I'll be giving a workshop at the PLAYfest festival. It's still being scheduled but looks like January 29th.

Crafting Platonic Solids: Fun with Polyhedra

Description: Explore the satisfying Platonic symmetries of icosahedrons and dodecahedrons by crafting them. Participants will learn to make one or more Platonic polyhedra out of construction paper. As we do this we'll learn a little about the math behind the shapes, and how they relate to each other.

Please print this dodecahedron PDF template before the worskhop as it will make things much easier!

Supplies required

1. Three or more sheets of sturdy construction paper or thin cardboard. (If you are buying paper get the "heavyweight" kind.)

2. Scissors or craft knife for cutting the sheets. (New knife blades help cut without tearing.)

3. A drinking glass or circular template 3-4 inches in diameter. Or a compass if you have one.

4. A pencil or pen for marking.

5. Stapler or glue for construction. (A stapler is probably easiest: if you use glue then quick-drying or hot glue is preferable. If you use staples, make sure you have enough, we'll be using quite a few.)

6. A ruler will come in handy, as will a spoon for creasing.

Optional: Paint or markers for coloring your polyhedron.

Optional: String or monofilament for hanging your polyhedron.

Some things we might be discussing during the workshop:

• Solids and their "duals"
• Euler's formula: V - E + F = 2;
• Golden ratio
• Graph coloring
• Symmetries and group theory

If you want to make a tetrahedron (much quicker) or an icosahedron (challenging!) use this template instead!

Here is the Inkscape source file I used to create the template. If you don't have a PDF reader, this should render right in your browser.