Isododecahedron?

Question

my daughter is required to make one of this as a christmas ornament for her math class - do you know where I can find instructions and a photo of the same?

Answer 1

http://www.codefun.com/Geometry_Plato1.htm

This site describes the Five Perfect Solids. I could not find a definition of "isododecahedron" and wondered if your daughter had mixed two terms together. If you look at the link above, there is an "Icosahedron" and a "Dodecahedron" which if mixed together could be "isododecahedron". These are Greek words and a very rough translation of "isododecahedron" would be a "24-sided solid". I have seen 24-sided dice before. Go to:
http://www.gamestation.net/category/1003.1009.1057
to see what these look like. If this is the right shape, you just put pyramid caps on the six faces of a cube.

If one of the shapes from the first link is the right one, they show how to make those.

Hope this helps!!! Good luck with the project.

Answer 2

It needs to be spelled differently to get good returns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosidodecahedron
although I wouldn't have known except one of the returns on your spelling said, "I used to spell ... as ..."
Linked off the page above (small image) is this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Icosidodecahedron_flat.png
which contains a cut out of the pattern. If making it into a shape, I would print it (or move it to an image editing program and change colors) and leave all the white intact for the first cut out and trim a little at a time so you have flanges for glueing.
It is possible to use origami folding to make one, but I think it looks like cheating since the shape is formed by a bunch of interlocking triangles - only the tips make the outline.
Here are directions for making it with straws or sticks joined and I think you could thread string though short and long straws to make one, building from the drawing layout.
http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/straw-tensegrity.html