School Presentations

Bring Fractals to Your School!

We have been teaching fractals in school presentations for over 6 years, in classes ranging from kindergarten through University of New Mexico honors courses. Invariably, the students show great enthusiasm, and gain a new understanding of the interconnections between science, math, art and nature. It is always amazing to see how receptive and excited children are when they see fractals for the first time. Suddenly math transforms from something hard, boring, and useless into a fun, exciting, and beautiful realm to explore.

A 55 minute presentation can reach a single class or an entire assembly of students. A presentation takes the audience zooming through the mathematically generated Mandelbrot fractal as the presenter teaches the students to use the incredible (and free) fractal software, Xaos to generate their own fractals. The presenter and students then interactively explore a realm of naturally occurring fractals, ranging from microscopic to galactic scales. The repeating theme is how the complexity of nature is created through the repetition of simple processes.

Hands-on Activity:

For elementary students, we offer an optional hands-on fractal making activity at no  extra cost. After a standard presentation, the students spend ~30 minutes making fractal triangles, which they then assemble into a large fractal triangle. School must provide markers or crayons, scissors, and xeroxing. 

Logistics:

We bring a laptop and video projector for the presentation. What we need from the school is a dark room (doesn’t need to be pitch-black, but it can’t have large, uncoverable skylights or windows), and a screen or a blank white wall on which to project. Classrooms, gymnasiums, cafeterias and auditoriums are all possible venues. For larger groups, typically > ~100 students, a mic and PA system are desirable. 

Thanks to the generous support of Albuquerque Community Foundation, we may be able to deliver fractal presentations to your school at low or no cost!

Contact Us to schedule a school presentation. Call 505.489.3393 or email

We are currently 8% of the way to our goal, having taught over 26,000 children about fractals, out of 326,000 students in New Mexico. Please help us reach more students!