Print and cut out this set of 45 cards to practice making connections between functions, biological strategies, and human challenges.

Objectives

  • Learners will identify function within human challenges and biological strategies.
  • Learners will match human challenges to biological strategies that might offer solution ideas.

Overview

This card deck contains 30 Biological Strategy cards and 15 Design Challenge cards. Strategy cards describe how nature works. They outline a feature, action, or process that helps an organism function and thrive in its environment. Challenge cards describe a design problem that humans might want to solve.

Every Strategy card in this deck also has a page on AskNature with more information, images, and links for additional reading. You can find a Collection containing all of these strategies below.

Example page. Cards are printable on US letter size paper.

Suggestions for Use

In general, the goal is to match a Challenge card with one or more Strategy cards that could inspire an innovative, sustainable solution to the design challenge. There are many ways to do this! You could play in a collaborative group by dealing out the Strategy cards among players and piling the Challenge cards face-down in the middle. Draw a Challenge card for the group and read it aloud. Then, each player looks at their Strategy cards and tries to match a Strategy to the Challenge. Discuss each player’s suggestion within the group, explaining how the Strategy and Challenge are connected.

You can also play this game individually, matching as many Challenges and Strategies as you can. Or, you can start with a Strategy card and pick the Challenge card(s) that the Strategy could help solve. Many Challenge cards will match with more than one Strategy. The “Suggested Matches” below lists potential matches between cards, but feel free to be creative with your matches. You can also create your own Challenge and Strategy “Wild Cards.”

Suggested Matches

  • Radon: Termites, Black-tailed prairie dog
  • Weather extremes: Thomson’s gazelle, Reindeer, Alaskan darkling beetle, Black-tailed prairie dog
  • Off-grid home: Oriental hornet, Olive tree, Tammar wallaby, Rainbow trout, Social insects
  • Water treatment: Wetland, Aquaporin, Dromedary camel
  • Digital displays: Chameleon, Morpho butterfly
  • Durable materials: Nacre, Striped bass, Golden-scale snail, Photosynthesis
  • Polymers: Photosynthesis, Bacteria
  • Clean surfaces: White rock shell snail, Lotus leaf
  • Wind power: Harbor seal, Owl, Rainbow trout
  • Cargo ships: Water fern, Harbor seal, Social insects
  • Water supply: Namib darkling beetle, Dromedary camel
  • Vaccine storage: Tardigrade
  • Agriculture: Tallgrass prairie
  • Surgical glues: Blue mussels
  • Earthquakes: Venus’ flower basket