iOi · Nature's Engineers

What it is

A paper engineering activity. Flat paper folded, cut and curled into small 3D buildings, stuck onto a base to build a city. Nature has already solved the structural problem and a designer borrows the solution: this is the Institute of Imagination's biomimicry activity.

Geometry a child can pick up and look at:

circles in a sliced onionhexagons in honeycombtriangles in a leafspirals in a snail shell

Two of those have a building at the end of them. The honeycomb tiles a plane with the least wall for the most floor, which is why the James Webb telescope's mirror is hexagons. The giant water lily leaf, ribbed underneath so a broad thin sheet stays rigid, is what Paxton took to the Lily House and then to the Crystal Palace. They attach to techniques already below: hexagons to shapes, the ribbed leaf to pleats. The biomimicry research has the photographs.

Method

Look closely

Plants, leaves, flowers, rocks and shells, and how their structures differ.

Without a nature hunt

Printed close-up photographs, or rubbings — paper laid over a surface and rubbed with a crayon or pastel.

Specialist kit

Lenses, a magnifying glass or a digital microscope. They make the patterns visible.

Examples

An example board and printed examples on the table. Real leaves, shells and stones to handle.

Resources

Nature's Patterns, printed. My Invention Idea is a classroom planning sheet, normally left out at a stall.

The seven techniques

Try them before building anything.

Shapes

Fold a strip. Three folds a triangle, four a square, five a pentagon. Glue the tab inside.

Feet

Snip slits along the bottom and glue them flat to a base. Flat becomes upright.

Fringe

Lots of small snips two-thirds down a strip. Curl them round a pencil for grass or hair.

Pleats

Fold a strip back and forth like a fan. Stretched out it becomes stairs, a bridge, a flower.

Curls

Wrap a strip tightly round a pencil, release it, fold and glue the end. Towers, domes, spiral stairs.

Quilling

Make a shape from a strip — a circle, a square, a heart — then roll a second strip tightly and slot it inside.

Spirals

Cut round and round inside a shape towards the middle, then pull the middle up and stick each end.

Have a go

Pick a plant, animal or pattern — a snail shell, a leaf, a honeycomb.
Decide what the building is for — a school, a shop, a library, a home.
Make the shapes using the techniques. Try one, then another.
Stick them onto a base and start building the city.
Decorate — doors, windows, signs, tiny paper people.

On the day

Tinker beyond paper

Egg cartons for beehive walls. Half a plastic bottle for a dome. Bubble wrap round a tube for a textured wall.

Tips

A building that falls down needs a bigger base or thicker tape. Say it before it happens.

Kit

A pencil, and glue or tape. Fringe, curls and spirals all wrap paper round a pencil.

Materials

Core: coloured papercoloured cardtapescissors
Optional: white paperpencilspastels or crayonsglue stickbase to build onegg cartonscardboard tubes
Specialist kit: lensesblu tackdigital microscope or magnifying glassnature materials
Print: Nature's PatternsMy Invention Ideaprinted examples
Make: example board

Safety

Children	Scissors, throughout. Pencils, glue and tape.
Adults	Nothing.
First aid	Cleaning wipes and plasters. The risk is cuts.

At the Science Fair the stall sits beside a staffed tool area and needs none of its tools, so the two should not share a table.

Notes

Wild Eco Builders. The activity guide carries this series header. Whether it is a theme, a series or neither is not settled.
At a drop-in stall. How much of the method a child completes in a few minutes is not decided.
One city, or many. Whether buildings accumulate onto one shared base across the day is not decided.
The lists disagree. The published material list and the iOi in your Home write-up name different things, and neither is a stall list.
Already made. A teacher prep sheet, an instructional video, a presentation and a toolkit sit on the content asset management board.

Linked activities

Choose from Core activities

Not part of the activity record

Questions for you

Does the page have rhythm now?

It mixes plain text, two columns, three square frames, cards, a numbered list and two tables. Whether that is the right mix is a judgement made by looking.

About rightNothing repeats itself. Still too uniformSome blocks are doing the same job twice. Too many devicesIt has gone the other way and looks busy.

Is the row at the top the right four facts?

It shows type, duration, how many techniques and how many core materials. Themes, programmes and tags are now only in the record, not on the page.

The right fourLeave it as it is. Swap one inThemes or tags should be up there instead. Type and duration onlyThe two counts are not interesting.

Are the materials shown at the right depth?

The page shows the item names from materials.csv, grouped five ways. Quantities are not shown because none are set.

Names are enoughAnyone needing numbers opens the file. Show quantities tooA table with a quantity against each item. Core onlyThe four things you cannot run it without.

Are specialist kit, examples and resources the right three frames in Method?

Those are the three you named. Anything else in Method is either a technique, a step or a card.

The right threeUse the same three on every activity. One more is neededSomething is missing from Method. They vary by activityEach activity names its own frames.

More feedback

Nature's Engineers.

What it is

Method

Look closely

Without a nature hunt

Specialist kit

Examples

Resources

The seven techniques

Shapes

Feet

Fringe

Pleats

Curls

Quilling

Spirals

Have a go

On the day

Tinker beyond paper

Tips

Kit

Materials

Safety

Notes

Linked activities

Questions for you