Seeing nature differently: a phenomenographic study on middle school students’ nature-inspired thinking

Biomimicry has been recognised as an approach to fostering creativity, sustainability awareness, and interdisciplinary thinking in science education. While it is applied in higher education, research on how younger students conceptualise biomimicry remains limited. This study explored the qualitatively different ways in which middle school students understand inspiration from nature in the context of science education. A phenomenographic research design was employed to capture the variation in students’ conceptions. Data were collected from 280 students (aged 10–14, grades 5–8) attending two public schools (urban and rural) in Türkiye through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The analysis followed a phenomenographic procedure, including open coding, constant comparison, and collaborative validation among researchers. The findings revealed five categories: (1) product-oriented inspiration – comprising (a) Adaptive Inspiration, (b) Inventive Inspiration (with two sub-dimensions: Innovative and Facilitating), and (c) Imitative Inspiration; and non-product orientations, namely (2) Peace and Well-being, (3) Material Resource, (4) Creative Arts; and (5) Learning Resource. The outcome space maps variation in students’ conceptions of nature-inspired thinking – ranging from imitation and adaptation to invention – while capturing non-product meanings of inspiration from nature. The outcome space can inform biomimicry teaching by helping educators address imitation, adaptation, invention, and non-product conceptions.