Northwest : HUNTINGTON BEACH : Math Lesson Was Work of Art

Barbara Pearl knows there are all kinds of interesting things to create with a single piece of paper.

Pearl showed students at Dr. Ralph E. Hawes Elementary School on Tuesday that, by using patience, precision and practice, they, too, can fold paper to make a box or heart.

Pearl teaches origami, the Japanese art of paper-folding. In her demonstrations, students not only create pieces of art, they also learn about math.

“The program is designed to give students a positive math experience,” said Pearl, a former math teacher who for 10 years has offered the hands-on program in schools locally and nationally.

Pearl’s educational program, “Math in Motion: Origami in the Classroom,” combines subjects such as science, art and storytelling. Pearl, who wrote a book on the subject, said the focus is to motivate students’ interest in math as well as teach tolerance of cultural diversity.

“It brings math to a level they can understand,” said Mike Nakauchi, an origami artist studying to be a math teacher who assisted Pearl in the classroom. “The real appeal of origami is the finished product. It’s always pleasing to the eye. The beauty comes out of it. It’s art, but the math just flows out. They’re intertwined very closely.”

Students expressed delight and satisfaction as they created their origami works: “It’s math and it’s fun,” said fourth-grader Keith Spencer, 9.

In doing the artwork, students learned about the line of symmetry, a quadrilateral and octagon.

Teacher Laura Knoles praised Pearl’s program.

“It gives them a chance to work at this ancient craft and be successful at it,” Knoles said. “I like the emphasis on precision, being careful and listening. Because when they finish, they can have something that turned out on the basis of how well they followed directions.”