2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Unveiling the Connection between Engineering and Nature: Exploring High School Students’ Perception of Nature in an Engineering Classroom (Fundamental Research)

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 15

Biologically inspired design (BID) is an interdisciplinary field that seeks solutions to human problems from the natural world. The core idea is that evolution has addressed many complex challenges encountered by humans today, including resource optimization, structural integrity, energy efficiency, and sustainability. By integrating nature’s designs, organisms, and ecosystems, students can discover new methods to address engineering challenges and create more sustainable, efficient solutions. In this qualitative study, we explored first-year (9th grade) high school students' perspectives on integrating biology into engineering after they completed a seven-week curriculum focused on BID integration in engineering. A thematic analysis was conducted to examine students’ views regarding the integration of biology into engineering. The findings indicated that students viewed nature as valuable for developing prototype design solutions, deriving ideas from existing solutions, inspiring designs with potential social impact, and being inherently fascinating, even though implementation can be challenging.

Authors

Dr. Abeera P. Rehmat http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4977-5830 Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Abeera P. Rehmat is a Research Scientist II, at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Education Integrating
Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC). She has experience conducting research in engineering education that
spans pre-college up to the collegiate level. Her research interest involves investigating how engineering and computer
science education can foster students critical thinking and problem-solving skills to prepare them for the challenges of this
evolving world.
Dr. Meltem Alemdar Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Meltem Alemdar is s Associate Director and Principal Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC). Her research focuses on improving K-12 STEM education through research on curriculum development, teacher professional development, and student learning in integrated STEM environments. Dr. Alemdar currently serves as PI and co-PI for research on various NSF funded projects that focuses on engineering education, teacher networks and STEM learning environments. Her expertise includes program evaluation, social network analysis, mixed methods, and advanced quantitative methods. Dr. Alemdar is passionate advocate for equitable and inclusive STEM education. She actively engages with educators, students, and communities to promote the importance of STEM disciplines and education research in preparing the next generation for the challenges of the future.She received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy, with a concentration in Research, Measurement, and Statistics, from Georgia State University.
Dr. Michael Helms Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Marc Weissburg [biography]

School of Biological Sciences, Co Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Design, project PI

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

« View session