As part of our IB MYP program each grade level competes an interdisciplinary unit (IDU) that is connected to the concept of sustainability. For the grade tens, this involves an exploration into the concept of Biomimicry.

Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges (Biomimcry.org)

We have explored this concept several times before, but had not been able to for the past two years due to the pandemic.

In addition to the curricular requirement that they participate in an IDU inquiry, there were several reasons for choosing this project for our grade tens:

Content: biomimicry, as a concept and content area, is new and engaging to students. Despite this unit content being a science and design focus, all students seem to be able to get behind the idea of "nature solving problems" and connecting those problems to real people.
Process: This unit encourages students to work outside their comfort zone, take risks with their ideas, and collaborate with peers they normally don't work with. They also got a chance to practice some agile thinking in their decision making and research, as many teams started with an idea and then developed and refined it as they went through the inquiry. We used the MIRO board as a way to model, support, document, and present student work.
Independence: Despite MIRO being a online tool, this work was all done face to face. with teachers supporting and discussing with students. There was some instruction about the flow and sequencing of steps in the beginning, as well as some exemplars to jumpstart the thinking process; but by and large this was designed to have students and their teams work independently on their inquiry.

This year’s iteration presented us with the option of developing and iterating the unit. One of the key tools we used was Miro, an online collaboration tool, to structure, deliver, and guide the inquiry. We had about 90 students working on this task over three days. They worked in teams to learn about biomimicry, research into a problem, and develop a nature-inspired solution. Below is the MIRO board that was the beginning of their exploration into the concept.

This board below presents students' exploration SDG goals related to their idea, and narrowing their focus into the problem

Overall this was a rewarding experience, allowing students to collaborate and work independently on their inquiries. There were some interesting takeaways from this unit, which we will take forward into developing new learning experiences:

Shared, but independent: Having the groups able to view the progress of others on the same Miro board encouraged conversation with other teams, as well as helped to measure their progress.
Not a Google-doc: We’re a “google-school” and it can seem like our thinking and communication is dictated by the over-familiarity with the technology. Having a new format, and using to a great extent seemed to free students up to focus on exploration and risk-taking with ideas.
The visual format encouraged looking at connections and relationships, and sparked lots of discussions - despite it being an online format, there format encouraged conversation within and across groups.