Sonobe Origami Polyhedra – Links
Instructions for Making Origami Polyhedra
Instructions for Making Other Origami Figures
Mathematics in Origami
Using Origami to Teach Standard Mathematics Topics
Origami as a Field of Mathematics
Applications of Mathematical Origami
History of the Sonobe Module
Origami in the classroom
by Karen Bass
For the past three years I found that origami added a lot to my math program. As a sixth grade math teacher I was always looking for that “special something” to illustrate math concepts and get students excited about the cirrculum. Voila! Enter origami.
As a self-taught folder of only a few months, I saw that geometry and origami were closely related, showing symmetry, angles and mirror images, area, congruency, volume and many other concepts. And so we began to fold in the classroom. Oral instructions were given in geometric terms. Unit origami was a favorite! we folded faces, edges and vertices. Many tasks had accompanying worksheets about area and volume. Example (on a multi-colored polyhedron): What % of the exterior surface is blue? And what % of the total surface of the blue paper used shows? The students usually worked in small groups on these projects.
Enthusiam for folding was soaring and soon I wanted to justify folding birds and animals, etc. And so I became a more resourceful teacher as I worked to tie these into math. A certain amount of origami was done as a reward for successfully mastering specified objectives, a few special projects like flowers for Mom on Mother's Day, and some extra credit projects to see if a student could follow directions on his/her own.
According to a survey given at the close of the year, students listed the following things they had learned/experienced through my “mathagami” projects. Patience, precision, “don't give up”, creativity, geometric concepts, and that math class is fun. (Math IGAP scores went up too!)
I also got some parent feedback: My office is filled with my child's folded items; thanks for the flowers and remembering us on Mother's Day - what a nice idea; long trips in the car are much easier now - I just get the kids some origami paper before we start. And from the parents of a hyperactive boy: my son will fold for hours, this is the first activity he's ever done for than a few minutes. And from several parents of the learning disabled: my child experiences success in your class. Thank you.
From my own perspective, I feel that it made me a more creative teacher and produced a special bond between us. Many kids expressed appreciation that I shared my enthusiasm for origami by teaching it to them. Former students still come past and say, “Miss Bass, look what I folded today!”
Karen Bass is a member of CHAOS (CHicago Area Origami Society)
This article appeared in MANIFOLD #89, May-June 1995
