Biomimicry education is grounded in a set of natural design principles common to every known lifeform on Earth. These Life’s Principles (LPs) (cc Biomimicry 3.8), provide guidelines for emulating sustainable strategies that are field-tested over nearly four billion years of evolution. This study evaluates an exercise for teaching LPs to interdisciplinary students at three universities, Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, Arizona (USA), College of Charleston (CofC) in Charleston, South Carolina (USA) and The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) in The Hague (The Netherlands) during the spring 2021 semester. Students researched examples of both biological organisms and human designs exhibiting the LPs. We gauged the effectiveness of the exercise through a common rubric and a survey to discover ways to improve instruction and student understanding. Increased student success was found to be directly linked to introducing the LPs with illustrative examples, assigning an active search for examples as part of the exercise, and utilizing direct assessment feedback loops. Requiring students to highlight the specific terms of the LP sub-principles in each example is a suggested improvement to the instructions and rubric. An iterative, face-to-face, discussion-based teaching and learning approach helps overcome minor misunderstandings. Reiterating the LPs throughout the semester with opportunities for application will highlight the potential for incorporating LPs into students’ future sustainable design process. Stevens LL, Fehler M, Bidwell D, Singhal A, Baumeister D. Building from the Bottom Up: A Closer Look into the Teaching and Learning of Life’s Principles in Biomimicry Design Thinking Courses. Biomimetics. 2022; 7(1):25. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7010025
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The reaction of the alkyl complexes Cp*2LnCH(SiMe 3)2 (Ln = Y 1-Y, Ce 1-Ce, La 1-La; Cp* = η5-C5Me5) and Me2Si(η 5-C5Me4)2LnCH(SiMe3) 2 (Ln = Ce 5-Ce) with 1-methylalk-2-ynes CH3C≡CR (R = Me 3a, Et 3b, nPr 3c, tBu 3d, SiMe3 3e, Ph 3f, C6H4Me-2 3g, C6H3Me 2-2,6 3h, C6H3iPr2-2,6 3i, C6F5 3j) affords the corresponding η3-propargyl/allenyl complexes Cp*2LnCH 2CCR (4a-j-Ln) and Me2Si(η5-C 5Me4)2CeCH2CCR (6a-j-Ce) via propargylic metalation. The hydride complexes [Cp*2Ln(μ-H)] 2 (Ln = Y 2-Y, Ce 2-Ce, La 2-La) react rapidly with 3 to produce mixtures of insertion and propargylic metalation products, and the relative rate of these processes depends on the metal and alkyne substituent. Selected η3-propargy/allenyl complexes Cp*2YCH 2CCR (R = Me 4a-Y, Ph 4f-Y), Cp*2CeCH2CCR (R = Me 4a-Ce, Ph 4f-Ce), Cp*2CeCH(Me)CCEt (9b-Ce), Cp*2LaCH2CCR (R = Ph 4f-La, C6H 3Me2-2,6 4h-La) are obtained on a preparative scale and characterized by NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and cryoscopy. Compounds 4f-Y and 4f-La are also characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The reactions of the η3-propargyl/allenyl complexes with Brønsted acids, such as alcohols and acetylenes, afford the corresponding substituted allenes (RCH=C=CH2) and 1-methylalk-2-ynes (CH 3C≡CR) as organic products. The reactions of 4f-Y and 4f-La with Lewis bases, such as pyridine and THF, yield die corresponding base adducts. The adduct 4f-La · py is characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, revealing an η3-coordinated propargyl/allenyl ligand. © 2008 American Chemical Society.
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Seven new 1,3,5-cyclohexyltricarboxamide-phenylalanine derivatives were synthesized in order to investigate the effect of the amino acid chirality on the gelating properties of these small molecules in water. Gelation tests have shown that enantiomerically pure homochiral 1,3,5-cyclohexyltricarboxamide-L-phenylalanine is a non-hydrogelator as it crystallizes from water, whereas the heterochiral derivatives with either two L-phenylalanine moieties and one D-phenylalanine (LLD), or vice versa (DDL), are very good hydrogelators. Concentration-dependent gel-to-sol transition-temperature (T(gs)) curves for LLD or DDL gels show a sigmoidal behaviour, which is in contrast to the logarithmic curves generally observed for gels derived from low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs). Such sigmoidal behaviour can be related to interactions between fibre bundles, which give rise to intertwined bundles of fibres. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of LLD and DDL gels show a network of thin, unbranched, fibre bundles with diameters of 20 nm. Right-handed twisted fibre bundles are present in the LLD gel, whereas left-handed structures can be found in the DDL gel. Each bundle of fibres consists of a finite number of primary fibres. Gels consisting of mixtures of gelators, LLD and DDL, and nongelators (LLL or DDD) were investigated by means of T(gs) measurements, CD spectroscopy and TEM. Results show that the incorporation of nongelator molecules into gel fibres occurs; this leads to higher T(gs) values and to changes in the helicity of the fibre bundles. Furthermore, it was found that peripheral functionalization of the homochiral derivatives LLL or DDD by means of a second amino acid or a hydrophilic moiety can overcome the effect of chirality; this process in turn leads to good hydrogelators.
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