Rhombic Triacontahedron What?

better known as the IQ Light or Infinity Lights, this geometric form is the brainchild of
 Danish designer Holger Strøm in 9772.

Holger Strøm

Constructed using interlocking quadrilaterals, (Hence his name for the light, IQ lights)  you can make all sorts of variation on polyhedra- (multi faced 3-d geometric forms.)

I first discovered this from a fellow art teachers blog, Art in the Big Green Room.  She had a link to an Instructable that had a template. I grabbed the template and duplicated it in Paint to get 6 per sheet.  Walmart trip to pick up cardstock, and had Central Office copy, enough so each student could get 30 pieces.
Here is the revised template.

Students cut, then build the model.

Just for fun, I went to Wikipedia and found this rotating model.  Interesingly, each face is a rhombus with sides  based on the golden ratio!

Very helpful for me and students it to check out instructional videos on YouTube like this one...

Happy Rhombic Triacontahedron!

Teaching JH Students Pen Knife Safety

We are starting a paper cutting project, and at this level, students have enough dexterity and responsibility to handle pen knives.  With great power comes great responsibility.  Here is how I deal with this dangerous tool in my classroom.

    First, I scare them a bit.  I tell them the only time I ever had a student go to the hospital because of something going wrong in my classroom was when a student violated the only real rule with using a pen knife:

DON'T CUT TOWARDS YOUR SELF.

You entered with 10 fingers and want to leave with all them?  Don't violate this rule.

Don't let this happen to you...

So how do you use it safely?   Here are my directions:

1.  Don't cut towards yourself.
2.  Always have protective cap on when traveling around the room.
3. When we are cleaning up, I have to see all 30 back in their storage rack or no one leaves.
4. Always use  a cutting board underneath.

My handmade storage rack.

Knives with caps

After we go over this, I do a demo which includes the cutting challenges I think they need to pass in order to successfully complete their designs.  I also show them how to maintain the knife, in case  the blade falls out.

Disassembled knife

The Cutting Challenge is basically all the different issues the students will have to face to get a successful paper cut design.

1. Cutting a straight line.
2. Cutting a curvy/wavy line.
3. Cutting out a free form shape.
4. Cutting out a shape near another shape, but with a sliver of paper dividing them.
5. Cutting out a shape within a shape, using "paper  bridges" to hold the shape in place.

the Cutting Challenge on a scrap of paper.

Once the students have safely finished the Cutting Challence, I feel they are ready to work with the pen knives!

I also am proud to say after 10 years of teaching art, I finally upgraded my knife from beyond the el cheapo student grade to a fancy ergonomic version.  It includes blade storage and anti roll bump!  Woo Hoo!

Yeti!

Another semester, another group of 7th and 8th graders.  We are starting this semester with papercraft.  About 10 out of 150 had ever even heard of papercraft!  I downloaded this YETI from http://www.curiositygroup.com/, a papercraft website.  They produce a new calendar project for every month!  Lets practice cutting, color, pasting, and following directions!  Plus, a fun poem about yetis....

"There once was a cat-loving Yeti,

Whose favorite dish was spaghetti,

'Til he went to Nantucket,

And looked in a bucket

And saw ice cream topped with confetti."

here is a link to the PDF, if you want to try it on your own!

http://curiositygroup.com/calendarofthemonth/

Negative is not always bad...

September 13-16 Negative Space! Negative space is the area around the main design. This week we explored relationships between positive and negative shapes, starting with drawings of the space around a chair. Then we switched to paper cutout designs. Check out some of the artwork.
Click here for the lesson.