Enter the Fractal Challenge! - April 1

Students in the Greater Albuquerque Area - please enter the 4th Annual Fractal Challenge!

Simply download the free “Xaos” software, make a beautiful fractal and send it to us. The deadline is April 1’st (no fooling!)

See the full Submission Guidelines.

Winning fractals will be featured in the First Friday Fractal planetarium shows, and may be reproduced on the sides of building as gigantic public artworks!

Fractal Trianglethon a Giant Success!

The Fractal Foundation constructed the world’s largest fractal triangle on March 14, 2010 (PI-Day) in the Albuquerque Convention Center. Over 40 volunteers helped build the giant triangle and celebrate math, art, and the amazing wonder of fractals. The giant triangle was assembled out of 2187 individual triangles made by children from all over the world.
While 2187 is the number required to assemble a 7th order fractal triangle, 96 feet on a side, so many students had participated that there were enough to keep building, and altogether the pattern was extended to include 4036 triangles.

See a timelapse video of the assembly, which took place over almost 2 hours:

We are continuing the project, and in 2011 we intend  to break our own record by assembling an 8th order fractal triangle, 196 feet on a side, comprised of 6561 individual triangles.

We need more triangles, so Please Participate!

Gigantic thanks to all who participated last year: the dozens of volunteers who helped build the giant triangle, and especially to the thousands of children who each contributed a triangle!
And much gratitude to the Albuquerque Convention Center, for generously providing their ballrooms for the event. We look forward to returning next time in the even larger exhibit hall!

Congratulations and thanks, to everyone who made this possible. See the full list of participating schools here.

Fractal Challenge Winners Award Ceremony

The winners of the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge were publicly awarded during a ceremony at the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge on March 14th, 2010.
Five of the 8 winning students were present, and they received a poster of their fractal, an award certificate, and a trophy fractal billboard. In addition, their artworks will be on display in the atrium of the West Complex of the Albuquerque Convention Center for the next year.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Many thanks to the Albuquerque Convention Center for graciously providing their facilities for the Fractal Challenge and Trianglethon, and to Clear Channel Outdoor, who generously provided the splendid fractal billboard trophies for the winning students.

World’s Largest Fractal Triangle - coming 3/14!

We’re building a giant fractal made of 2187 student-made triangles, and we need your help! “The Fractal Trianglethon” will be the world’s largest fractal triangle. It’s going to be 96 feet wide! We’ve reserved the Albuquerque Convention Center west complex ballroom for the whole day for this event on March 14th 2010. Please join us in the excitement and help build the giant fractal! Children and adults welcome.

Please email “Volunteers (at) FractalFoundation.org” to sign up for a shift!

Timeline:

• Shift 1: 8:30AM-12 noon: We build the giant Fractal!
• Shift 2: 12 noon - 3:00 PM:  We open the hall to the public at noon
• Shift 3: 3:00 - 6:00 PM:  Celebration and Clean up.

At 3:14 PM, we will officially certify the World Record, and take a group photo with as many kids as we can squeeze into the fractal.

At 3:30 we will move to the atrium and unveil the new student winners of the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge and present their awards.

At 5:00 we start cleaning up the fractal triangles.

The date of the World Record event, March 14th is mathematically significant. It’s known as Pi-day, and is celebrated all over the world by math-lovers. Even more appropriately, it is the birthday of Waclaw Sierpinski, the inventor of this fantastic triangle. What better birthday present than to have thousands of children build the world’s largest Sierpinski Triangle!

Many thanks to the Albuquerque Convention Center for generously donating the ballroom for this event!

Albuquerque Kids on “Research Rocks” (pt2)

Channel 7 recently featured several of Albuquerque’s brightest, most creative students on its “Research Rocks” segment. Two of the winners of the 2009 Albuquerque Fractal Challenge, and one of the 2008 winners (and her brother) were featured in the video explaining how they’ve been exploring fractals on computer to create amazing mathematical artworks.

The host, Byron Morton, even travels to Downtown ABQ to film Rachel Washington’s amazing gigantic public art fractal. Many thanks to Byron, KOAT Channel 7, and Intel for sponsoring “Research Rocks!”

Watch the Video here.

“Research Rocks” features ABQ Students (part 1)

 

Albuquerque high school students Claudio Gonzalez and Christian Meyer were featured on KOAT Channel 7’s “Research Rocks” segment. The students were demonstrating their award-winning student research project  that explored the ability of fractal antennas to transmit radio signals more reliably than standard non-fractal antennas.

See the video here. 

Many thanks to Byron Morton from Channel 7, as well as Liz Shipley of Intel and Russ Fisher-Ives of Inquiry Facilitators for sponsoring the “Research Rocks” program.

See - and make - fractals at the NM State Fair

The 8 winning fractals from the Albuquerque Fractal Challenge have been installed on the NM State Fairgrounds, and they look spectacular!

We’re also hosting a table in the School Arts Building where you can come learn about fractals, and kids can make a fractal triangle that will be part of the Trianglethon project, where we’re making the world’s largest fractal triangle. We’ll be there till Sept 27, and hope you can come check it out. Many thanks to our great volunteers for staffing the booth!

Some of the winners from the Fractal Challenge, on display at the Fair:

 

 

 

Many thanks to Resolution Graphics for donating the printing, and to Symbiotic Builders for donating the installation. Also to Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund and Albuquerque Community Foundation for sponsoring the Fractal Challenge!

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.

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