Origami Salami, Folding for Good, and Calista Frederick-Jaskiewicz honored by the PA Association for Gifted Education (PAGE) with the 2012 PAGE Service and Scholarship Award. Read the whole story here:
Introducing
The 2012 PAGE Service and Scholarship Award Winner
Calista Frederick-Jaskiewicz, 15, of Wexford, is the founder and CEO of Origami Salami, an original program which inspires learners to think outside the book about STEM subjects by studying folding (proteins, DNA, RNA, the brain, robotics, and computer applications), and its community service spin-off, Folding for Good, through which she and her affiliate chapters in Ohio and Texas engineer events highlighting the fun of STEM through origami. Calista wrote an engineering course for middle schoolers called Investigation: Paper Engineering, which was published in June 2011 by a national curriculum provider. Origami Salami has been recognized nationally, regionally, and locally; the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance has cited Calista as “…a pioneer and a leader in advocating for STEM education.”
Calista is a Davidson Institute Young Scholar Ambassador and 2011 THINKer; a second year member of the NASA Online Learning Community; a 2012 National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computer Science National Runner-Up; and a 2012 Kids are Heroes honoree. She has lobbied for gifted education in Harrisburg twice by paging for House Leader Mike Turzai and making staff visits. She is a pianist, violist with the Three Rivers Young Peoples’ Orchestra, and nine-time State Taekwondo Champion. Calista volunteers as a musician for various organizations; as a Junior Taekwondo Instructor; and at Animal Friends, a no-kill shelter in Pittsburgh, where she organizes groups to make safe toys for shelter cats out of recycled socks in a program called Operation Happy Sock.
Calista is a student at the PA Cyber Charter School and is a dual enrollee at Robert Morris University, School of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science.
Visit Calista on the web:
Thanks PAGE! See you in Exton for the annual conference on May 3!
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on STEM Planet
about recycling paper
for use in origami.
Do something and recycle paper.
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JWST Incorporates Folding!
Pictured on the left is a full-size model of the James Webb Space Telescope and its project crew in front of Goddard Space Flight Center. Pictured below is a model of the JWST I constructed by following easy NASA Education model instructions and model parts.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will have a huge mirror and sunshade that are folded up for compact space travel!
That's right, JWST's mirror is about 21ft in diameter and must be folded in order to fit into its launch rocket. For example, three mirror segments in the outer rows are folded back for launch, then unfolded into precise alignment once JWST is in outer space.
Support struts that hold the secondary mirror precisely in position to reflect light from the primary mirror to onboard science instruments are also folded for launch, and then unfold in space.
JWST's sunshield, roughly the size of a tennis court when fully extended, is folded tightly at launch. When it is time to gracefully unfurl in space, the sunshield is supported by beams that act like "bones", and which are also folded for launch.
Try a little paper model making---which involves lots of folding---to visualize how all this is going to work.Makes a pretty nice science project too. And all of the instructions are free, courtesy of NASA Education.
BTW, JWST will live in an orbit about a million miles from Earth. It uses infrared light (heat) to see objects at the very edge of our visible universe.
For more info, visit NASA _________________________________________________________________
Origami Salami and Folding for Good
Featured in
Joining forces with 270+ kid heroes from 9 countries
Calista developed and teaches a program to inspire learners' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through origami.
Officially founded in 2009, it is called Origami Salami (because it rhymes, you can fold circles too, and STEM is a tasty mix of fabulous disciplines) and models the science of folding---for example, proteins, DNA, leaves, brains, curiosity, solar sails, the JWST. Calista has spun off a community service component called, "Folding for Good" through which she volunteers to teach the fun of STEM through origami to groups. Calista has conducted over 14 community programs from folding for seniors, to church groups, summer camps for elementary and middle school students, and programs at Carnegie Mellon University.
She engineered a folding science program for her cyber charter school through which the entire student body was challenged to fold a 10 step penguin to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the school, which also coincided with enrollment of the 10,000th student.
Calista authored a digital course for middle schoolers called, "Investigation: Paper Engineering," which published on June 1, 2011 and is currently marketed nationwide by national curriculum provider Lincoln Interactive. In the development of IPE, Calista was also called on by the publisher to author a series of 13 scripts for videos to embed in the course; Calista is the featured folder in each video and learned to read from a teleprompter to get the job done.
Origami Salami and Folding for Good is currently expanding with two new chapters: OS Beta in Cincinatti OH and OS Gamma in Austin TX. OS addresses the US educational shortfall in producing STEM specialists by increasing STEM pipeline students through early involvement in the awesome fun of STEM.
Kids are Heroes is a non-profit that empowers, encourages, and inspires kids to become leaders through volunteerism and community involvement. Kids are heroes, and every one has the power to change the world!
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Origami Salami
and
Folding for Good
featured in the
American Association of University Women Blogosphere!!!!
I’m a National Girls Collaborative Project member liaison, and I recently attended the Pennsylvania STEM Girls Collaborative Conference. I was browsing around the showcase of projects, and as you would expect, there were some representatives from terrific programs designed to foster science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers for girls. But who really blew me away was a young middle school girl in attendance named Calista.
When I was in middle school, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up, and I was not alone. I circuitously navigated my way through college and ended up in a STEM career that I loved.
What is different today is these girls know, they really know, what they want to do. They are turned on to STEM early, they like it, and they pursue it.
Take Calista, for example. She is a student at the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and is all of 14 years old. She has already created and taught a program to encourage interest in STEM; developed a program called Origami Salami, which models protein-folding science (present in RNA, DNA, air, the gastrointestinal tract, and the brain); spun off a community service from Origami Salami called Folding for Good, which uses community events to explore the fun of STEM; wrote an engineering course for middle schoolers called Investigation: Paper Engineering, which was published by Lincoln Interactive and launched as a digital mini-course offering in June 2011; and in her spare time, she maintains her Origami Salami website, Facebook page, and blog.
Calista said that her interest in STEM was sparked after attending a Summer Engineering Experience for Girls at Carnegie Mellon University. She explains, “After SEE I got to thinking deeply about my own career options and what would be needed to position myself for a future in science.” This was when she was 12 years old!
Calista explains that her mission with Origami Salami “is to inspire learners to think outside the box about STEM subjects by studying folding.” And that through folding, “students would be inspired to investigate all sorts of science possibilities and become more innovative thinkers, the kind of problem identifiers and thinkers we need in science.” Wow, girls aren’t who they used to be.
I know without question that AAUW has had something to do with this, and that makes me proud of our organization and our work. Calista’s parents have provided a wonderful environment for their daughter so she has the confidence and wherewithal to go after what she wants. AAUW has created opportunities and removed roadblocks so that young women like Calista think nothing of pursuing their dreams no matter where they lead — science, business, politics, or something in between. We are not finished yet, but we should take a moment to celebrate successes like Calista’s.
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If you didn't pick up my flyer at the
PA STEM Girls Collaborative Annual Conference
on September 24, 2011, here it is!
Origami Salami
Folding for Good
Mission:
To inspire learners to think outside the book about STEM subjects by studying folding.
Think about it……So many things are folded:
Air Bags Air Electronics Programmable matter
DNA RNA Vocal Chords Proteins (all 100,000+ of them)
Grafolds Solar sails The JWST Knives
Curiosity (the Mars Rover)…NASA is big into folding Art forms, including origami
Leaves Land forms Crystals Baby Carriers
Bicycles And other items that improve human comfort & quality of life
From paper cranes to human brains, folding science is addictive.
Consider what is really happening between the folds!
Join the fold. Become a STEM leader!
Have comments? Ready to lead an OS chapter in your community? Contact me
Calista Frederick-Jaskiewicz
Founder and CEO
Origami Salami and Folding for Good
Young Scholar Ambassador
The Davidson Institute for Talent Development
Author: Investigation: Paper Engineering
Recognized by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure & Technology Alliance (PITA) as “…a pioneer and a leader in advocating STEM education” www.pitapa.org
Innovate.Create. Imagine. Think BIG. Be one up. Get STEM!
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What People Are Saying
About Origami Salami:
"You've created a resource here that not only contributes something unique
to the STEM & Arts fields, but also provides
a fresh medium through which we appreciate the interconnectedness of these fields.
You've clearly crossed the coveted threshold from being merely a consumer of knowledge to being a producer of it."
---E.S., NV
"Calista has gone on to distinguish herself
among her peers
as a pioneer and a leader
in advocating S.T.E.M. education."
---PITA
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It's Out!
Investigation: Paper Engineering is finally out!
This digital experience will inspire you.
All fun STEM studies; no dull stuff.
News you will use in a digital, interactive course.
Check out the press release here! _________________________________________________________
Origami Salami Featured
Pennsylvania InfrastructureTechnology Alliance
Spring 2011 Newsletter
