Fractal Institute for APS Teachers

We’re offering Professional Development workshops for elementary teachers in Albuquerque to learn to use the ideas of fractals in their classrooms. The workshops will be offered twice, on March 15,16 and April 2,3.

Click for more info…

Fractals in Silver City

The Fractal Foundation visited Silver City, NM, for the first time, as part of our ongoing campaign to Leave No Child unfractalled in New Mexico.
Many thanks to Tom Gruzska of the Western New Mexico University Math Department for inviting us down to bring fractals to the students of Silver City. Over the course of three presentations, we taught fractals to undergraduate calculus students, Aldo Leopold High School students, and many elementary school kids as well. Oh yes, lots of parents showed up to for the evening, family fractal night. The kids loved making fractal triangles too, which will be part of the world-record-breaking Fractal Trianglethon.

Happy kids making fractals in Silver City NM.

Kids make Fractals in Los Lunas

3'd graders make 3D fractals!

Over 200 elementary school students from Los Lunas public schools gathered for a special fractal presentation, and learned an exciting hands-on activity. We taught the kids to make their own cutout fractal triangle cards, using just scissors, paper and glue. The kids LOVED it, and we’re eager to be sharing this activity with other kids and teachers.

Learn how to make fractal cutouts in the Fractivities section.

Announcing the Fractal Trianglethon!

Help New Mexico Students create the world’s largest fractal triangle - and set a Guinness World Record! We’re teaching thousands of children around New Mexico to create the fractal pattern known as the Sierpinski Triangle. Children from 1’st grade and up are excited to participate in this fun, beautiful and educational activity. 

Once the students have made their own triangles, we can combine three of these triangles to form a larger, self-similar version: 

3 triangles

The next step is to combine 3 of these groups of 3 triangles into a bigger version:

9 triangles

Next, we combine 3 of these bigger groups to make a big fractal triangle:

27 triangles

This represents the output of one class, and it took about 30 minutes to make. The next step is to combine the fractals from 3 classes, to make a big triangle of 81 pieces. Then we will triple that to get 243 triangles, etc…

We will be assembling a GIANT fractal triangle, made of the combined output of 243 classes of 27 triangles each. That is 6561 children whose art will be part of this gigantic fractal. The finished piece will be 192 feet on a side. If we can only generate 2143 triangles, we will still set the World Record, and the finished triangle will be 96′ on a side.

We will be assembling it on March 14th, 2010, in the Albuquerque Convention Center, westside ballroom, all day long. Please join us!

We need lots of volunteer help to pull this off! Please contact volunteers (at) fractalfoundation.org to get involved!

Download the lesson plan and learn to do this project yourself in Fractivities.

Children from the MESA club in Carlsbad NM displaying their contribution to the Trianglethon.

Fractals in Gallup for NM MESA

New Mexico MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) held their Western Region Design Championship in Gallup on January 24th. Middle school and high school students from all over the region were treated to a fractal show as one of the highlights of the event. The show focused especially on engineering applications of fractals, such as branching devices for cooling computer chips and precise fluid mixing, as well as high-performance fractal antennas.
Many thanks to New Mexico MESA for inviting us to be part of such a great event!

Fractals come to Apache Elementary

Xilinx inc. has awarded a grant to the Fractal Foundation to bring fractal education to the students, teachers and parents at Apache Elementary School in Albuquerque NM.

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to reach ALL the students in the school, from K-5, as well as the teachers and parents. When everyone shares a common language and conceptual framework - i.e. they all recognize the fractal patterns and connections among systems - real progress can be made.

The Xilinx “Educational Ecosystem” program brings a comprehensive approach to transforming education. In addition to funding the Fractal Foundation, Xilinx is also supporting 3 other community nonprofits to serve Apache: Art in the School, Junior Achievement, and Kids Cook.

Thank You Xilinx!!!

Fractals in Roswell

One of the great benefits of my job is that I get to travel through some really beautiful landscapes. New Mexico is so full of natural fractals! I thought I’d share a Google Earth snapshot of the landscape west of Roswell/Artesia. Cool!

Fractal drainage pattern west of Roswell NM. Scale 1" = ~1 mile.