Martin Gardner Celebration of Mind with Seattle Public Schools STEM Paper Folding

Paper folding was what brought Martin Gardner back to math. Our event will focus on paper folding, especially the kinds of paper folding that Martin liked. This event will be for Seattle public elementary school children and their families. Each meeting will last for one hour and 45 minutes. A Friday October 24th event will be held at the Seattle Public Library Greenwood Branch at 4 PM; a Monday October 27th event will be held at the Northeast Branch at 6 PM. (Note that these will not appear on the library’s online schedule, which only includes events sponsored by the library itself.)

About the sponsoring group: We started the Seattle Public School STEM Paper Folding program nine years ago with the aim of addressing four aspects of early science, math and engineering education, namely, ability, interest, confidence and plans. Over time we have added a number of other aims, e.g., looking at things deeply; failing happily and constructively; asking one’s own questions; using strategies for creativity. By some measures, our program is now the largest such program in the United States. It has been very popular with teachers, students and parents. One of our teachers is once again a finalist for the national presidential award in mathematics teaching.