On Episode 578, I welcome back Karen Costa, Faculty Development Facilitator specializing in online pedagogy, trauma-aware teaching, and climate action, to Teaching in Higher Ed. Karen helps us explore lessons educators can learn from nature, discussing how Karen’s experiences with her backyard garden and the principles of biomimicry have informed her teaching, course design, and approach to rest and resilience. Karen shares how tending to her garden has provided grounding during difficult times and how nature's cycles offer valuable models for navigating the ebbs and flows of academic work. We discuss her journey into biomimicry, a design methodology rooted in learning from nature rather than just about it, and the ways this mindset can inspire more sustainable, resilient, and supportive educational practices. The conversation explores the importance of honoring our own limits and the diverse ways we experience rest.

Resources from the episode:

• Biomimicry Checklist
• Karen’s Final Biomimicry Presentation
• Biomimicry Life’s Principles
• The Native Plant Trust
• Kerry Mandalak on Teaching in Higher Ed
• Biomimicry – Janine Benyus
• Learn Biomimicry
• Rest Is Resistance
• Lead Through Strengths
• The Residence
• acoustic-ish: an album…ish
• Yes to religion freedom; No to Christian nationalism, by Jeff Hittenberger
• The OpEd Project

Episode topics:

• Introducing Biomimicry: Mindset and Methodology
• Nature as Teacher: Lessons from the Garden
• Embracing Cyclical Patterns in Life and Learning
• Applying Biomimicry to Teaching and Course Design
• Learning Resilience and Rest from Natural Ecosystems
• Redefining Rest: Diversity in Recharging Approaches
• Embracing Limitations: A Lesson from Nature

Discussion questions:

1. Karen Costa shares an account of how gardening and spending time in her backyard became a source of healing during challenging times. Have you ever had a similar experience?
2. Biomimicry is described as both a mindset and a design methodology, focusing on learning from nature rather than simply about it. In what ways could this perspective influence how you teach or design your courses?
3. Resilience, burnout, and rest are prominent themes in the episode. Drawing from nature’s cycles of rest, how might we reimagine own approaches to work and recovery? What practical changes could you make in your practice?
4. Bonni and Karen discuss the pressure to produce and the difficulty higher ed professionals have in honoring limitations. What are some practical steps individuals or institutions could take to combat this culture of overproduction?
5. The episode explores the concept of “radical rest,” acknowledging that not everyone rests in the same way. How do you define rest for yourself, and what's something you've learned about your own needs that goes against typical advice or societal norms?
6. Shame and comparison around “doing rest right” or productivity come up repeatedly in the conversation. How can educators (and institutions) better support each other in letting go of these unhealthy comparisons?

Related Episodes

All of the conversations I’ve ever had the privilege of having with Karen Costa have resonated deeply with the Teaching in Higher Ed community. If you found Episode 578 meaningful, you will likely also benefit from revisiting these past conversations with Karen:

• How Role Clarity and Boundaries Can Help Us Thrive
• Climate Action Pedagogy
• Supporting ADHD Learners

Throughout each conversation, Karen offers powerful insights grounded in care, reflection, and practical strategies for sustaining ourselves and our students and supporting students’ flourishing, in addition to our own.

Quotable Words

A lot of you wrote to me to tell me how much these words from Karen Costa on Episode 505 about role clarity and boundaries have meant to you:

Just because you are qualified to do it does not mean that it is yours.

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Jennifer Baumgartner shares with us about lessons in love and learning from Mr. Rogers’ legacy. Also, get ready for some spectacular recommendations from Jennifer, at the close.

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Disclosures

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

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