Peter Hubbard's Story
When one thinks of innovation in education, Peter Hubbard's name inevitably comes to mind. Many in our community are acquainted with Tetragami, a revolutionary paper-folding design system. This creative endeavor, a product of Peter's collaboration with his 5th-grade students from Seattle Public Schools, transformed the humble cardstock into a canvas for imaginative and scholastic exploration.
However, Peter's contributions to SUMM and the world of education are not just limited to Tetragami. He has been the torchbearer for various groundbreaking educational initiatives. His visionary leadership led to the inception of the Young Inventor's Network, the evolution of the Green Team Network, and the rise of the Make a Difference Service Learning Teams. These endeavors have significantly shaped our educational paradigm.
Peter's educational philosophy is profound. He envisions an education system that mirrors the complexities of the real world, integrates multidisciplinary learning, and is open to transformative ideas. This unique perspective earned him a coveted spot at the inaugural conference of MIT Solve in 2015. His dedication and expertise also saw Tetragami being awarded the 'Best Workshop for Kids' at the 2013 Seattle Mini-Maker Faire.
At SUMM, we deeply value Peter's unwavering commitment and the indelible mark he has left on education. His insights and passion have elevated our mission, and we are immensely honored to have him as a cherished member of the SUMM family.
Can you tell us more about how the idea of Tetragami came to life? What role did your 5th-grade students play in its invention?
Years ago, my students and I were studying hexagons and discovered that if you fold the three pairs of sides together and then fold each edge into the centerline, the hexagons become converted into a web of equilateral triangles. Further exploration demonstrated that these folded hexagons could be turned into a wide variety of 3-D shapes, including most of the Platonic Solids: tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, and dodecahedron (plus the cube with some fiddling). Because all the shapes are covered in equilateral triangles, they all magically fit together into a crazy design system. Soon we were designing various building blocks, rings, and things, Panda and her Pals (mostly Pokemon), and bigger Dragon projects.
One of the students' parents ran a print shop and suggested that it might be possible to stamp the fold lines onto cardstock, which is what I started doing to make the building process easier and better.
“My students and I realized that the simplest 3-D shape we were making was the tetrahedron, and I remembered from my organic chemistry days that the carbon atom is famously a tetrahedron shape. That’s how we settled on the name Tetragami.”
Soon, this activity became integrated into daily learning. Here's a quote from my principal, now superintendent, who had a front-row seat into how Tetragami played out in the classroom.
"I witnessed firsthand how Tetragami was integrated into and across the content areas. Students did not just “study” math and science, but were engaged in creating molecular models and math manipulatives. Not to mention that our students were experts when it came to naming polygons and geometric polyhedrons, such as “dodecahedrons” (12 faces)! In English Language Arts, Mr. Hubbard’s 4th Grade students created characters from their books out of the Tetragami system to accompany their writing pieces. Students were engaged and encouraged to be creative designers as they interacted with the Tetragami system." Ed Noh, Peter's principal at Lawton Elementary in Seattle.
Tetragami also became a FUNdraising centerpiece at our school as part of our Make a Difference project. The older students ran after-school classes for the younger ones as an ongoing fundraiser for building village schools in Sierra Leone. Over the years, we raised more than $20,000 to support this effort.
Some of the more entrepreneurial students created their own Tetragami businesses where they would sell Tetragami models at local craft fairs.
Here's a video link describing all this.
Looking back at your career, what have been your most rewarding moments as a math teacher and educational innovator?
Teaching for me was a second career. After graduating from UC Berkeley, I was a non-profit staffer working mostly on the Nuclear Disarmament issue for a while and then ended up at Boeing where, strangely, I was put to work helping build the MX and cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. Something had to give.
So, I went into the schools with a background in community organizing and with a desire to make a difference towards social improvement. In that spirit, I headed up a number of networking initiatives for the school district: Young Inventors, Frontiers of the 21st century, Green Teams, Compassionate Schools, Tetragami Kids, and so forth. I was a founding member of Washington Green Schools, which has evolved into the very active and effective EarthGen organization. Beyond basic academics, which will obviously always be central to schools, I always believed that school communities could and should play a central role in our efforts to uplift humanity and heal nature.
I also believe the future of education lies in Connected Learning: Students connected to their interests and each other, subject areas integrated and connected, schools connected to their communities and to each other... worldwide.
Tetragami Creative Design won first place in the Seattle Maker Faire back in 2012, and in 2015 I was invited to speak at the MIT Solve inaugural conference about the feasibility of incorporating real-world problem-solving into the classroom. Since retiring, I've been continuing my efforts to help improve education, which is how I ended up on SUMM's Advisory Board. Tracy has done such a great job pulling SUMM together! I was also lucky enough to have Cindy from Momath bring me out to New York last year to do my Tetragami Dodecahedron at one of their family nights. What fun!
Last fall, the United Nations held a Transforming Education Summit, and since then, I've been talking with potential partners about launching a UNESCO linked, school-based, Transforming Education Network (TEN): Teams of TEN, Powers of TEN (10, 100, 1000...). My Spidey sense says we are at the cusp of a quantum leap for education and social progress. I would love for all of us interested in math enrichment in the schools to help spearhead this transformation.
If you could give one piece of advice to upcoming math educators, what would it be?
I think math teachers should see themselves at the forefront of educational transformation. We desperately need to make schools more interesting and meaningful. Especially in these highly contentious times, math has the potential to unite us around a common vision for integrated learning. Math is transcendental, and math teachers could help be midwives towards a New Humanity.
Just thinking...