One idea they might find interesting is how thermodynamics drives this increasing complexity. The cycles of expansion and consolidation that permeate the process, from the basic atmospheric dynamics, to the cycling of the seasons, to biology expanding to fill every niche and see what amounts to seed and what serves as fertilizer.

Then the feedback between the processes and the patterns generated, as the processes expand and generate patterns, while the patterns coalesce as forms fitting contexts.

Energy expanding, form coalescing.