The Challenge: Fold a Miura fold. This was used on the Japanese “Space Flyer Unit” launched in 1995! (That website also has decent instructions.)
Materials needed: Patience, paper, some sort of pen/flat thing to sharpen creases.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: geometry, origami, symmetry
A note before (more) instructions:
And an instructional video. Feel free to add other instructional videos in the comments! As always, I would LOVE to see anything you make. Post on twitter or instagram with #mathartchallenge.
Depending on how you use this activity, you may engage with different mathematical standards. I’ve listed possible connected math content above. Here are a few suggestions for how you might integrate the 8 mathematical practices. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!
2.) Reason abstractly and quantitatively. What is the proportion of valley to mountain folds? Is it possible to make this a rectangular fold or must you start with square paper? How does that affect the ratio?
8.) Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. What is the smallest volume you can fold this an nxn unit square into?
arbitrarilyclose 