Topic: Chaos/Computers Institute

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Name: Paul Grobstein
Username: pgrobste@serendip.brynmawr.edu
Subject: Welcome
Date: Fri Jul 25 17:49:25 EDT 1997
Comments:
Serendip is delighted to have you here.

Name: Nick & Esther
Username: chaos2@brynmawr.edu
Subject: chaos class lesson plan
Date: Tue Jul 29 15:49:07 EDT 1997
Comments:
As of Tuesday, July 29, Esther Darbouze and Nicholas Cirulli are still in the process of generating ideas for a lesson plan. We have talked about the Geometry/Rugs Lesson,newly released program from Swarthmore, and are interested in presenting a lesson involving patterns and symmetry.

Name: jenny kim
Username:
Subject: lesson plan
Date: Tue Jul 29 15:49:55 EDT 1997
Comments:
I think I would like to do a general introduction to dynamical systems. I would give them the copies of the triangles and have them color the different triangles as we did in class. I would have them work in cooperative learning groups. Then we would begin to discuss what a fractal is by having them explain how each triangle is a smaller version of the bigger triangle. I would incorporate fractions and similar triangles into the lesson plan.

Name: maceo
Username: chaos14@brynmawr.edu.
Subject: maceo's lesson plan
Date: Tue Jul 29 15:49:57 EDT 1997
Comments:
there may be a use for models of chaos to show randomness, unpredictability, and the spreading of generating points in our biosphere and ecosystem.

Name: Luci Ryan
Username: chaos15@brynmawr.edu
Subject: lesson plan
Date: Tue Jul 29 15:54:58 EDT 1997
Comments:
My lesson plan will provide the students with an introduction to iterations using the Sierpinski triangle.

Name: Abram Cushner
Username: acushner@netreach.net
Subject: Lesson Plans
Date: Tue Jul 29 22:28:21 EDT 1997
Comments:
I am most probably going to do something like Maceo, but I plan to have more of a focus. My topic will be forest fires and how controlled burning periodically will make the possiblity of a really bad forest fire during the dry season alot less likely. I will start explaining how a model of a forest fire can be created using a set of rules, a map and a random number generater. Then I will have the students create a model of a forest fire with a 50% possibity of a jump from one burning tree to another. We will then compare one students model to another students model, stating similarities and discussing how alike this is to a real forrest fire. The next day we will discuss a season in the forest and how debris will build up on the forest floor. With this increase in fuel for the forest fire we will discuss how does this affect the probrabilty of fire jump? Then the students will make the model. Last day we then look at the possibilty of cleaning the forrest floor using controlled burning and then we would discuss how controlled burning affects the probabilty of fire jump to accure during an unplaned fire that could be started by a camper. After we have agreed on a probabilty the students would make the model. And finally we would look a all three models comparing the fires with respect to intensity and probability of fire jump. Hopefully the students will pick up on the idea of one of the reasons for controlled burning as well as learning something about modeling.

Name: JJ and Alan
Username: Chaos8@brynmawr.edu,Chaos5@brynmawr.edu
Subject: practice lesson:AIDS
Date: Wed Jul 30 15:19:30 EDT 1997
Comments:
Joan Johnston, a Biology teacher at Northeast HS, and Alan Cushner, a Math teacher and Dean of students at Lincoln HS, have teamed up to present a lesson plan about the early history of the transmission of the AIDS virus. Basically, we shall be generating models of natural phenomena. Criteria used will include factors involved in increasing/decreasing the disease' trans- mission. Student objectives: -students will: -Develop a mathematical model of a real life situation. -Apply random numbers and percentages to the model. -Appreciate dangers involving a virulent disease. Joan & Alan

Name: Paul Grobstein
Username: pgrobste@brynmawr.edu
Subject: For Abram (and others)
Date: Wed Jul 30 16:23:53 EDT 1997
Comments:
The forest fire project made me think of a very good general purpose modelling package freely available and intended for classroom use (at least later middle school and high school). StarLogo was developed by people at the MIT Media lab as a way to give kids (of all ages) experience in modelling distributed systems. It comes with several illustrative models (including one of forest fires, which made me think of it, and others closely related to epidemiology, the Game of Life, etc). The package gives one models to use as they come, with an easy capacity to vary parameters and "see what happens". It also provides teachers and/or students, with a little extra effort, with the wherewithal to modify the models, and, with a little more effort, to make entirely new models on one's own. Clicking on Starlogo above should take you to a website from which you can download the program (which runs on Mac's; do this from a computer you want to use the program on). That site also has information about people using the program, and about a quite good book, Turtles, Termites, and Traffic James, by Mitchel Resnick (MIT Press, 1994; paperback, 1997), one of the TurtleLogo developers, describing his own experiences using the program.

Name: Paul Grobstein
Username: pgrobste@serendip.brynmawr.edu
Subject: For Allan (and others)
Date: Fri Aug 1 09:35:19 EDT 1997
Comments:
Exciting contributions to Serendip (your lesson plans). Pin hole cameras aren't so different from how the eye works, and so one might go from that to Seeing more than your eye does and Tricks of the Eye, Wisdom of the Brain.

Name: Frederic Monfet
Username: alfred28@hotmail.com
Subject: Question????
Date: Sun Mar 8 14:57:17 EST 1998
Comments:
I have a question in my mind. I don`t understand why they say that fractal is what is left behing a chaotic process. As we know, fractals are very ordered thing and chaos is total disordered. I`m sure I understand the connection between chaos and fractals.

Name: anonymous
Username:
Subject:
Date: Tue Jun 30 11:17:32 EDT 1998
Comments:

Name: Pee Girl
Username: Pee Girl
Subject: thanks for your site !
Date: Sat Jun 21 09:41:02 EDT 2003
Comments:
thanks for your site !

Name: Lolita
Username: Lolita
Subject: Greetings from Paris,how are you?
Date: Mon Jun 23 22:06:44 EDT 2003
Comments:
Greetings from Paris,how are you?

Name: Female Sperm
Username: Female Sperm
Subject: can you suggest book about this?
Date: Wed Jul 9 01:22:13 EDT 2003
Comments:
can you suggest book about this?

Name: anonymous
Username:
Subject:
Date: Thu Oct 6 22:34:30 EDT 2005
Comments: