Biodesign in high schools

Por Giovanna Danies Turano, María Paula Barón Aristizábal, Andrea Peralta Mejía y 2 más

Traditional education, which is mainly based on evaluating theoretical content at the end of a course, is not in keeping with the skillset we require in the twenty-first century. Today, we need creative and innovative individuals who can think critically, who are capable of learning to learn, and who have complex problem-solving skills. We need people who can work collaboratively using transdisciplinary communication skills. We need citizens who are aware of local needs but have a global vision. They must make decisions not only based on their own well-being, but also in the best interests of the community and the planet. They must understand that the solution requires a balance.
People can acquire these skills through design thinking, which builds the learning process by carrying out projects, and theorizes based on set challenges. Biodesign for High Schools is a pedagogical proposal that combines scientific topics with a creative approach; it offers a plethora of possibilities to prepare future high school graduates to respond to the needs of today's world.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Universidad de los Andes
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 18 jul 2023
• ISBN: 9789587982466

Vista previa del libro

Welcome

In this book you will find information, resources, tools, and activities to help you develop your own biodesign project.

You will find questions that will help you critically reflect upon your context and activities to guide you during this process. This book includes material that will support you when creating a proposal of which you can be proud. It is a small piece of the world of biodesign—so venture out towards new possibilities, research, and be curious because you may need more information than you can find in this book.

Feel free!

Find your own path,

questions, and activities.

WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?

IT IS A METHODOLOGY TO approach problems, settings, and opportunities creatively. It is a human-centered approach in which people, their needs, and perspectives are the essential design input. This methodology combines what is desirable with what is feasible and probable.

Design thinking provides practical tools to rethink situations and address broad challenges. It helps to ask the right questions to address and understand wicked problems.

Throughout the pages of this book, you will find practical tools in the design activities that will help you resolve issues, and guide you with the exercises during each stage. Use them to approach every stage of the process. We also encourage you to look at the references and make your approaches based on the practical exercises.

WHAT IS BIODESIGN?

When we understand living beings’ behaviors and integrate them into human practices, we are designing using biology. The word biodesign captures the idea of some of the most current design practices and knowledge from other disciplines—from bioengineering to sustainable architecture.

Biodesign also provides a new way of thinking about reality into the science of biology, fostering the design of meaningful science-based experiences in a setting where creative thinking and scientific thinking collide. The teams working within this interdisciplinary universe explore what we can learn from the natural world through observation. While considering progress in different disciplines, they interpret how we can take advantage of these observations, how to portray them, and how they shape our lives in relation to our environment.

In the explore and ideate stages, you will find sections dedicated to everything bio: processes, information, and scientific references from the natural world that will help you to learn and discover strategies that we can apply to human realities to inspire new relationships between humans and non-humans.

WHY BIO-EMPATHY?

"OUR DESIGN PRACTICE DEPENDS on what people are willing to share with us. The joy of creation is enriched when exercises on practical ethics are included during different design process phases. Research in design is collaborative, where building a relationship of trust is key. The core of this relationship can be divided into three main concepts that result in empathy: admiration, commitment, and integrity. We invite you to explore the power of being aware of your actions through bio-empathy activities that help you approach complex human realities."1

Throughout "Biodesign for High Schools," we suggest that you continuously reflect on how you will approach your community and propose interventions. Your project should be designed to maximize human well-being and the well-being of other living beings and the environment, and minimize any potential damage it may cause.

You will find questions and advice in this section —bio-empathy. These should promote team conversations that you reflect upon and help you decide on the position you want to take throughout the process.

ITEMS IN THE BIODESIGN KIT

19 CARDS

To help you build the challenge for your design project. For more detailed information, see pages 20 - 27.

1 BOOK

Includes an introduction, a chapter with a detailed description of bio-empathy, and six chapters about each stage of the process: explore, define, ideate, prototype, evaluate, and communicate.

For more detailed information, see pages 28 and 29.

1 PRINTED FORM

The design brief. This document guides your project as you will use it to record your progress and summarize your steps.

For more detailed information, see pages 30 and 31.

THE CARDS: THE BIODESIGN CHALLENGE

19 cards

› 9 cards relating to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

› 6 about the users.

› 4 cards about the contexts.

THE CHALLENGE

To address complex realities, we must ask complex questions.

To do this, we have created cards that provide ideas about possible paths to start your project; combining different users and situations that suggest interesting intersections of reality. They should not be viewed as a straitjacket but rather as a resource showing possible ways to make observations, helping you find information, and propose meaningful projects.

How to construct the challenge?

As part of the user-centered design methodology, it is paramount to establish a space for observation. To help do this, we have designed different cards which, when combined, provide a lens through which you can approach the challenge while considering users and settings.

We suggest forging complex and daring combinations that provoke new and unexpected visions of the universe.

The following formula may be helpful:

We suggest forging complex and daring combinations.

GOAL CARDS

What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

We decided to use several of the United Nations (UN) proposed goals in 2015 to help provide ideas that can guide or support starting the project. The SDGs as a combined plan of action for people, the planet, and prosperity, aim to strengthen universal peace and access to justice. Each goal has specific targets that must be met over the next ten years. United Nations member states agree that the modern world’s greatest challenge is to eliminate poverty since, without this, sustainable development is not possible. We believe that change can begin with your big ideas.2

We all have a role to play to meet these goals: the private sector and the public sector, the general public, and people like you. To meet the goals, we must contribute from our own spaces: homes, schools, and jobs. Together, we can fight the problems that affect us.

What SDGs have we chosen?

We decided to use 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals³ because we think they are the ones that best fit our context. These are: zero hunger (2); good health and well-being (3); quality education (4); gender equality (5); clean water and sanitation (6); affordable and clean energy (7); industry, innovation, and infrastructure (9) + responsible production and consumption (12); sustainable cities and communities (11); and aquatic life + terrestrial life (14, 15).

ON EACH CARD YOU WILL FIND:

USER CARDS

Before delving deeper into your research, it is essential to know who you will be designing for. It is necessary to be aware of your target audience’s needs, setting, and history before contacting them. Knowing this will help you ensure that you start your research by asking thoughtful questions and valuing the community’s time and efforts. You will also learn more when working directly with people.

We suggest you do not limit your exploration to the people for whom you will be designing. You might need to understand how other actors are involved with the issue or with the SDGs—for example, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), other businesses, different social groups, etc.

When you start to explore, interact with more than one user to gain a broader understanding of the situation.

ON EACH CARD YOU WILL FIND:

context cards

The context refers to where an event takes place. It is an environment or area that can be both physical and symbolic. The meeting of different phenomena—which could include time and place—and circumstances that can define the condition of an event.

Analyzing your setting will help you understand the economic, political, and cultural forces that affect it; this will become very important when you propose your project.

ON EACH CARD YOU WILL FIND:

THE BOOK: THE BIODESIGN PROCESS

During the biodesign process, this book will be your main guide and tool to help with your challenge. There are some short summaries below about what happens in each biodesign stage. You will also find more detailed information in each chapter and steps to follow to either start or continue your journey.

ExplorE

During this stage, the design team members will dare to observe, ask, experiment, and approach people, users, and communities. In this chapter, you will find design activities, and you will also be able to explore fundamental biological concepts, other big ideas, and examples of bio-design.

DEFINE

During this stage, you should reflect on the information you have found to understand the setting and users’ intentions or motivations. This is a decisive moment as your insights will now begin. The revelations or clues you find will allow you to understand and visualize a truth, gain perspective, and understand the objects/topics of value or importance that are part of the project. To achieve a systematic view, it is of the utmost importance you understand the interconnections between stakeholders

IdeaTE

During this phase, you will define the opportunity or problem. With your design team, you will propose interventions that can address, add value to, or contribute to resolving the chosen situation. It is not time to worry about the possible; it’s time to think big.

ProTOYPE

During this stage, you will design the interventions on a different scale and have a chance to test your team’s intuitions. This, in turn, can help you understand your limitations, see if your first ideas make any sense, and gain an understating of what is expected within the setting. The prototypes have clear objectives that address the proposal’s concerns and shape it.

EvaluaTE

After prototyping, and with a clear idea of your proposal, you will evaluate possible ways of building the final design. Your primary focus must be the future impact it may have on economic, social, cultural, and environmental considerations.

ComMUNICATE

During this stage, we suggest using graphic representation resources to describe situations and articulate the structured knowledge you gained and developed during this stage. You could use a robust discourse to communicate this knowledge to the actors involved.

You will give a formal presentation in this stage of the project. The content and characteristics of this presentation will be defined at the beginning of the stage.

THE DESIGN BRIEF: ROUTE MAP

What is the design brief?

The design brief is a work in progress. It is a living document that will help you identify design restrictions, and most importantly, it establishes an action plan.

How should you use it?

You will find a space for each stage in the process (explore, define, ideate, prototype, evaluate, and communicate).

You should add to it each time you make progress on a stage. Don’t worry if you don’t start writing initially; the tool will be there for you during the entire process. In each chapter, we will explain how to use it.

Advantages of the design brief

It is a tool that will allow you to plan your time, define, and establish the project’s goals and expected results. It will also help you to think about the deliverables.

It is a resource to agree upon, discuss, and communicate your design team members’ roles throughout the project development process.4

It is a guide. You can return to the brief whenever you need to reconsider the challenge you have created, the objectives you have defined, and the questions that have arisen throughout the process. It will help you make decisions throughout the project.5

It can help you plan activities with your team or think about what resources you should consult.

CALL AN EXPERT

Conversations with stem experts

When developing a biodesign project, work groups must have the opportunity to consult experts to strengthen their solution proposals and review how feasible they are. Therefore, in this edition of the book, we have included a new feature—Call an expert: conversations with STEM experts, a program that operates in Colombia.

If your school is not currently linked to the Biodesign for High Schools program—part of Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia)—and you would like to contact an expert while developing your project, don’t worry! We have some suggestions.

We recommend you review science and engineering websites from various colleges and universities. Examine the teaching staff section, and read the profiles. When you find one that fits your interests, write them an email introducing yourself, expressing your interest in their work and your desire for advice with your biodesign project.

We also recommend that you receive feedback during the ideate and prototype stages. In the chapters on these stages, you will find a guide to plan your calls with your STEM expert.

If you would like to contact us so we can help you find an expert to advise your project, please send an email to [e-mail] with the following subject: Interest in Calling an Expert.

We also invite you to explore programs such as Skype a Scientist, which connect scientists to classrooms around the world. Find out more about this option at https://skypeascientist.com/.

Alternatively, you can contact the organizers of the Biodesign Challenge to tell them about your project and express your interest in contacting their network of researchers. You can contact them at https://biodesignchallenge.org/contact.

NAVIGATING THE BOOK

This red marker means you are reading a step or instruction.

The blue sign will show you tools that you can use during each stage.

The glossary at the end of the book includes definitions of the words highlighted in bold.

You can explore additional content on the topic when you find a QR code with a web link. If you do not have access to the internet, ask your teacher for help accessing the content.

How can you scan a QR code or access a link?

To scan the code, use a smartphone camera.

If you are using Android, you can use Google Lens or a QR Code Reader application. On iOS devices, you will be able to use the camera directly.

Open the camera or the app and scan the code. Click the message that appears on the screen, and you can then enjoy the content.

If you cannot scan the QR code, don’t worry! There is a web link under each code.

To access the link, type it in a computer or smart phone web browser. You can then enjoy the content!

Notas

1. Barón Aristizábal, María Paula, and Margarita María Echavarría Quinchía, De uno a todos: preguntas para construir un proceso de diseño basado en la empatía (Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes, 2018).

2. La Asamblea general adopta la Agenda 2030 para el desarrollo sostenible | Noticias ONU, United Nations, accessed on October 29, 2019, https://news.un.org/es/story/2015/09/1340191

3. Sustainable Development Goals | UNDP, 2020, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), accessed on October 20, 2019, https://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/ sustainable-development-goals.html

4. Agudelo Álvarez, Natalia Lucía, and Silvia Elena Lleras Echeverri, Herramientas para el salón: herramientas para el diseño centrado en el usuario (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño, 2016), p. 20-23.

5. Ibid.

Bio-empathy

1. Calabrese, Josh, Green leaf plant.

2. Kyung, KS, Purple-petaled flower, Unsplash, October 2019, accessed on December 8, 2019, https://unsplash.com/photos/YmPqWIQcl9c

3. Wexor Tmg, Brown turtle swimming underwater, Unsplash, June 2015, accessed on December 8, 2019, https://unsplash.com/photos/L-2p8fapOA8/info

4. Du Preez, Priscilla, Brown and black wild cat sitting on brown rack, Unsplash, May 2015, accessed on December 8, 2019, https://unsplash.com/photos/zwtqIlsajjg24

When you devise new projects, both in design and biology, it is very important to reflect on their possible impacts on people’s lives, other living beings, and the environment. As a biodesigner, always remember to think systematically. Analyze the proposal as a whole. Connect it to the context where it will be implemented and in regard to the users it will involve and benefit.

Bioethics is a branch of ethics that contemplates the values that shape the type of relationship human beings should have concerning respect for life—both, human and non-human. We will refer to bioethics as bio-empathy in this book. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.² We believe that it is essential for you to develop the ability to identify with the people, living beings, and contexts you will be involved with during the process, and for whom, ultimately, you are designing your project.

BIO-DESIGN POSES COMPLEX CHALLENGES, which will undoubtedly involve complex emotions that will trigger complex reflections. In this chapter, our suggestion is that throughout the process, you constantly and consciously reflect on what you learn; what you observe; your opinions, decisions, and actions; and merits and values of projects. You should also rigorously assess risks and implications.

Asking difficult questions is valuable to encourage conversation and reflection from the people involved in a project. We suggest that you rethink—over and over—how your approaches and interventions minimize damage and maximize the well-being of humans, other living beings, and the environment. Your projects and discussions will allow you to rethink current values relating to efficiency and low cost. They will also make you think about how your project’s priority will add meaning to the human and non-human lives involved.

These examples of bio-empathy principles are the foundations upon which you, as a student, will continuously reflect to work on self-regulation. You can also continue to question the impact of