Everyone knows that there are no classes like Winter Term classes. The month of January is the time for unique and original curriculums and guest instructors. Each year there are new and exciting ways to learn the same old subjects, and this year is no exception.

Math origami is a new Winter Term General Studies course taught by assistant professor Alan Russell. As a 300-level course, the class is writing intensive, however hard that may be to believe.

The students are required to complete weekly journals of their progress and reflections. Their final includes a paper on how someone in their major would look at origami.

For example, a business major would look at the marketing and sales of origami paper and books. A math major would look at the geometric dimensions of origami figures.

"The math department needed an upper-level GST that didn’t have prerequisites but still had a good amount of math," Russell said.  

The math aspect of the class is tied into the creation of the figures from a geometric perspective as well as a statistical perspective.

"All of the students came in thinking that all they would do was build paper airplanes – so we did," Russell said.

On one of the first days of class, Russell showed the class how to make several different styles and sizes of airplanes. The students then went into the hallway to compete against each other and come up with conclusions as to how size and shape affected the distance a plane would travel.

In this room, the instructor isn’t the only one with a passion for origami. Senior Mario Gallucci has been involved with the practice since he was 7.

"This class is a dream come true," Gallucci said. "I know a lot of what he teaches, so I push myself to make my own or make the originals more elaborate."

Russell has been doing origami since age 7, when he found sample origami in a newspaper. After he made hundreds of the same figures, his mother gave in and bought him an origami book.

"I still have my first book," Russell said. "However, I had to take out the pages and put them in individual plastic sheets and put them in a three-ring binder because they are so old."

The use of origami to help students better understand math and how to incorporate it into their lives is the epitome of what Winter Term classes try to accomplish, according to Russell.

Russell says he believes that with the success of this class he will be asked to teach it again in next year. But this time, he wants the class to be a semester long.