Origami CUBES at School 2!

Eighth grade students at School 2 engaged in an origami project that focused on geometry concepts, as well as logical reasoning and spatial skills. 

The ancient Japanese paper folding technique of origami was explained to the students.  As students followed the folding technique presented to them and then manipulated their papers themselves, they discovered and were able to see the mathematical concepts of reflection, rotation and translation. In the process of creating a sculptural cube students learned about symmetry, vertices, faces, edges, perpendicular sides, rhombus, congruent right triangles, color patterns and more.

 
After the cubes had been completed, students were encouraged to use their cubes to engage in brief experiments involving bridge building and measurement.

The project was developed for the eighth grade classes as a joint effort of Math PIR Paul Odenwelder and Art PIR Simone Sandler.