Compiled by Janet Hamilton
From the OrigamiUSA Newsletter Issue 71, October 2000
While we all learn origami, and many teach it, origami can also be used as a tool for teaching other things. In many classrooms, it is used to teach dexterity, spatial reasoning, 2d to 3d translation, geometric and mathematical concepts, art, history, and cultural appreciation. Here is a accumulation of education-related origami sightings extracted from the origami-l email list.
In the journal Education-of-the-Visually-Handicapped (March 1972, pages 8-11) is an article on the use of origami in the mathematics education of visually impaired students.
A 1987 episode of Reading Rainbow featuring Kyoko Kondo and Andrew Zwick was filmed at Gasho Japanese Garden in Central Valley, New York. The books mentioned in the program were Easy Origami (Dokuohtei Nakano. translated by Eric Kenneway. Puffin Books, 1994 ISBN 0-14-036525-7 and originally published as "Origamikan-1: Yasashii Origami" by Takahashi Shoten, 1981), Perfect Crane (by Anne Lauren, ISBN 0-06-023743-0), and The Paper Crane (Molly Bang, ISBN 0-83-350742-7).
An Educational Television program showed an experiment by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on how various toys behave in space. Among the toys they had were a Slinky, basketball and hoop, wind-up fish, Klaker Balls, magnetic balls, gravitrons, and a flying bird. One of the toys was an origami maple seed. When the astronaut threw the seed from the thick end it flew horizontally towards the camera in a straight line and slowly rotated just like a helicopter. The toys went up on Space Shuttle mission STS-54 in 1993. The picture at http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/STS54/10065439.jpg seems to also show a blue paper plane at the bottom. The Maple Seed model is believed to be by Stephen Weiss and diagrammed in his book "Wings and Things - Origami That Flies". Could this be the first origami in space?
Ian Harrison wrote an article for Mathematics Teaching #153 (December 1995) called "Origami Spheres". It contains instructions for strut modules that can be used to build skeletal polyhedra.
"Folded Paper, Dynamic Geometry, and Proof: a Three-Tier Approach to the Conics" by Daniel Scher, was published in Mathematics Teacher (March 1996, Vol 89, No 3, pp. 188-193).
In the Nov/Dec 1997 Issue of Family Education Today is a short article called "Let's Go Site-Seeing! Great web stops for kids". Listed in the article are Joseph Wu's Origami Page, and a page on paper making (http://www.nbn.com/youcan/paper/paper.html).
The February 11, 1998 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has an article and a picture of Tom Hull with some big modular origami. Tom studies origami for uses in mathematical modeling, applications, and as an educational tool. He teaches a class on Combinatorial Geometry that uses origami (http://chasm.merrimack.edu/~thull/combgeom/combgeom.html) and is organizing the 3rd International Meeting of Origami Science, Math, and Education (March 9-11, 2001, Asilomar, CA http://chasm.merrimack.edu/~thull/osm/osm.html).
On the cover of the November 1, 1998 New York Times Education section (Section 4A) was a photo of a student teacher, her students, diagrams, and what looks to be a 3D model in the foreground.
The local newspaper from Manchester, CT cited origami in a "Healing through the Arts" program at one of the local middle schools. Students were creating a message for Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The picture above the news article shows a teen girl holding a blue crane. (June 1999)
Family Education Today (November/December 1999, page 9) has an article called "What’s Hot on the Web for Parents and Kids?" The article states, “Links for Families. Origami. It’s pronounced or-I-GA-me and it’s the Japanese art of paper folding. Here are tips and tricks to help you learn this craft. It’s best handled by parents and kids working together. http://www.learn2.com/08/0855/0855.html "
The New York Times Sunday 1/2/2000 Week in Review section, at the bottom of page 2, describes objects being sent in for placement in the New York Times Capsule. "Lynn Preacher's fourth grade class in Jenks, Oklahoma made an eagle out of construction and origami paper..." The time capsule was on view at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from December 4, 1999 through April 30, 2000 and will be stored permanently at the museum. http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/timescapsule/
In January 2000, the front cover of the AIMS (Activities Integrating Math & Science & Technology) catalog showed an origami Killer Whale. This educational foundation promotes hands-on investigations for children, and has included origami activities in the past.
Associated Press article “Nagano Wishes Salt Lake Games Well”: [Nagano Mayor Tasuku ] Tsukada presented city officials with an 8-foot-long origami sculpture of Salt Lake's Olympic symbol constructed by Nagano high schoolers." The article describes an educational program called "One Country One School" that paired each Nagano elementary and middle school with a country participating in the Winter Games. Schools in the Salt Lake City area have picked up the program.
