If you are interested in biomimetics, or STEM research inspired by biological systems and organisms, check out this interview with an engineer, John Dabiri, whose work in aerospace engineering and propulsion systems, is inspired by how jellyfish are able to propel themselves through water. That type of research, looking at the processes that make a jellyfish be able to move so efficiently, is something students can do in school and home lab settings. Be creative, and think about the characteristics of a favorite animal or plant...some activity or feature you think is really cool - and then investigate aspects of that activity. How is the organism able to do whatever it is it does?
And remember, Nature has had hundreds of millions of years of evolution and modifications of organisms to do what we see them do today; jelly fish, for example, have been around for some 200 million years. Over time, evolution tends to begin to optimize the actions taken by various organisms, whereas humans have only been around and trying to engineer things for a TINY fraction of that time ('modern' STEM is only a few hundred years old, compared to the time Nature has been experimenting!).
This photo is from the Atlanta Aquarium.
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