Kids make Fractals in Los Lunas

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.

Fractals in NM Kids Magazine

Hey, I was just googling to try to find what the largest Sierpinski Triangle ever made is (so we can make a bigger one!), and I came across an article in New Mexico Kids Magazine about us. It was printed a year or two ago, and I was really glad to see it’s still available on their website. Check it out - it’s a very well written story, by the excellent Aileen O’Catherine.

Fractals: The Newest New Math

(Just one note: at the bottom of the story it invites teachers to sign up, and the first ten would get in free to see First Friday Fractals. Well, we USED to be able to do that, back when we started the fractal shows a few years ago, but they don’t let us give away any seats anymore. Sorry! Old story, old info. The fractal parts are still true though

Winning Fractal Publicly Dedicated

Rachel Washington’s winning fractal public artwork was officially dedicated at a ceremony in downtown Albuquerque on Monday March 9th. Mayor Martin J. Chavez spoke briefly and congratulated Rachel for her achievement. He then introduced Fractal Foundation executive director Jonathan Wolfe who said a few words explaining why fractals are valuable (”They make math fun, exciting, and beautiful!”) as well as thanking the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, Albuquerque Community Foundation, and Clear Channel Outdoor for their support. Representatives of all the major local media were there, and the story made the local news programs.

See the Installation of the art.

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: 

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

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

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.