Karina Bhattacharya

Biophilia EdVentures

Service Design Sponsored Project
Teammates: Annette Guan and Jimmy Guo

Design strategy, personas, and journeys were conducted collaboratively. I produced our proposed educational materials.

What is Biophilia?

“Biophilia” is the principle of enhancing human society’s connection to the natural world. We worked with the Biophilic Institute, a nonprofit with broad objectives to proliferate education and programming on biophilia.

How might we expand biophilia-related education to high school students through feasible initiatives?

High schoolers are interested in learning about how they can mitigate the effects of climate change, and many engage in sustainable behaviors such as buying secondhand clothing.¹

1. The majority of high schools do not provide strong resources for students to learn about sustainability and biophilia.²

2. Students’ attention spans are constrained by their fast paced lifestyles in the prevalence of short-form social media content.³

Opportunity Mapping

How might we…

Make the concept of biophilia relevant to the aspirations of high schoolers?

Identify high schools that are already integrating applied environmental science?

Increase the Institute’s presence on sites frequented by high school students?

Create sustainability-themed competitions and challenges to engage students?

Build centralized resources by creating a resource hub for biophilic design?

Incorporate interactive elements, such as comments or likes, to promote engagement in content?

Student’s Journey

I receive an assignment to learn about biophilia for AP Environmental Science.

I find the Biophilic Institute online. I read the Institute’s case studies and take notes.

I share the Biophilic Institute’s resources with my classmates.

Educational Coordinator

We proposed that the Biophilic Institute hire an Educational Coordinator to plan and execute educational initiatives with high schools.

Responsibilities:

Plan workshops and organize field trips
Generate reports on initiatives
Keep up with trends in biophilia

Service System

We mapped and organized potential solutions.

Educational Coordinator’s Materials

I developed a set of educational materials for the Biophilic Institute’s future Educational Coordinator, which included a flyer, presentation, and network list of high school partners.

The Biophilic Institute’s Feedback

The Board members expressed appreciation for our advice on what to prioritize and the clear diagram of future solutions they could pursue.

They also commented that we could emphasize the importance of field trips to the high school students because reconnecting with nature is an integral element of biophilia.

Sources: ¹Will & Prothero (2022). “Teens Know Climate Change Is Real. They Want Schools to Teach More About It.” | ²Parry & Metzger (2023). “Barriers to learning for sustainability: a teacher perspective.” ^_|3Wong (2023). “Students suffer at the hands of time: the root of procrastination in high school.”