual workshop on integrating the natural world into teaching standard school subjects (Nature-Enriched School Teaching). The first day of the workshop was held at the University of…
Wild Ideas: A Biomimicry of Saguaro National Park April 6-10, 2025 | Tucson, AZ Redemptorist Renewal Center/Saguaro National Park Join us next spring in Saguaro National Park for another biomimicry professional development and nature exploration experience. From Hollywood westerns and tourist postcards, the Sonoran Desert is often depicted as a…
In acknowledgement of the National Science Foundation’s support in developing some of our materials.
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