Challenge Details

Key details are outlined below. For additional information, please refer to the Program Handbook.

TIMELINE:

The Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge (BYDC) takes place the first half of the calendar year. The biomimicry curriculum is always available.

ANTICIPATED BYDC TIMELINE FOR 2025

Registration Opens: Dec. 1, 2024
Registration Deadline: Jan. 31, 2025
Submission Deadline: June 1, 2025
Exhibition and Awards: June 2025

ELIGIBILITY:

The BYDC is a team competition for students in middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12). A team consists of two to eight students and one adult coach affiliated with a school, educational organization, or homeschool. Please refer to the Official Rules for complete eligibility details.

WHAT WILL YOUR TEAM DO?

Your team will take on the role of innovators and work together to apply biomimicry (nature-inspired innovation) to address a social and/or environmental issue related to a chosen Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Suggestion: think locally!

As a coach, you will guide your students as they study how organisms in nature have adapted to similar problems and challenges, and you will support them in applying what they learn to innovative solutions. Final projects can then be entered into the online exhibition and awarded prizes.

HOW DOES THE CHALLENGE MEET INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS?

The Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge is aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for both middle school and high school. Full alignments can be downloaded below.

NGSS Alignment for High School
NGSS Alignment for Middle School
NGSS Alignment for UN Sustainable Development Goals

CURRICULUM & TRAINING

Prior experience with biomimicry is not required to participate in the BYDC. A variety of resources and online training opportunities are provided to help you support your students, including full use of all of the MIMIC lesson plans.

After you register your team for the 2025 BYDC, POCACITO will connect you with a mentor, a subject-matter expert who can help you and your team research, develop, and present your biomimicry solutions.

REGISTER:
Coaches can register their teams of two to eight students here. Only coaches may register a team. Beginning December 2, coaches will be invited to the BYDC platform, where they will create their team profiles and can connect with other participating educators.

REVIEW RESOURCES:
You have access to the Educator Resources section of the website, containing program materials, curriculum, guidelines, and supplemental resources. Start by reviewing the Program Handbook for information and suggestions for coaching your team. Then browse the curriculum and resources.

DIVE IN:
Gather your team members and get them started with learning and designing!

COLLABORATE:
Work with a biomimicry mentor and the other teams through the BYDC platform.

SUBMIT:
When students have completed all elements of the BYDC, coaches can submit the team projects. June 1, 2025, is the last day to submit for the virtual exhibition and awards.

The BYDC Awards are designed to recognize student achievement in several aspects of the design project, correlated to the Project Rubric.

Complete submissions will be featured online as part of the BYDC Virtual Exhibition in June 2025.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

Entries are submitted online and include the following elements:

Written project overview
Project image
Video pitch
Project portfolio
Team photo

For complete details about requirements, please visit our Submission Guidelines page.

Design Brief: Solutions to a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)

YOUR CHALLENGE:

Explore the wonders of the natural world and create a nature-inspired innovation* that addresses any global or local problem by:

-Helping communities solve a local challenge AND/OR reversing/slowing the advancement of an issue that is negatively impacting the community.

* An innovation may include the design of a physical technology, a process, or a system. Basically, any new approach for how people can do things. Demonstrate originality either by proposing an entirely new solution or offering novel improvements on existing ideas.

THE PROBLEM:

Our impact on the environment is destabilizing, and our hunger for energy, materials, and other resources is fast expanding, resulting in mounting negative consequences to the planet and billions of people. To avoid the worst consequences of our unsustainably designed products, systems, and processes, we must find ways to learn how to design more sustainably. The good news is that our planet’s biodiversity offers an array of possible solutions that are just waiting to be discovered!

A PATHWAY FOR SOLUTIONS:

Nature is one of the best models we have for a sustainable, regenerative way of life. In order for people to thrive on a healthy planet, our human-built systems must work together with the systems of the natural world that we are all a part of. Biomimicry (nature-inspired design) provides a pathway to the solutions we need to accomplish this. Organisms and ecosystems offer incredible inspiration and time-tested strategies that can be emulated and applied worldwide to local issues in areas as diverse as energy, water, transportation, buildings and infrastructure, food systems, health, and more.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Award-winning teams will identify a specific problem to focus on, provide evidence that solving it will help address the issue or challenge identified, and propose an original well-researched biomimicry solution to the problem. We are especially interested in projects that offer solutions to issues affecting the team’s community or region. For details about judging criteria, please review the Challenge Rubric.

DOWNLOAD THE DESIGN BRIEF PDF

The Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge (the “Challenge”) is a project-based learning experience hosted by POCACITO Network. The program provides educators with a Challenge framework, curriculum, and resources for offering a biomimicry design experience to student teams in a school-based or extracurricular setting. Team design projects may then optionally be submitted to the international competition.

1: WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

1. The Challenge is open to middle and high school students (US equivalent grades 6th-12th)

2. A TEAM consists of the individual or 2 - 8 student team members with at least one adult COACH who will communicate with POCACITO on behalf of the team. No student may be on more than one Team, however coaches may advise multiple teams.

3. TEAMS and COACHES must be affiliated with a public school, private school, registered homeschool, or a legally recognized organization (such as a museum, nature center, after school program, youth agency, etc.). If you do not fall into these categories, contact biomimicry@pocacito.org before registering in this case.

4. Coaches may be educators, volunteers, or parents/guardians working with the Team’s affiliated organization. Coaches must be age 18 or older.

5. TEAMS may be composed of students from assorted grades, however if any team member is in grade 9th-12th (high school) that team must compete in the high school category.

2: PROGRAM CONSENT & RELEASE

1. Coaches are not deemed agents of the BYDC and carry no authority, rights, or representation on behalf of the Challenge or POCACITO. The Challenge framework is provided by The Biomimicry Institute as a teaching guide for the coach, which includes program materials, the evaluation process, and the issuance of awards.

2. Coaches and participants (and minor participants’ parent/guardian) agree to hold harmless the BYDC, POCACITO Network, and its officers, directors, agents, and employees from and against any and all losses, damages, obligations, liabilities, claims, expenses, fees (including attorneys’ fees), costs, and judgments arising out of, based upon, or resulting from participation in the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge.

3: HOW TO REGISTER:

1. Coaches must register their teams and identify themselves and their affiliated organization or registered homeschool. Coaches will have access to resources and support with which to guide their teams in the Challenge experience and prepare a competition entry. Student team members do not directly register or submit entries to the Challenge.

2. If a team has two coaches, both may register but one of the Coaches must be designated “Lead Coach” and assume primary responsibility for communicating with the Institute and submitting and approving the team’s entry on the Challenge platform. If a team has only one coach, that coach is by default the “Lead Coach.”

4: ENTERING THE CHALLENGE:

1. Entries must be submitted in English and received via the Challenge platform by June 1, 2025. Late and incomplete entries will not be considered. Follow the guidelines provided and in the Program Handbook for instructions on how and what to submit.

2. Only one entry is permitted per team. Coaches working with multiple Teams may submit up to three (3) entries. If more than three entries are received from a Coach, only the first 3 eligible entries will be considered.

3. All entries must be the students’ own original work. If any copyrighted materials are used in the submission they must be properly credited and follow U.S. Fair Use guidelines.

4. POCACITO reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify or refuse to display any entry it deems to be in violation of copyright, offensive, inappropriate, or not in keeping with the Challenge’s mission.

5. Submission materials include photographs and video that may picture students. Coaches must acquire and handle such images in a manner that complies with their organization's image policy and provide parents/guardians with the opportunity to opt out of including their student in submission materials. Coaches are liable for ensuring that all images they submit to the BYDC via the Challenge do not picture any students who have opted out.

6. By submitting an entry, each Team (collectively the Coach(es), student team members, and minor team members’ parents or guardians) grants to the BYDC and POCACITO the right to display the submitted entry materials, photographs, and team biographical information (including names, school names, grades, city, and country) on the BYDC website. POCACITO may also use such photographs and information, with appropriate attribution, for educational or research purposes, advertising and promotion of the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge, or any other legal purposes, in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the world in perpetuity without further notice, permission, or compensation, except where prohibited by law.

5: JUDGING & AWARDS:

1. Entries to the Challenge are evaluated once annually and distinctions are awarded in two grade level categories: middle school (US grade 6th-8th) and high school (US grade 9th-12th). In each category, multiple awards will be given. Refer to the Program Handbook and BYDC platform for details on the awards and judging process.

2. Coaches submitting entries to the Challenge will be asked to review a selection of entries during a preliminary round of judging and score them based on a numerical point system correlated to the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge Rubric. Coaches may not judge their own team(s) or any other team that would represent a conflict of interest.

3. Up to 10 entries in each category (based on numerical score) will advance from the preliminary round to a second round of judging. Awards will be announced during the BYDC Virtual Exhibition in June 2025, and awardees will be notified via emails to coaches.

4. Projects selected for awards will be publicly recognized in a gallery on the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge website, on the POCACITO Network website, and in media and outreach from POCACITO. Each winning team will receive an award certificate.

6: GENERAL AWARD CONDITIONS:

1. By accepting the award, recipients grant to the BYDC the right to use his or her name, photograph, likeness, and biographical information (including grade, school name, hometown, and country), for purposes of advertising and promotion of the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge, or any other legal purposes, in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the world in perpetuity without further notice, permission, or compensation, except where prohibited by law.

2. One or more winners may be asked to attend and participate in media and/or public relations events (the “Media Events”) designated by Institute and/or requested by various media outlets. Upon Institute’s request, and subject to winner’s availability, each winner agrees to participate in such Media Events without any further compensation. Institute shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to choose the participants it wishes to participate in such Media Events. By accepting the prize, all winners, whether or not chosen to participate in such Media Events, agree to release POCACITO and its employees, directors, and officers, and hold each of them harmless from any claims relating to the respective participant’s selection, non-selection, participation, or non-participation in any Media Events.

3. Coaches may be asked to submit testimonials, photos, and other materials for use in promoting the Challenge, and if a coach submits such materials, he or she agrees that the license above with respect to the entry shall cover such submission.

7: PRIVACY POLICY:

1. We believe that privacy is important. Any information shared with POCACITO Network during the BYDC is subject to the organization’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY ORG IS ELIGIBLE TO HOST A TEAM?

The competition is open to teams affiliated with a public school, private school, registered homeschool, or a legally recognized educational organization (such as a museum, nature center, after-school program, youth agency, etc.) If you are unsure that your team qualifies, please contact us at biomimicry@pocacito.org.

CAN MY HOMESCHOOL PARTICIPATE?

Yes. Please indicate that you represent a homeschool when registering.

CAN MY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARTICIPATE?

Yes, we accept entries from schools outside the US.

HOW MANY TEAMS CAN I COACH?

You can coach as many teams as you want. To streamline the judging process, we ask that each coach submit only their 3 strongest team projects to the competition. You can select the teams you submit yourself or organize a local competition and have students or special guests vote on which projects should enter.

HOW LONG DOES THE CHALLENGE TAKE?

To prepare a competitive entry, we recommend devoting 25-30 class hours to complete the project. This includes time for background instruction on the topics of biomimicry and climate change as well as time to facilitate the design process. Depending on how these activities are scheduled, and whether connections to other course content or enrichment activities (such as a nature field trip) are added, the project could take, in total, between a few weeks to a full semester or longer. If you do not intend to submit student projects to the competition, you could easily abbreviate the project.

HOW CAN I REACH A BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE STAFF MEMBER?

If you have a question that was not answered here, you can reach a staff member for support by emailing biomimicry@pocacito.org.