I keep reading about the Rhombic Dodecahedron lately.  They tessellate in 3 dimensions and appear in crystals and soap bubbles.  I was also interested to see they are connected to the geometry of the Tetraxis puzzle.   It is an example of a rhombic zonohedron.

So I decided to make some with my year 7 students; we used a pattern from the book Mathematical Origami by David Mitchell, available from Tarquin books.  They are good because they can be made from A4 paper, so you don't need to buy a lot of proper origami paper! 

The students worked in groups of 6 (creating 2 faces each).  This worked very well; the students learnt so much, from following instructions, to thinking about mathematical shapes and angles, to working as a team... and as you can see from the pictures, they had a lot of fun!!  

I always find that students who don't necessarily love 'standard' maths lessons always like the opportunity to do something practical like origami and they are usually really good at it!  

The whole class worked as a team; when students had finished they went over to other groups who hadn't finished to help out! 

I want them to make loads more and create a huge tessellation - watch this space!