ZooLab's Top Technology Workshops

It’s National Technology Day! Celebrating the contributions of technology to society, the day aims to inspire people to get excited about (and maybe even join) the technology field. We have a range of curriculum-based workshops that encourage your students to get excited about all things Technology. Here are some of our favourites…

Biomimicry

Our new workshop combines the wonders of science and the ingenuity of technology to discover how scientists and engineers worldwide use animal-inspired technology to solve the issues of today. With fun experiments and some animal encounters, this workshop helps us learn why snake venom is being used in medication, how gecko feet inspired sticky tape, and how cockroaches may help in natural disasters.

‘Biomimicry is the science of applying nature-inspired designs in human engineering and invention to solve human problems.’ Scientists and Engineers study plants and animals, looking for nature-inspired solutions to solve the problems of today. Thanks to evolution, plants and wildlife have come up with ingenious ways to survive and thrive in their natural environment. We can then use similar strategies to solve our own issues, like using the science of shark skin to reduce drag on aeroplanes or creating cockroach-like robots to explore the rubble of disaster sites. 

Build A Dinosaur

This is a great workshop for any budding engineers in your setting! Combining scientific work and imagination, we uncover the big ideas of science and stimulate keen interest in young minds. Using the characteristics of preexisting animals, we create our own, brand-new dinosaurs!

Animals have evolved over millions of years to have characteristics that increase their chance of individual survival as well as the survival of their species. Some species have even survived from the time of the dinosaurs to today with little change! Researching these animal species and their dino descendants gives scientists a better picture of the timeline of our planet and the creatures that inhabit it.

Z.E.T: ZooLab Environmental Time-Machine

ZET: ZooLab Environmental Time Machine looks at the negative effects of humanity on the environment and how technology affects the world around us. Z.E.T is an environmental time machine travelling through time, looking at climate data such as fossil fuels, sea ice, rainforests and extinctions. Our climate-themed workshop compares data from different eras, which allows students to form a direct comparison between human behaviour and climate change.

Climate change is generally defined as a significant variation of average weather conditions, such as conditions becoming warmer, wetter, or drier over several decades or more. It’s these longer-term trends that differentiate climate change from natural weather variability. This workshop provides a comprehensive look at the long-term changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and cryosphere (frozen water systems). Discover what caused these changes and what lessons we can learn from the past and apply to the future to help reverse the climate change process.

Biomimetics

In this workshop, we look at a section of complex behaviours from the animal world (including Batesian mimicry, parthenogenesis and camouflage) and how animal adaptations influence technological advancements! What can humans learn from these marvels? Find out how nature-inspired solutions are influencing scientific, medical and engineering discovery.

Animals and plants have developed special characteristics to survive in their particular habitat. Adaptations include biological changes to body functions or structure, behavioural and physiological changes to meet the environment. Adaptations became widely discussed after Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace developed the theory of natural selection - i.e survival of the fittest, where the best adapted life forms survive and pass the most desirable characteristics to offspring. 

Get in touch to book a workshop today!