Newswise — Benoit Mandelbrot, Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale and the mathematician who sparked for worldwide interest in fractal geometry, will speak at Teachers College, Columbia University on April 21, 2005 in Horace Mann Auditorium from 5 to 7 p.m. Mandelbrot, who demonstrated the importance of fractals in both mathematics and nature, will discuss how virtual manipulatives (which he also pioneered) can be used to incorporate fractal theory into the K-12 math curriculum. Manipulatives, such as blocks, rods, bean sticks, etc., are commonly used in mathematics education to demonstrate math theory. In recent years, a number of websites have been developed that contain "virtual" versions of some of these manipulatives.
Mandelbrot will speak at the invitation of Dr. John Black, Professor of Computing and Education, who, with his students, has been studying sample lesson plans based on these virtual manipulatives for the last three years. Black's group is conducting a study on the Young McDonald's Farm project at the Rutgers University EcoComplex in Columbus, New Jersey, sponsored by Ocean of Know, a not-for-profit organization focusing on distance learning technology and curricula. The project involves students from P.S. 159 and Aquinas High School in the Bronx, who, through distance learning technologies on their computers in their Bronx classrooms, tend crops and run a fish farm through remote control sensors and robots. They are able to observe conditions at the farm in real time and to direct robots to perform many of the routine chores necessary to bring in a crop. In October, they travel to the farm to harvest what they have grown.
Benoit Mandelbrot Biographical Information
Mandelbrot studied at at the École Polytechnique, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, and then, under the sponsorship of the eminent mathematics professor John von Neumann, worked at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, during the 1940s and 1950s. He was subsequently an IBM Fellow at the Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York; Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, Professor of Engineering at Yale University, and Professor of Physiology at Einstein College of Medicine, exploring a vast range of scientific terrain. Through it all, fractals have been the common thread. Mandelbrot first elaborated his ideas in his 1975 book, Les objets fracts, forn, hazard et dimension, and more fully seven years later in The fractal geometry of nature. Working with information from a 1918 paper by the famous mathematician Gaston Julia and using computer graphics at IBM's Watson Research Center, Mandelbrot was able to create various elaborate fractals. In doing so, he developed new mathematical ideas and some of the first computer programs used to print graphics. With its informal and passionate tone, emphasis on visual and geometric intuition and use of illustrations, The Fractal Geometry of Nature sparked a widespread popular interest in fractals and contributed to chaos theory and other new fields of science.Mandelbrot went on to use fractals to model many natural phenomena, including the shape of coastlines and river basins; the structure of plants, blood vessels and lungs; the clustering of galaxies; and stock market prices.
Among his numerous honors and prizes, Mandelbrot was awarded the Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1985, and the following year the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Signal and Eminent Service in Science.
Teachers College
Teachers College is the largest graduate school of education in the nation. Teachers College is affiliated with Columbia University, but it is legally and financially independent. The editors of U.S. News and World Report have ranked Teachers College as one of the leading graduate schools of education in the country. For more information, please visit the college's Web site at http://www.tc.columbia.edu.
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