How did your process reflect (or not) design thinking?
For me, I did have to think about where and how I was going to incorporate the light in the piece. I knew for sure I wanted to make cranes as that is something I’ve been making since my childhood, and still do to this day. After I made it, I figured how cool would it be to have the light coming from the center? I tried my best to somehow make the light turn on while it was still in the body as I haven’t made an LED light turn on via battery since elementary school. But, I eventually achieved what I was going for!

What did you learn? Describe your learning process. What was most challenging? What was most fun?
Well, I definitely (re)learned how to turn on an LED light with just a battery! I wasn’t given complete instruction on how to achieve it but what I thought was funny was when I was returning home with all of the pieces in a small plastic bag it lit up by itself! I was so amazed yet also offended that gravity did a better job at lighting up the light than me. The most challenging was how I could light up the piece without messing with the origami too much. The most fun was making the origami itself! Like I said, I have been making origami since I was a child (props to being Japanese) and it always brings me such solace and peace.

How did this activity connect (or not) to your prior knowledge of art and art education? How might you use and/or adapt this activity in an art classroom?
Origami was actually something I hosted at a summer camp I used to work at during high school and at my dad’s comic convention (we had a little kids zone)! Teaching it to little kids was definitely a challenge, but there are different difficulties with different types of origami. I feel like doing this in an early elementary school classroom is definitely doable, even with the LED light involved. For something more complex, such as making a lotus or crane, I would save that for later elementary school or middle school.