Make Your Own Dodecahedron

Whenever possible, it is preferable that children make or even design their own models and further mathematize their experiences such as making origamis. After playing around with the angles of the Platonic dodecahedron, I designed a vertex connector and an edge which can be easily snapped together for a dodecahedron. The edge bars have some bumps at the ends to keep them from falling out.

Of course, one needs 20 (V) vertex connectors and 30 (E) edges. Once assembled, the dodecahedron has 12 (F) faces : V + F – E = 2.

Among the Files

1. Vertex connector at two level of tolerance (regular and loose)
2. Edge bars of various lengths.

Note

Please print one connector and one edge first to try out the tolerance. A resolution of 0.2mm works well for me. You can play with the resolution to adjust the tightness between the vertex connector and the edge. The loose version might be too loose, in which case some school glue could be used to keep the pieces together.

All Platonic dodecahedra are similar to each other. So if you want a large one, you could just use longer edges.

Have fun!