I like watching this guy's hands. It makes you think, wow, hands sure are amazing. Try getting a robot to do that.
Don't worry, the white balance corrects abruptly at 4:14.
And his sound effects are cute.
Okay, so this means nothing to you. I get that. But imagine yourself showing this to one or two of your grandkids. They'll think you're a wizard.
They will. They're utterly fascinated with things like this.
I'm about to make a point about origami teaching children about intuiting maths, and about precision, attention to detail, and about manipulating materials like establishing creases and turning paper folds inside out, about getting legs and wings and a head from a square piece of paper, and starting out with an idea such as fangs, and developing a way to get there, but I don't feel confident making that point cogently. I need help.
If you have a square piece of paper, how many ways can you fold it to make 2 sections of the same size? A square folds in half to make 2 rectangles. A square folds in half to make 2 triangles too. Are the rectangles and triangles the same size? This type of question can help children understand the relationship between squares, rectangles and triangles.
Is that all you got?
No. That is not all. Turns out there are entire books about the educational benefits of origami.
* Math in Motion: Origami in the Classroom K-8 by Barbara Pearl
* Origami Math by Karen Baicker
* Unfolding Mathematics with Unit Origami by Betsy Franco
* Unfolding Mathematics with Origami Boxes by Arnold Tubis and Crystal Mills
* Project Origami: Activities for Exploring Mathematics by Thomas Hull
* Geometric Folding Algorithms/ Linkages, Origami, Polyhedra by Erik D. Demaine and Joseph O'Rourke
* Origami 3: Third International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education Sponsored by Origami USA by Thomas Hull
* Origami 4: Fourth International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education Sponsored by Origami USA and California Institute of Technology, edited by R Lang, AK Peters, Natick, MA
A very long time ago when I was at my first apartment, my neighbor was using grocery bags as disposable kitchen garbage bins. He said, "I wish it was possible to fold the tops of them down, but the only thing that can be done is crumple it."
I took his bag and folded the rim down neatly like upside down pants cuffs. It was a neatly folded paper bag with any rips. "Would you like it folded twice?" A sincere question.
"Smart ass."
I'm not a smart ass. Origami showed me how to manipulate paper, how to reverse it.
4 comments:
I watched that video and now I remember why I gave up origami 60 years ago. Still have the book, but dang, that seems tedious, says the guy who spends an entire day sanding a bowl.
Intuiting maths? You may have everyone else fooled, but I know you adore English accents, ain't it, guvnuh?
Sixty it would be fun to be able to make some simple things, for showing kids, as Chip says, but yeah it strikes me as time consuming, like I think counted cross stitch would be. The mesh you stitch the x's on is teeny tiny.
Re oragami, I do want to make some little boxes. Those are doable and useful.
Post a Comment