Karen Wellington

Origami and Mathematics

Flushing Town Hall teaching artist Karen R. Wellington, a former high school mathematics teacher who worked for the New York City Department of Education for 26 years, uses origami as a hands-on activity to promote a deeper understanding of mathematics. In the summer of 2016, Karen founded Queens STEM Career Women, Inc. (QSCW) a non-profit organization, which works to encourage young girls in Queens to pursue careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This organization has produced two conferences and several workshops at schools throughout Queens. Karen has also given a variety of origami workshops at Queens Public Library, which focus on the development and understanding of geometric concepts. In these programs, instead of the traditional origami terms, mathematical vocabulary is used as Karen guides children in the folding process.

BOOK A WORKSHOP

Polyhedrons In-Person Workshop,

Paper engineering techniques are used to make containers out of cardstock which can be used to store things inside. The containers are in the shape of a tetrahedron and an octahedron. As students create these containers, their understanding of the characteristics of these shapes is developed and reinforced by the geometric vocabulary used. For grades 5-8!

Origami Boxes In-Person Workshop,

In this workshop, students are guided in folding two types of origami boxes and learn about the characteristics of rectangular prisms and the related geometric vocabulary. A question-answer session is included. For grades 3-8!

Origami Tangram In-Person Workshop,

This workshop guides each student in the folding of the 7 geometric pieces of the ancient Chinese Tangram puzzle. After making the set of puzzle pieces, students are given a game in which they are challenged to put the puzzle pieces together to form a variety of polygons (e.g. triangle, trapezoid, etc). This activity focuses on the basic geometric shapes that students are learning in school, helping to reinforce their knowledge of geometry. For grades 2-4!