Forest Bathing
Tokyo International School
Located right in the heart of Tokyo, TIS provides plenty of authentic and innovative learning experiences within and beyond its campus. Under the guidance of Andrew Bell, the MYP Art and Design teacher, Tokyo International School has just won an award from the Biomimicry Institute for their "Coral Mangrove Dolos" project in the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge. The STEM Learning and Design competition attracts entrants from around the world, and winning Designs were selected from 53 schools this year.
‘‘We started this project with a provocation to help us understand and build empathy with our design situation. Biomimicry focuses on how design can be inspired by natural systems, structures and processes, therefore we started this unit with 2 hours of “forest bathing” in a nearby park. Forest bathing, or Shinrin-yoku in Japanese, is the practice of spending time in a natural environment and connecting with it through our senses. Our students spent this time observing and documenting the plants, animals and natural features of the nearby park, before returning to the Design lab to begin researching solutions for a local sustainability issue that can be addressed through a biomimetic design solution. Over the course of two months, our students followed their selected line of inquiry and prototyped their ideas many times.’’
‘‘Our TIS Design Lab offers a wide variety of tools and machines, so our students were able to iterate these ideas across a variety of mediums before creating the solutions they would submit to the competition. Design at TIS emphasises the value of following and documenting all the steps of a structured design cycle. Our students value this process and I think this unit exemplifies the success of our system. The award was won for an "engaging presentation of the required application materials that creatively and accurately captures the team’s innovation process and learning journey."
For more information about learning at Tokyo International School visit: www.tokyois.com
