This project is deceptively simple. The pattern does not appear to be very interesting, as it is simply a page filled with parallelograms. But when scored and folded, following the instructions for a "Mountain Fold" and a "Valley Fold", students can produce an elegant piece of geometric sculpture. If students are not familiar with the origami terminology, you can quickly show them a mountain fold by folding a sheet of paper down the middle, and holding it with the crease up and the two sides slanting down. Simply turn the paper over to demonstrate a valley fold. Most students are pleased with the simple beauty of the result, and are delighted to see how it folds into a compact long rectangle to carry with them, and opens again to an elegant paper sculpture to show friends and family.

There are a number of ways for students to do this project. The fastest and easiest would be for the teacher to simply give students a copy of the pattern above and ask them to fold it to create their own "paper sculpture. The students will need a pushpin or other metal pin to "scribe" on all lines, so they will then be able to create crisp folds. Students will enjoy this activity, and be pleased with the results. However, they will learn more Geometry if they construct that pattern themselves, using geometry software. This gives them experience with the software, and with the geometric concepts of parallel lines, and parallelograms.

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"Geometry is a skill of the eyes and the hands as well as of the mind." Jean Pedersen

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