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Research & Evaluation

Biomimicry

Report date: August, 2010

 

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General Description: 

After completing the Biomimicry: Synthetic Gecko Tape activity, surveys were distributed to fourteen visitors. The survey was designed to elicit information regarding the degree of visitor interest, enjoyment, and ease in understanding the activity. Responding visitors for this activity actually participated in a week-long program; some of their responses reflect their participation in numerous activities.

Major Findings: 

The Gecko activity engaged visitors well in terms of visitor interest, enjoyment, and understanding. Many visitors connected with the Big Idea, giving responses related to new applications in nanotechnology science, but many also came away from the activity with a better understanding of connections between nature and nanotechnology.

Type of product(s) studied: 

  • Program

Method(s) of data collection: 

  • surveys

Documents: 

application/pdf icongeckofoot.pdf

Author(s): 

Sarah Cohn
Denise Huynh

Associated product(s): 

NISE Network product

Biomimicry: Synthetic Gecko Tape through Nanomolding

This hands-on activity will guide you in making a synthetic gecko tape with micron sized hairs that mimics that behavior of the gecko foot. The process is called "nanomolding." Also described is an easy setup using Legos for testing how much weight the gecko tape can hold. Significant amount of research is ongoing in the field of synthetic Gecko tape due to its wide variety of applications. This program gives a glimpse of one of the methods used by researchers for making a synthetic gecko tape and its properties.

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