Origami

Fractals
in the
Classroom

Winnie Leung

President
Sydney Origami Inc.

Sierpinski’s Pyramid by David Mitchell

 Origami
Fractals
in the
Classroom

Winnie Leung

President
Sydney Origami Inc.

Sierpinski’s Pyramid by David Mitchell

What are Fractals?
• Fractals are shapes – like triangles, squares and circles

• Fractals are never ending shapes that repeats itself at

different sizes

• The shapes don’t have to look EXACTLY the same, but

should be similar

• This property is called “Self-Similarity”

• The look complex but are made with a simple process

What do they look like and how do we make
them?

Gosper Island

Koch Snowflake

Box Fractal

Sierpinski Sieve

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fractal.html
How many levels for this tree fern?
So why teach origami fractals?
• Something different – fractals is not in the standard
primary curriculum - designed specifically as a special
workshop for the Sydney Science Festival in 2018

• Conceptually very simple

• Lots of tangible examples in nature that can be

brought into the classroom

• Origami helps develop fine motor skills in young

children

• Quite a few different origami fractal models that can

be taught at different level of motor skill
Model for the littlies – K to 2
• Need something extremely simple because of
developing fine motor skills (and short attention span)

• Best one I found is Nick Robinson’s Pythagoras Tree

Models for around Year 3-6
• Better fine motor skills and spatial awareness

• Train ticket / business card cube Level 1 menger

sponge (a la Jeannine Moseley)

• David Mitchell’s Sierpinski Pyramid

Models for Year 7+
• Good fine motor skills and focus level

• Same as for Year 3-6, but perhaps a higher level

collaborative Menger Sponge

• JC Nolan’s Andrea’s Rose

• Can try Fujimoto’s Clover, and possibly Hydrangea

Andrea’s Rose

Left: Clover
Right: Hydrangea
Demonstration Models
• For the WOW factor in any age group (and you really
need to emphasize that it is one piece of paper)

• Chris Palmers Flower Tower (especially because of the

kinetic aspect)

• Floral Perpetua by Dasa Severova

• Floripon by Roman Diaz

• High order Clover or Hydrangea

 Floral Perpetua

Floripon