Biomimicry outside the Classroom

Outside the classroom: teaching and evaluating future physicians.

Effective extensive reading outside the classroom: A large scale experiment

We report on a large-scale implementation of extensive reading (ER) in a university setting in Japan where all students were required to read outside class time as part of their course requirement. A pre/posttest comparison between the 2009 cohort of students who read outside of class and the 2008 cohort who did no outside reading shows that the implementation of ER resulted in highly significa...

Educational leadership: benefits of stepping outside the classroom.

Although most educators have their greatest impact in the classroom, the increased need for diverse learning activities has created new opportunities for leadership. Moreover, many Tenure and Promotion Committees are finding that it is no longer sufficient to consider only lecture hours when evaluating a faculty member's contributions to the teaching mission of an institution. Accordingly, the ...

Biomimicry and the culinary arts.

We present the results of a recent collaboration between scientists, engineers and chefs. Two particular devices are developed, both inspired by natural phenomena reliant on surface tension. The cocktail boat is a drink accessory, a self-propelled edible boat powered by alcohol-induced surface tension gradients, whose propulsion mechanism is analogous to that employed by a class of water-walkin...

Biomimicry in biomedical research

NEWS NEWS aND ViEWS Biomimicry (literally defined as the imitation of life or nature) has sparked a variety of human innovations and inspired countless cutting-edge designs. From spider silk-made artificial skin to lotus leaf-inspired self-cleaning materials , biomimicry endeavors to solve human problems. Biomimetic approaches have contributed significantly to advances biomedical research durin...