Fractals basis of curiosity

The Fractal Man’s vision of future learning will coincide with a celebration of a newly designated historic building.

The Fractal Foundation’s annual Fractal Challenge invites Albuquerque elementary, middle and high school students to manipulate already-existing formulas in the computer program Xaos to generate their own fractals.

Jonathan Wolfe, the executive director of the Fractal Foundation, said the exercise incorporates math, science and art, and it changes the way students view participants.

“There’s been this unfortunate situation where the kids who like math and science are not necessarily the most popular kids in the school,” he said. “That was my experience. We’re changing that because now the cool kids are the ones who are winning the Fractal Challenge.”

This year’s top places were awarded to three Monte Vista Elementary School students, and large-scale reproductions of their fractals will be on display on the building’s exterior. The work will be unveiled Monday, as well as a plaque from the National Registry of Historic Places commemorating the school’s anniversary. The installation, which Wolfe estimated costs $7,000 to $8,000, was paid for by the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, an organization that helps fund nonprofits and cultural organizations.

Monte Vista teacher Jeff Tuttle said he suggested the school participate to help beautify the school’s bare walls and give students a unique learning experience.

“When you take a kind of surreal vision of something like that and make it real, imagine that from a kid’s perspective,” he said. “It’s excellent that our school celebrates our kids to that degree, and this program allows for that kind of celebration.”
Wolfe has been visiting schools and educating students about fractals for the last six years. So far, he said, he has taught more than 26,000 students.

Tuttle said the challenge caters to inquisitive students.
“They have no compunctions about exploration, which is what school is supposed to foster — that curiosity,” he said. “This is exploring the infinite horizons of possibilities, and the notion that they are maybe seeing something new that nobody else has seen or explored in the fractal software.”

Fifth-grade winner Ryan King said she was intrigued by fractals.
“I was introduced to them in third grade,” she said. “It seemed really cool, just the way they are. They never end, and they’re never the same, either. There’s just a whole bunch of different ones. It’s just fun to find them.”

Third-grade winner Elisabeth Christensen-Brown said the program allows users to visually manipulate an existing fractal to create a new image.

“You could just kind of do it, zoom in and make it how you want it, but you didn’t have to type in numbers,” she said. “It was easy.”

Wolfe said incorporating fractal learning into school systems will build on an already-growing interest in fractals.
“I want to fractalize this program all over this world so there are little copies of the same thing happening everywhere, inspiring people,” he said. “Albuquerque students are doing amazing, cutting-edge things that honestly no other city in the world is doing. This is very much the next generation of how we’re going to teach math and science.”