Hi Everyone, (Apologies for the delay to this posting, caused by ongoing developments to the story)
**Origami and Math Teacher Day, Tel Aviv** On 11th December 2012, a day of lectures, workshops and an exhibition on the theme of origami and mathematics was held at the in-service teacher-training center in Tel Aviv, Israel (known by its Hebrew abbreviation as the Pisgah). The event was organized by Miri Golan of the Israeli Origami Center, with the support of the Israeli Ministry of Education, the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Pisgah. Special thanks must go to Ariela Brazilai, the Director of the Pisgah, for making the event happen. It was attended by almost one hundred teachers of math from Kindergarten to High School, Professors of Mathematics, Supervisors of Mathematics from the TAM and senior MoE officials, including Dr Anat Sela, Head of the Math curriculum for kindergartens at the MoE. The day was opened jointly by the Mayor of Tel Aviv, Mr Ron Huldai and the Japanese Ambassador, Mr Yoshihiro Sato, accompanied by Mrs Sato (who stayed throughout the day) and the Japanese Cultural Attaché. The special guest was the Japanese modular origami artist Miyuki Kawamura, visiting Israel with sponsorship from the Japan Foundation. Kawamura-san gave two lecture/workshops during the day. Other contributions were given by Miri Golan, Paul Jackson, Prof Raisa Guberman, Dr Yael Tsarfati and Ella Fischman, a kindergarten teacher who teaches the Israeli Origami Centers Pre Origametria programme. The day concluded with a 20-minute video presentation made for the event by Prof Erik Demaine from MIT, in which he discussed the math of wrapping of the Israeli marshmallow confectionary, the Krembo. The presentations were accompanied by an exhibition of thirty modular pieces made by Kawamura-san. To make the exhibition possible, the Pisgah had converted one of its lecture rooms into a gallery. With custom-made vitrines, new lighting tracks, freshly painted walls and professionally made signage, it looked magnificent. A smaller anti-room contained a didactic exhibition of origami prisms, pyramids, polyhedra, cuboids and cubes, made by Paul Jackson. Shortly before the exhibition was installed, the Tel Aviv Municipality told the Pisgah that the entire floor which contained the exhibition was being appropriated for a new kindergarten and the exhibition must close after only two of its projected six months. The solution to a shell-shocked Pisgah was to re-install the exhibition in the lobby of the building for a year, where fortunately for origami -- every visitor will see it. The Pisgah have now uploaded a page about the event. It includes a few photos and links at the bottom of the page to some of the PowerPoint presentations and to Prof Demaines video (well-worth watching): https://www.tlv-edu.gov.il/sites/Pisga/Pages/origami_conference_article.aspx The Pisgah have since announced the event to be its most successful one-day conference, having created enormous interest in origami and math around the country, at every level from teachers to the highest levels in the MoE. Further, Miri Golans Origametria teaching programme of teaching geometry through origami has been ring-fenced by the MoE and the Pisgah for development as an e-Learning programme. This is the first time the MoE has given this level of official support to any programme not developed by the MoE itself and demonstrates support at the highest level for Miris programmes. The Pre Origametria programme has been taught to teachers in eighty kindergartens in Tel Aviv, in 4 x 30-hour courses sponsored by the MoE, TAM and the Pisgah. It is now part of the official MoE curriculum. With news that the Ministry wishes to be a partner in developing the e-Learning Origametria programme for Grade School (which currently, is taught weekly in 35 schools in Israel), the MoE is now supporting the development and implementation of both programmes. In this way, the conference was the culmination of twenty years dedicated work establishing origami and the Origametria programmes as viable learning tools. Following the Pisgah event, Kawamura-san attended a three-day origami convention in Jerusalem, the Sixth Israeli Origami Convention, organized by the Israeli Origami Center. Paul Jackson
