Origami and space research: classroom activities

<p>When origami is mentioned, the first associations are paper cranes.  But origami is much more, and it is actually a mathematical discipline, so powerful that even NASA uses origami in its space research. Flat origami, where figures are as such as the above mentioned crane, is full of mathematical problems. There are seven origami axioms, widely known as Huzita-Hatori axioms, that describe creases. They represent the mathematically formal description of origami constructions. But when talking about involving origami and space science, we need to mention Miura folding  This form of origami folding is proposed by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura. Miura-ori is a way of folding paper or another flat surface into smaller area.  In the presentation we describe how we have made Miura-ori folding, how we 3D printed and made a model of a space craft in our classroom. Connecting different disciplines and inquiry students learned about the most recent scientific research and applied their knowledge during the project. </p>