James Wilson

The famous Koch Snowflake fractal is explored in detail in this product. Students can construct the fractal with paper and pencil and, if appropriate, code the Koch Snowflake in Scratch, the free programming language available from MIT. A step-by-step coding tutorial is provided. Student exercises and answers are provided for generalizing the perimeter and area of the Snowflake. Addition coding exercises are provided along with the answers.

The popular science toy, the Cartesian diver, is not only fun to play with, it also connects to at least five scientific principles and laws. • Archimedes' Principle • Pascal's Principle • Boyle's Law • Newton's First Law of Motion • Pressure as a Function of Depth in a fluid A Cartesian Diver is easily made from a 2-Liter plastic bottle and a glass eyedropper. Making a working Cartesian diver is a 100% successful activity.

Squareflake - The Simplest Fractal Students will construct the first three levels of Squareflake, a self-similar fractal, on the sides of a square and discover that even though the perimeter of the Squareflake increases without limit, the area of the Squareflake remains constant and equal to the original square.