Indiana State University Newsroom

An after-school program created by Winnie Ko, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and Director of Math Education at Indiana State University, is addressing COVID-19 learning loss in mathematics at a local middle school using origami.

Ko, Program Coordinator Connor Goodwin, and ISU students have been going to South Vermillion Middle School twice a week this fall to teach students algebra and geometry with origami activities that Ko designs.

"I have designed and implemented origami activities in my college Geometry course, and I found that hands-on activities helped my undergraduate students learn mathematical ideas better," Ko said. "Given that algebra and geometry play a vital role in middle school, I decided to develop and implement origami activities aimed at deepening middle school students' algebraic and geometric reasoning."

The project, Building Love for Algebra and Geometry, is supported by a two-year grant from the Indiana Department of Education worth $183,706. It will provide about 75 South Vermillion middle school students with face-to-face instruction regarding folding-and-cutting algebra and geometry activities. The students are chosen by their mathematics teachers.

The grant funds learning materials as well as the program coordinator position and five ISU student positions to work with the middle schoolers. These ISU students, future educators, benefit from the teaching opportunity and student engagement provided by the project.