The effect of biomimicry practices on secondary school students' creative thinking skills and designs

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of biomimicry applications, which are the basis of adapting the forms, structures and functions that provide the continuity of nature to daily life and technology, on the scientific creativity and designs of secondary school 7th grade students. Embedded mixed pattern was used in the research. A quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. A case study model was used to collect qualitative data. The study group of the research consists of a total of 47 students, 20 in the experimental group and 27 in the control group, studying in a different branch selected by easily accessible sampling method in a state secondary school in the central district of Düzce. The data were collected in the 2021-2022 academic year. Biomimicry applications were applied to the experimental group students, and program-based instruction was applied to the control group students. Four activities were developed by the researcher by taking expert opinion. The first of the four developed activities was applied only to the experimental group. Before the application, biomimicry information training was given to the experimental group students. The other three activities were applied to the experimental group by integrating biomimicry applications, and to the control group with program-based teaching methods. "Scientific Creativity Test (BYT)" was used as a pre-test and post-test to collect the data. The data obtained from the BYT questions consisting of 7 open-ended questions were analyzed with content analysis and the data obtained as a result of scoring the questions were analyzed with the independent sample t-test. The drawings of the students at the end of the real life problems in the prepared activities were analyzed by content analysis according to whether they were inspired by biomimicry or not. As a result of the qualitative data obtained from the student drawings, it was seen that the experimental group students were affected more by biomimicry in their designs than the control group students. As a result of the study; It was concluded that the use of biomimicry applications had a significant effect on students' scientific creativity. It is thought that teaching fields such as biodiversity, energy transformations, human and environment, engineering design process with the lens of biomimicry will contribute to students' creative thinking by observing the rational problems of nature and to understanding the solutions nature offers to humanity.