As a result of public education we all have more vested interest in our world today than ever before. Consequently, so do the children, and a majority of the youth are captivated, and their independent cognitive capabilities misplaced, malnourished, sometimes tarnished and/or neglected all due to unsupervised usage of technology. The School District of Philadelphia’s data reveals elementary level Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) assessments are below the norm. This data as of 2016-17 also reveals the students in the urban community attending the J.H. Taggart K-8 School exhibit underdeveloped skills in those two areas of content as well.

This exceptionally creative hands-on project based curriculum in my opinion is one solution to the problem. Its design uses a strategic process for developing the critical thinking skills of and for our students.  Through the use of origami I strongly believe that students can thrive in creativity to become critical thinkers.  In many ways a child’s creativity speaks volumes about who he or she is.

This unit aids the teacher as a motivational tool used to peak students’ interest and allow them to apply their nonverbal creative skills.  The teacher can partner students and differentiate for those students unable to master the objectives.  The teacher has the ability to share video viewings with the whole class on how to create all of the tools used in the unit, or students can view the procedures as an independent center activity. The uses of origami are many. Any design thought of outside of this curriculum has probably been done and is available for use on-line. Students should be captivated thinking critically during the time spent working on these projects. Students can experience making their own paper, writing messages then letter-locking to pen pals, even create pop-up cards for the holiday seasons.  This curriculum entails reading, writing and mathematic Common Core Standards and associates informative learning with fun for everyone.

Students need not be afraid to think for themselves or experiment with learning.  The experiences I gained from working in the Origami Engineering class with Professor Cynthia Sung is the pivotal strength of this origami curriculum.   A curriculum that is applicable for grades three, four, five and even sixth.  Placing origami as the motivational tool in associative learning is a creative way to achieve usefulness of the mechanics of higher order critical thinking skills, and have a curriculum designed with an inquiry-based approach.

Subsequently inquiry facilitates this curriculum. The teacher employs origami to stimulate cognitive curiosity then students encourage their peers as they conduct independent or small group experimental research in the areas being examined.

Students will need to apply the questions “why” and “how” in order to analyze their observations of real-world astonishments, (e.g. the natural phenomena of nature) analyzing through the use of sensory skills applications.   This curriculum motivates students to get involved by taking hands-on risk at recreating and constructing what their minds can imagine and their skills can design while the teacher makes informal assessments of the students’ capabilities.

This curriculum includes Common Core Standards involving math concepts such as pattern design, number operations, geometry, and calculations, along with the freedom to express a design using mathematical practices, problem solving and reasoning.  Procedurally students will be able to develop opinions and make decisions about their work.

Prioritizing critical thinking skills should always be the end results.

Teaching students how to think critically with the usage of technology is one of the skills this curriculum will help improve.  Students will be able to work independently and follow procedures while viewing the instructions required to achieve the task.  In my opinion the intriguing advancements that are happening with technology captivates the mind.  Whereas young people see only their glamorous results, teachers can see a rapidly advancing system of cyber learning.  Amazingly technology is uploading on developing the latest interest, sharing blooming intelligences worldwide, and through experimentations in technology winning everyone to turn over to a new way of learning.  Of course curiosity grabs inexperienced minds full of inquiring energy, so as teachers we can allow the hands on, mind focused origami activities to awaken the many new interest students may have.  Surely, technology can be a curse and a blessing, so if used as a learning tool to assist in strengthening critical thinking skills technology can be used as the catalysis necessary to teach origami in the classroom.  These visual lessons will justifiably hold hostage students’ curious minds.

People are critically thinking about the world of technology or digital reality television shows everyday, so why not use technology as the link to learning.  It is obvious students are in need of sensory pleasing, brain stimulating entertainment which visual media accomplishes.  Technology has played a bigger role in our lives, and our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved. (Greenfield, P. 2009)  So the question we all must ask ourselves “Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis?

(Wolpert, 2009)

If this is so what can we as teachers do to change it?

Students must be allowed to break free of their self-inflicted bondage, be it texting, video games, or any other obsession that limits their ability to learn.  Learning is a simple yet complex process.  If one never learns the thought processes then thinking is underdeveloped.  Learning may be defined as a change in behavior as a result of experience. (Sun. n.d.)

Students need to learn the process in order to bloom and blossom into critical thinkers. This curriculum will allow nature, natural phenomena and critical thinking to occupy a space that is otherwise a disadvantaged world void of learning.

In my origami curriculum students will challenge themselves to unfold a world full of discovery.  The literacy content area of study provides students with the historical knowledge of paper.  The Sciences examines how our earth supplies the natural resources necessary for survival. Mathematics uses patterns that can be connected to modular origami.  Students will become energized with this project-based approach of learning.  The enjoyment of working this curriculum is to generate knowledge disgusted as fun.  The fun is in critically thinking before making tangible decisions. Students will examine various human made structures to reconstruct using origami.  Students will formulate ideas to create their own original imagery of the world using hands on learning, in turn strengthening their vigor, confidence and critical thinking skills.

Today origami is not only used with paper but with various organic and inorganic materials in the areas of art, science, mathematics and medicine worldwide.  Inherited from the past “Origami” is an original set of line diagrams set on paper then folded into three dimensional objects, then finally transforming it to an overwhelming complicated artistic structure.   The name origami comes from the Japanese verb “oru” which means to fold and the Japanese word for paper, “kami”. (Richman-Abdou, 2017)  Putting the two together yields the word origami.

According to the British Origami Society modern origami was developed in the early 1900s by Akira Yoshizawa who is predominantly believed to be the grandmaster of origami.  Akira Yoshizawa created the method of wet folding which involved moistening the paper before folding to give finished models more of a sculpted and three dimensional look.  By 1989 he had invented over 50,000 models and published eighteen books. (Lister, D. .n.d.)

Subsequently the advancements have allowed many aspects of the art to remain true to its origin.  While the applications have developed along with the applied materials; insights have expanded origami’s useful application of folding, intertwined with technology, then taken to a medical level where patterns of origami are used in saving lives.  Moreover folding diagrams also allow scientist to explore the universe and beyond, as well as offering artistic designers the ability to visually please the eye with objects so extraordinary it boggles the mind.   People have used the folds of origami to revisit the arts with materials other than paper clearly changing dreams to reality.

Many of our students must start with the knowledge of their history, which will unlock the imaginary gates that invisibly limit the length of their reach for higher order critical thinking. Surely when information is clearly interpreted, then the possibilities of unlocking that unscathed brain space could make applying background knowledge to higher order thinking less challenging.  When we teach the value involved in the construction of history, students will inevitably agree how knowing their history can aid in thinking critically.  How many young people know paper is a natural resource developed from papyrus which was produced as early as 3000 BCE in Egypt? (History of Paper,(n.d.)

The word paper is derived from papyrus, a plant that was once abundant in Egypt and which was used to produce a thick, paper-like material by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Papyrus, however, is only one of the predecessors of paper that are collectively known by the generic term “tapa” and which were mostly made from the inner bark of the mulberry, fig and daphne trees. (The Early History of Paper,(n.d.)  Of all the writing materials mankind has employed down through the ages, paper has become the most widely used around the world. Paper has a long history stretching back to ancient Egypt in the third millennium BC.   Although our paper may not be recognizable to the Pharaohs, paper has retained its essential characteristics down through the ages and today’s diverse offerings remain as natural, essential and precious as ever.

To begin my compilation of lessons within this curriculum I must first go back to how it all started: “The Chronology of Paper”.  Researchers discovered public records had been executed on papyrus and the papyrus plant dates back some 4500 years.    In Confucius’ time some 500 B.C. the Chinese were innocent of ink and paper in the proper sense.  Hundreds of years later the Romans sent to China a present of 30,000 sheets of brownish paper made from tree bark. (Munsell, J. 1870)

Paper was in high demand and made from various types of plant materials.  Letters were strategically locked with the paper it was written on.  Folds of creativity occupied the minds of many, and artistic designers used those folds to mastermind the materials.  Today in this world of ever changing and advancing technology origami folds are being used in the Earth and Space Sciences to deploy huge satellites and telescopes into space.  Engineers are working on Action Origami and mechanisms that create foldable robots so small it’s unbelievable.  Foldable and responsive meta-materials are being developed to improve advancements to the medical tools used to save lives.  If you never heard of Robert Sabuda, I am sure you have seen pop-up books created by him.  Pop-ups are also a creative form of origami that intrigues both the young and old.

In this curriculum you have activities that motivate students by creating origami models, work cooperatively with their peers, evaluate the results and associate their creativity to the lesson’s objectives.

Students have an opportunity to read selective informational text about historians and how materials in nature are engineered in order to become pliable paper useful for advanced developments in the past, present and even the future.  Surely origami history is only part of the valuable resources teachers will be able to apply in order to fill an interesting void by stimulating students’ higher learning levels.

Teaching historical facts can become tediously boring for young students.  This curriculum is one way to peak student interest, give them ownership and flexibility to incorporate their design hints.  The element of ownership with design enables students the ability to recall more readily their work and retell in their own words what facts they retained from the information researched or supplied, hence a start to building critical thinkers.   In lesson one students will be able to research and collect factual historical data detailing when, where, why and how paper was created in order to design a sheet of paper from natural resources and use it as a framing component for their informative essay.  In order to improve fluency of reading, enable students to gather key details, build craft and structure while integrating new knowledge, students will be able to develop tangible timelines of the historical facts of paper and origami in order to examine how the need to supply one resource developed another.

After researching and examining the history of paper students will be able to illustrate the language of paper folding.  Students will share read the historical novel “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by Eleanor Coerr in order to be given the opportunity to define the symbolic meaning of the paper crane throughout the school in various creative ways and teach other students origami.  

Students will also learn that throughout history security has been top priority when sending mail, even today tampering with mail is a federal offense. Hence, the purpose of historical letter-locking. What is letter-locking?  Letter-locking refers to the process by which a substrate such as paper, parchment, or papyrus has been folded and secured shut to function as its own envelope. (Dambrogio, J. 2004)   Interwoven throughout my curriculum would be letter-locking which will be associated with the Modes of Writing lessons. Thereupon students will be able to share secret messages in their letters with their classmates throughout the school year in order to practice various letter-locking techniques while developing writing standards and language arts grammar skills.

We all know paper does not stretch, and the fibers in paper allow movement in only one direction, so Kirigami gives students the ability to stretch their imagination.  Professor Randall Kamien says there is a cousin to origami, its name is kirigami.  Kirigami helps solve problems that involve recreating unusual shapes by cutting and pasting the paper. Traditional kirigami is the art of cutting and sometimes folding paper. One familiar example is pop-up cards, but there are many others. We augment this approach by ‘mending’ the cuts after making them, rejoining a cut edge to a different cut edge, thus fundamentally changing the shape of the paper. (Castle, T.2014)

Students will be able to use kirigami and modular origami in order to construct patterns using geometric shapes.  So what does the natural resource paper have to do with it you ask? Everything!

National Common Core Standards  (PA. Common Core Standards)

• Students will be able to describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. 3.RI.3 (PA. CC.1.2.3.C)
• Students will be able to use information gained from illustrations and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of a text, the how, when, where, and why key events occur. 3.RI.7 (PA. CC.1.2.3.G)
• Students will be able to compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two text on the same topic. 3.RI.9 (PA. CC.1.2.3.I)
• Students will be able to write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. 3.W.10 (PA. CC.1.4.3.X)
• Students will be able to measure areas by counting unit squares. 3.MD.6 (CC.2.4.3.A.5)
• Students will be able to understand that shapes in different categories may share attributes, and that the shared attributes can define a larger category. Recognize rhombuses, rectangles and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories. 3.G.1 (CC.2.3.3.A.1)

Strategies for ELA along with National Standards addressed

• As students begin this curriculum unit the class will create a timeline of the chronology of paper, making note of the important events involving the transformations of paper and the details that explain how paper has evolved and transformed in its uses. Students will create a sheet of paper from natural resources to be used as a framing element to display an informational writing. 3RI.3
• To continue motivating students interest in origami everyone will make an origami paper drinking cup as a step to building a peaceful community. Students will chart when and analyze why paper cups came into existence. 3.RI.7
• Students will read about the history of Japan’s devastating Atomic bombing in 1945 through the reading of the historical narrative: “The Thousand Paper Cranes”. As a symbolic representation of peace in our school students will write a persuasive five paragraph writing to convince all students to assemble two or three paper cranes that will be arrange throughout the school as a representation of peace and unity within and surrounding the school community. 3.RI.7
• Using various shared literacy readings for the third grade class students will illustrate three themes through the use of origami. Students will plan and create origami elements that when assembled will illustrate and represent the sea/ocean, space, and earth existence.  For theme 1 students will create an oceanic scene diorama which includes origami sea creatures such as whales, octopus, sharks, boats and other sea/ocean objects. Then theme 2 is space exploration, students will design planet origami using flat folds in order to explore how the folding and packing of large items are made to fit into small spaces.  Finally theme 3 in literacy focuses on Immigration.  Students will be able to design origami boats as well as exhibit origami kimono fashions to display. 3.RI.9, 3.G.1
• Students will write secret messages in various modes using letter format to pen pals in or outside of the school in order to seal the letters using various styles of letter locking to prevent invasion of privacy. W

Strategies for Math along with National Standards addressed

• Math is known for algorithms, which are useful to decide on ways to solve mathematical equations. In origami there are concepts known as crease patterns, fold pattern and light pattern.  These concepts expand on the opportunity to speak to Operations and Algebraic Thinking, and Geometry Standards.  These concepts are higher level, yet helpful while identifying arithmetic geometric patterns.  Students will compose and design tessellations from a basic geometric shape and reconstruct the design using the crease, fold and light pattern. 3.G.1
• Also in the Mathematic Common Core Standards vital at the third grade level are Measurement, Data, and Geometry content. These Origami projects definitely address
• G.1, and 3.MD.6 standards with the basic geometric shapes and mathematical attributes. These critical thinking tools of application, analysis, and synthesis allow for informal observations by the teacher, as well as providing students the hands-on project-based functioning along with brain stimulation, necessary to demonstrate and construct examples of diagrams used in origami folding.  Students will learn the basic folds in origami (mountain and valley folds), how these folds can be used to create patterns, extraordinary objects, and the application of kirigami which changes the angles hence changing the type of polygon.

Differentiation of Origami Lessons

If tailoring lessons for students having difficulty with dexterity, students with Individual Education Plans (IEP), or students incapable of managing the activities then allow them to work within the guidelines of their Individual Education Plans, peer assist or give them simple origami fold diagrams that make-up for those more difficult.  As the teacher use your discretion and grade accordingly.  Other options are partner grouping, send the instructions home where students have a parent or guardian to assist them with the projects, you may even partner with a higher grade teacher to have a mentor student come in the classroom and assist with the construction of the origami structures.

Lesson One: From Papyrus To Paper To Origami

Today most paper is recycled, yet a large percentage is thrown about haphazardly.

The objective of this lesson is that students should learn to value natural resources and consider the end product.

As a whole class students will take a walk within their school’s community with the purpose of examining and discussing in detail natures vital importance to the ecosystem.

On the walking trip each student must list on paper five living and five nonliving objects observed on the walk.

Once everyone returns to class student groups create a list that will be placed around the room for everyone to view and discuss.

The teacher should have students brainstorm meanings of the vocabulary terms: ecosystem, vital, living, nonliving.

In groups or individually students should be able to describe how all living organisms play a momentous part in sustaining life on the planet.  Teacher can use the questionnaire in Appendix B as an informal assessments and cooperative group activities with this lesson.

The outcome is that students should be able to select better choices when using paper products and throwing out recyclable materials.  This can be measured by having students chart what they recycled that day for a period of 4-6 weeks.  This activity can be conducted each morning when students arrive to class. This on-going lesson / tool should be used to change the behavior of how students view and value natural resources, their community and surrounding.

This lesson can be used within various contents depending on how the teacher would like to approach the standard. For this curriculum the class we will compile a five paragraph informational writing on the chronology of paper.

Students will be able to describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. RI.3.3 Text Analysis.   Students will be able to create a timeline of no less than 10 dates starting from the beginning of papyrus to paper until the present time of important detailed facts in order to be explain the importance of natural resources.

Duration – approximately two weeks for each of the following:

20 minutes Shared Reading of the resources

20 minutes of independent center research time

20 minutes of writing center (inclusive of the timeline)

Paper-making project (the number of students determine the time needed, options: have students partner or work as a group)

Two – 30 minute periods and drying time for the handmade paper

Activity: Along with the objectives of this lesson are motivating activities that students will be able to do.  On their walk in the community students should be allowed to collect various plant materials (e.g. leaves, flower parts), the natural resources from within the community in order to combine, innovate, and design a handmade sheet of paper.

The students must use their handmade sheet of paper as a display frame for their 3 – 5 paragraph informational essay.  The handmade paper should measures larger than 8×11 inches in order to use that constructed sheet of paper as a backing/frame for the writing assignment.

Students should also complete a procedural writing of how their paper was made. This procedural writing should also be attached to the handmade paper and writing assignment for visual display purposes.

Materials for paper-making project:

Dried Plant leaves, water, small blender

Wood and screen for straining (view the youtube instructions for making the deckle)

Heavy objects such as books for weight

Roll of cashier tape for timeline (or other material cut into 3 inch strips then taped horizontally)

• English & Language Arts / ELA Writing Rubric https://www.doe.k12.de.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2645
• Lesson One: Questionaire/Key terms/ Other Suggestions (see AppendixB)
• Brief History of Origami. https://origamihistory.wordpress.com
• https://origami.me/beginners-guide
• Chronology of Paper: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t88g9945n
• 09_actionTimeline of Paper.pdf (see Appendix B)
• How to make Home Made Paper – Youtube
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyr24PgpDDs
• How Ancient Papyrus Was Made | U-M Library https://www.lib.umich.edu/papyrology-collection/how-ancient-papyrus-was-made

Papyrus-Making in Egypt | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History …

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pyma/hd_pyma.htm

Lesson Two: An Ocean of Origami

The objective of this lesson is that students will complete a five-paragraph narrative and opinion writing assignment on life in the waters. The purpose of this lesson is to share with students the value of all life.  The Earth is home to all living creatures so students must be taught how to value more than just human life.  Through the reading of the following narrative and informational texts students will be able to research independently and gather in detail information about the life of 3-5 sea or ocean creatures in order to describe their usefulness in and for the environment.  The opinion writing should focus on justifying to their audience why it is important that people protect the oceans and the wellbeing of all water-loving creatures.  Their narrative writing should focus on one or more of the sea creatures as the characters in the writing.  The diorama should visual depict a setting including the characters in the narrative.

Duration – approximately two weeks of each of the following:

20 minutes Shared Reading

20 minutes of independent center

20 minutes of writing center

Materials: (Suggested) Shared/Independent Reading Resources

• “Amos and Boris” by William Steig
• “Ocean Sunlight-How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas” by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm
• “The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau” by Dan Yaccarino
• “Shark Attack!” by Cathy East Dubowski
• English & Language Arts / ELA Writing Rubric https://www.doe.k12.de.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2645
• Origami paper
• Cardboard box /shoebox (not larger than 24”x12” (1 box per students)
• Markers, paint, crayons
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUG5MpHbyQ (Origami Ocean Sea Animals)
• How to Make a Diorama – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DJKyM3JIAI

Activity: Students will be able to assemble an ocean diorama from cardboard or a shoe box.  Students will use their box to create a scenic ocean background for the origami sea creatures it with hold. Allow the students to watch the “YouTube video on How to Make a Diorama” as a class or during center time. Students will construct the 3-5 origami sea creatures that were researched in detail and/or read about in class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUG5MpHbyQ (Origami Ocean Sea Animals)

The essential focus and purpose of the writing is to persuade the audience to protect the oceans which intern will protect all life.

The students will design and place their handmade sea creatures throughout the diorama. Alongside the diorama is their 5 paragraph narrative writing to display.

[Please see PDF attached above for additional lesson plans & appendices]

Citations

Greenfield, P. (2009, January 29) Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm

Wolpert, S. (2009, January 27) Is technology producing decline in critical thinking and analysis? http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/is-technology-producing-a-decline-79127

Sun, C. (n.d.) The Four Stages of Learning. The Learning Process – Oregon.gov

www.oregon.gov/oprd/ATV/docs/handout_the_learning_process.pdf

Munsell, J.1870 A Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making, Fourth Edition

Albany: 82 State Street  Http:hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/

Castle,T.,Cho,Y., Gong, X., Jung,E.,Sussman,D.M., Yang,S. Kamien,R.D. (2014) Making the Cut:Lattice Kirigami Rules http://www.physics.upenn.edu/~kamien/kamiengroup/)

Website: http://scientific-kirigami.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html

Dambrogio, J., Starza Smith.D., (et al. 2016) (Book Arts 2014) Vol.,5 NO.2

Article: Historic Letterlocking: The Art and Security of Letter Writing

Bateman, A. 2002 July, In Book Origami^{3} pp.127-127

Article (2D): Computer Tools and Algorithms for Origami Tessellation Design

Case Paper,(n.d.) History of Paper | Papyrus – Fourdrinier Machine |  www.casepaper.com/company/paper-history/, History of Paper http://www.paperonline.org/history-of-paper/timeline

–

Butler, Frank O. 1901 January, The Story of Paper Making

Article: Additive Lattice Kirigami (Castle, Sussman, Tanis & Kamien, Science Advances 2016)

Book Chapter (Theory): Flat Vertex Folds (O’Rourke, How to Fold It 2011)

Website: http://erikdemaine.org/foldcut/

Article: Folding and One Straight Cut Suffice (Demaine, Demaine, & Lubiw, SODA 1999)

Article (Applications): A Giant Leap for Space Telescopes (Heller, Science & Technology Review 2003)

Article (3D): A Three-Dimensional Actuated Origami-Inspired Transformable Metamaterial with Multiple Degrees of Freedom (Overvelde, de Jong, Shevchenko, Becerra, Whitesides, Weaver, Hoberman & Bertoldi, Nature 2016)

Book (Treemaker): Origami Design Secrets (Lang, CRC Press 2003, available through Penn Libraries)

Article: Dürer’s Unfolding Problem for Convex Polyhedra (Ghomi, Notices of the AMS 2018)

Software: http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~ctg/projects/hypergami/JavaGami.html

Article: Pop-up book MEMSPreview the document (Whitney, Sreetharan, Ma & Wood, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 2011)

Article (2D): Computer Tools and Algorithms for Origami Tessellation Design (Bateman, Origami3 2002)

Article: Historic Letterlocking: The Art and Security of Letter Writing (Dambrogio, J. Book Arts 2014)

Act for libraries, 2017 The Early History of Paper. www.actforlibraries.org/the-early-history-of-paper

Source: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpapermaking.html

Gardiner, M. (Feb. 1, 2018) Everything Origami. www.hinkler.com.au/everything-origami