“If you want to understand the Universe, just look at Nature “. Albert Einstein
Nature constantly evolves, adapts, builds, grows, decomposes, and regenerates. Nature’s 4.6 billion years have seen the emergence of minerals, rocks, soils, rivers, lakes, wetlands, grasslands, forests, mountains, deserts, tropical rainforests, and all of the biosphere of life, including human beings! For nature, change is the only constant! When we observe Nature, we open our awareness to its patterns, its regenerative circular metabolism, and its provision for life on Earth, in the air (Atmosphere), on the land (lithosphere), in the water (Hydrosphere).
Activity 1 – Nature's Verbs
Nature’s patterns are beautiful to look at, observe, and learn from. Nature’s verbs are the very makings of our universe. This time, think of verbs that occur in nature. For example, how about split, grow, or evolve? How about spiral, tile, scale, layer, cluster, or crystallize? How about adapting, dividing, disintegrating, decomposing, dripping, wrapping, glowing, radiating, and camouflaging? For all of these verbs and a million more, nature has a purpose in the cycle of life. Nature’s verbs are gifts for our lives. The actions are all part of larger ecosystems.
Examine the natural world around you and see how form and performance unite in nature’s patterns and verbs.
Activity 2 – Ask Nature
Looking to nature for answers opens up new possibilities and solutions for human imaginations creating regenerative processes and biodegradable materials. Nature’s circular economy of birth, life, and regeneration decomposes its waste, creating topsoil nutrients. Plants produce seeds to regenerate more plants each growing season. Seeds and nutrients in the soil support production of food. The water cycle provides the moisture to stimulate seed growth and rooting. The world is plentiful with natural food sources in the water and on land; yet it has lands that are too hot or too dry to grow food.
Activity 3 – Nature's Ways
Learning from Nature’s verbs offers life-long exploration for scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians in STEM/STEAM-related fields, as well as artists, archaeologists, architects, botanists, biologists, biodiversity specialists, carbon date specialists, ecologists, environmentalists, hydrologists, geologists, medical researchers, and many more. Our generation’s charge is to design change into a world that does not exist but needs to exist to ensure the Earth’s Health, biodiversity of Life Health, and Human Health in the future. We can grow food in vertical farms supporting local food security; we can work to clean our rivers and freshwater lakes. We can work to decrease ocean acidification. We can replace biodiversity of life when we build. We can reduce consumption of goods and create more regenerative materials. The world is calling us to take action. What can you do?
Review
Explore
- Ask Nature
- Biomimicry Foundation
- Geometry of Wright Paper, M&LKeane
- Nature's Verbs Vocabulary
- UNESCO 113 Water Museums
- UNESCO 1,223 World Heritage Sites
- UNESCO 213 Global Geoparks
- UNESCO 51 Eco Hydrology Sites
- UNESCO 759 Biosphere Reserves
- UNESCO Global Geoparks List
- Video Evolution of Life on Earth in 60 seconds
Relate
- 7 Natural Wonders
- Air
- Animals
- Aquifers
- Biodiversity
- Biomes
- Birds
- Blue/Green Cities
- Carbon Cycle
- Circular Economy
- Climate
- Climate Change
- Climate Resilience
- Clouds
- Earth
- Earth Energy Balance
- Ecosystems
- Energy
- Fish
- Food
- Forests
- FUNGI
- Geothermal
- Grass
- GREEN Energies
- Green Materials
- Green Roofs
- Greenways
- Growing food
- Habitat
- Imagination
- Insects
- Land
- Landscape
- Life Cycles
- Microbes
- Nature
- Nature Journaling
- Nature Patterns
- Nature Play
- Nature's Verbs
- Oceans
- Pattern
- Plants
- RAINFORESTS
- Rain Gardens
- Recycling
- Rhythm
- Scale
- SEEDS
- Site Programming
- Soil
- Solar Energy
- Solar System
- STONE
- Story Telling
- Sunlight
- Temperature
- Topography
- Tree Identification
- Watershed
- Wetlands
- Wood
- Word Webs
- Zero Net Homes