Robert Gordon's College

02 July 2010
Biomimicry Winners

This year pupils from S2 at Robert Gordon's entered 'Nature's Grand Designs' - an annual competition run by the Natural History Centre, and one of our pupils, Sam C (above) was one of the three main winners!

The theme this year was Biomimicry - using nature to inspire modern technology. The Gordon's Biology department linked with the Art department and they liaised with their departments to decide on how they could create a worthwhile cross-curricular project whilst still keeping within the curriculum.

All Biology teachers taught the pupils about biomimicry and prepared them for their next lesson with their Art teacher. The next 5 weeks of Art were then focused on designing a poster showing one chosen area where nature inspired technology. Each poster had to include some biological information. The entries were submitted by the school and we were informed by the NHC that our entries were outstanding and several pupils will be commended for their high levels of work and will be receiving certificates. The staff in Robert Gordon's College Biology and Art departments were all extremely pleased to hear of the success by our pupils. This competition was seized as an opportunity to enthuse our S2 pupils with exciting and ground-breaking cross-curricular work between the Art and Biology departments. We have had very good feedback from our S2 pupils in school and will be looking at how we can continue with this success.

The prize-giving ceremony was held at the Natural History Centre, Zoology Building, University of Aberdeen and the following of our pupils were presented with prizes:

Winner
Sam C: Bird's wings and aeroplane wings (see poster below)

Runners up: (see posters above)
Beverley H: Kingfisher's beak and the Bullet Train
Lydia I: Kingfisher's beak and the Bullet Train
Aleshya R: Seal's skin and ski suits

Additionally, 5 pupils received 'Commended' certificates, meaning they were in the top 23 of over 550 entries: Cameron B, Alex C, Michael M, Dominique S and Sarah C.

The full results can be viewed on Aberdeen University's website, and Sam's winning poster is below: