ABSTRACT
This paper describes ways to facilitate independent reverse engineering of such a modular origami piece (starting with something a bit simpler than the piece shown in Figure 1!) in a classroom environment. The paper is written for an audience interested in teaching problem-solving and learning strategies by guiding students through experiences with origami. The observation, exploration, and reverse engineering experience is designed to strengthen students’ learning and problem-solving strategies and, more generally, to foster creativity. As teachers of mathematics, we seek to help young people become, in the words of the mathematician Keith Devlin, “innovative mathematical thinkers” [Devlin 10]. This paper is a preliminary report on an approach that shows much promise based on the student responses we have gotten to our methods; we will be instituting assessment procedures in future implementations.
