The Origami Whiz Kid

About 14 years ago I had a ninth grade student who was really into origami. His name was Jayson Merrill. (At that time I taught half the day at the high school.) No matter what the assignment was, he wanted to do origami. "Well", I said on the first week of class, "the assignment is to make a creative color wheel" -- and he made this.

The next assignment was to learn about Pop Art and then make some kind of Pop Art. He made a polyhedron out of Starburst wrappers.

For every assignment we had, he tried to find some way to use it as an opportunity to make origami. It was totally independent study, too, since I have never been good at it.

About a week ago, somebody said to me, "Do you remember Jayson Merrill? He's written a book on origami. I saw it at the gift shop at the Air & Space Museum in DC." I have to say, I wasn't surprised, but it was neat to hear that something that was such a passion for a student has provided continued opportunities for achievement.