The Chinese New Year of the monkey falls on February 8, 2016.  Camarillo Public Library will celebrate it on February 13, 2016, 1-4pm.  The community celebration illustrates California's rich cultural history and diversity.  The public event includes performers, food trucks, origami fun for the whole family.  It is free.

A teacher’s workshop, Origami Math Genius (OMG), is offered at the 1st Annual preK-12 STEM Symposium. It is organized by Ventura County Office of Education and held at 10:15am on February 08, 2016.  Registration information can be found at https://vcoe.k12oms.org/eventdetail.php?gid=1617&id=107624.

OMG is a curriculum integrating origami art and math in K-12 education.  It is developed based on Common Core Math Standards.  It displays math concepts visually through origami art, engages students in relevant tasks to acquire math skill.  It also cultivates imagination and creativity.  The performance based learning has significant effect on math achievement.  

OMG has been taught to teachers in Los Angeles, Pleasant Valley, and Somis unified school districts.  More information on OMG can be found at http://www.bijian.com/omg.html.

Seniors (50+) are back to school.  They are taking stimulating classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) of California State University Channel Islands.  Origami Memory Gymnastics is a participatory class to retain brain fitness.  It engages seniors in arithmetic, logic, and reasoning exercises through origami.  It also facilitates the discussion of the latest research on dementia therapy and prevention.

In building a honeycomb collectively, seniors imitated honey bee’s genius in mathematics and engineering, learned and folded hexagons as the most sturdy and economical geometrical structure in honeycomb. 

Origami has been used as art therapy for Alzheimer, autism, and other neurological conditions.  Doing origami stimulates brain’s prefrontal cortex and improves cognitive function.  It has been advocated by neuroscientists to retain brain fitness and make memories stick.

An interactive eTextbook, 《Origami Math Genius》(OMG), has been published by BiJian Fan.  It is available at iBooks Store.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/origami-math-genius/id1072271300?ls=1&mt=13.  OMG provides instructions in video, audio, and other digital features.  The interactivity makes the instruction easy to follow and fun to learn.

OMG integrates origami art and math in K-12 education.  It visualizes math concepts embedded in origami, engages students in relevant tasks to acquire mathematical skills.  It also cultivates imagination through the creative play of origami.  Studies showed that teaching math through origami is more effective than traditional teaching. 

​OMG has been taught to students and teachers internationally since 2013.  It has evolved into an eTextbook.  Volume 1 is designed for grade K-5.  The goal is to turn every student into an OMG.

A kinetic sculpture is installed on a piece of driftwood.  The egret bobs and drifts in the wind; the motion brings the bird to life.