Book dossier

Fractals for the classroom

by Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Hartmut Jürgens, Dietmar Saupe

This first volume of strategic activities is designed to develop through a hands-on approach, a basic mathematical understanding and appreciation of fractals. The concepts presented on fractals include self-similarity, the chaos game, and complexity as it relates to fractal dimension. These strategic activities have been developed from a sound instructional base, stressing the connections to the contemporary curriculums recommended in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Where appropriate the activities take advantage of the technological power of the graphics calculator. These activites make excellent extensions to many of the topics that are already taught in the current curriculum. Together, they can be used as a complete unit or as the beginning for a semester course on fractals.