The rate of human development poses unprecedented environmental, social and economic challenges. The UN estimates that by 2050 the world population will be nearly 9.8 billion people. Today 26 percent of the world’s 7.5 billon people are children under the age of 15. In Africa, the region with the highest population growth, 41 percent of the population is under 15. The Earth’s burgeoning human population is facing serious and interrelated challenges of resource scarcity, climate change and economic/social instability. The future hinges on our abilities to adapt to and creatively address tremendous changes in the natural, built and social environments. Addressing these challenges requires a transformative view that emphasizes creativity, innovation, entrepreneurial know-how and ethical citizenship. A review of the historical roots of education systems and practices provides context. Recent developments in educational ideas and frameworks are considered, identifying common themes. Concepts are scoped to how they connect learning with Earth’s systems: Why do some elements work against this objective? What functions are in alignment? Synergies between education and design methodologies are examined. Approaches to education as a design problem including design thinking, Understanding by Design, TRIZ, and design patterns are presented. Design-driven approaches to curricular planning and school reform are summarized and validated by success stories. The vast majority of K-12 education has not embraced new methodologies in typical classrooms, which are still dominated by lecture. In addition, even new methodologies do not place a living systems ethic at their core. A broad and comprehensive transformation is required: Education’s role must be to develop sustainable mindsets and capacities for action. Biomimicry provides a design lens to explore this problem from a living systems perspective. Learning functions are translated into biological terms. Living systems inspire solutions by considering educational design problems from biological perspectives, revealing new strategies. Biological functions, structures and design patterns are abstracted and applied to learning environments. Bio-inspired solutions are evaluated against Life’s Principles (Biomimicry 3.8). As a next step, tools for adapting the bio-inspired education framework are provided. [Biomimicry is a new approach being applied by scientists, engineers and designers that takes inspiration from nature’s models to solve human problems.]