Playful Origami

Selection of Scheduled and Past Events

• National Museum of Asian Arts – Washington DC, USA
  • Discovery Days is a pilot program in its first year, in which DC schools bring children to the museum to explore the galleries and experience an guided-art activity, such as origami
  • Program dates: Feb 21, Mar 13, Apr 24, May 29

• Origami for Ukraine  - Lake Needwood, MD, USA
  • Taught rudimentary origami models to children at a charity event organized jointly by Didenko Art School and Leleka Foundation
  • Leleka provides emergency supplies to save lives
  • Date: September 2023

• Action Models Workshops – Rockville, MD, USA
  • Taught children aged 4 – 10 to make windsurf sailboat and a jumping frog.  Blowing into the sail makes the boat glide on the table. Tapping on the frog’s back makes it jump. 
  • Dates: February and July, 2023

• Origami and Geometry - Rockville, MD, USA
  • Led two groups of children to fold  a geometric ladybug of my design, and helped them learn various mathematical concepts stemming from this design, such as properties of geometric figures.
  • For this event, I created a special workbook, which has vignettes for both elementary school and high school children.
  • kville, MD, USA

• Origami Gifts for Sick Children – NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Trained NIH staff to make origami gifts for seriously ill children participating in clinical trials at the NIH.
  • For this event, I designed an origami ladybug with two dorsal surfaces, which has twice as much area to draw spots. We also folded a water lily to give to the children.
  • Date: 2019

• Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day – NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • For two years in a row, led an activity at the NIH to describe scientific applications inspired by origami, such as heart stents and unfolding space satellite wings.
  • Event was attended by children of NIH employees and their parents. Models folded: jumping frog and “exploding” bowtie. Trained fellow NIH staff to facilitate the activity.
  • Dates: April 2017 and 2018

• Action Origami for Preschoolers – Bender JCC, Rockville, MD, USA
  • Taught young children to fold a windsurf, which can glide across the table when one blows air into the sail.
  • Date: May 2018
  • ld-to-Work Day – NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

• S.T.E.A.M. Night – Nottingham ES, Arlington, VA, USA
  • Taught children of elementary school age to fold two action models: a flapping bird and a nodding bird.
  • STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.
  • Date: April 2018

• Engineering Night -Wakefield HS, Arlington, VA, USA 
  • Engineering Night is an opportunity for students and parents to experience hands-on activities in various engineering fields.
  • I designed an origami-based activity that mimics performing an engineering assignment in the future. Using paper as a model, we folded two models: a paper-thin foldable laptop of the future and an expandable solar sail for use in space.
  • I helped participants understand how these 2D-3D transformations.
  • Date: February 2018  

• CL² –  Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington DC, USA
  • Community Learning Labs (CL²) is an outreach program to promote education in local communities
  • I gave a lecture, which described how both nature and origami create beautiful shapes through repetition.
  • Date: June 2017

• Private Preschool in France – Bures-sur-Yvette, France 
  • Taught rudimentary origami models and basic geometry to young children. Some of these children became very interested in origami and are still folding!
  • Year: 2015