Getting young people interested in technology is one of the main aims of our Bionic Learning Network. The Bionics4Education project brings the world of bionics and the education sector together. The interactive education concept enables a variety of bionics-related topics to be experienced in the classroom. It consists of a digital learning environment and a practical training kit, which allows students to build bionic prototypes in a creative way.
The first training kit to be launched in 2018 under the name of Bionics Kit in Germany and the USA is aimed at students between the ages of 14 and 18. The Bionics Kit gives young people the opportunity to solve problems using bionic methods in a creative and uncomplicated way – for example, by building a bionic fish, a chameleon gripper or an elephant’s trunk with an adaptive gripper with Fin Ray Effect®.
The kit case contains all the basic components necessary to get started with the design. These include conventional small servo motors, electronic components and plastic elements such as Fin Ray® structures. The pupils’ task is to then sensibly and inventively combine materials they have chosen by themselves. Cable binders, sandbags, cardboard, foam rubber and many other materials are suitable for this, enabling each young person to design their own reusable models.
In addition to the hardware, this website www.bionics4education.com provides a free learning environment. It supports the pupils by providing further content about bionics, as well as helpful tips on practical implementation in lessons or at home. Training videos, software codes and CAD data for producing components on a 3D printer are also provided free of charge. The website is available in German and English.
The content is provided free of charge and is designed to help students with assembly and programming. The holistic education approach enables children and young people to learn in a playful way how to build the animal robots inspired by nature themselves and to then control them remotely via interfaces such as a PC, tablet or smartphone.
Alongside this, the learning environment provides teachers with background material on the biology and methods. Teachers can thus use the website to create a project-based learning experience for their pupils, where the focus is on creativity, innovation and problem-solving. All the teaching aids were designed with this in mind by Festo Didactic with the support of our education experts.
The idea of the training kit arose from the countless previous models made during the development phases of various bionics projects – such as the FlexShapeGripper or the Bionic Handling Assistent . The idea was not only to preserve what our engineers had learned but also to process this learning and make it available to young people in an educational format.
The Bionic Kit helps to turn the theory into simple practice – encouraging the joy of experimentation. The interdisciplinary training content can be integrated into everyday schooling, project days or one-off events in the subjects of biology, physics, technology and IT.
As bionics acts as a link between biology and engineering, the content is a perfect addition to any integrative STEM educational programme. Therefore, school classes, work groups or inquisitive individual researchers can either start experimenting with bionics using the equipment in the kit case or organise and set up everything themselves from A to Z.