With great enthusiasm and interest, interested students immersed themselves in the fascinating world of mathematical fractals during a project week at the University of Trier in the second week of the summer holidays. The project week was led by MEd student Sascha Paulus, who is working on the topic of fractals and their didactic implementation in schools as part of his master's thesis.
Students from the 11th grade onwards were able to participate in the project week, with participation being completely voluntary. The project week was carried out with five participants, some of whom had previously attended the math circle, an offering from the mathematics department for particularly gifted and interested students.
During the 15 hours of the project week, the participants learned what fractals are, where they can be found, how they are created, and finally, what mathematical concepts lie behind them. To this end, various fractals were examined and analyzed at the beginning, a discovery tour was conducted in the university park, and cool pop-up cards were made. The theory behind the creation of fractals was put into practice using a programming environment before the group delved into the heart of fractals – the Hausdorff dimension. The group worked repeatedly in small groups in the form of station work, using dynamic geometry software, but also working in the traditional way on the blackboard to work through complex theoretical content together. On the last day of the project week, the participants had the opportunity to review everything they had learned by presenting their individually created project folders in short presentations, among other things.
It was nice to see how much fun everyone involved had during this week with the didactically skillfully prepared topic. All of the students reported that they felt they had learned something important and found the project week to be varied and exciting.
Mr. Paulus also had fun and was delighted with the contributions of all participants to the success of the project week. He will use and evaluate the results and experiences in a master's thesis with Professor Marheineke.
For anyone who wants to continue their mathematical journey or start one, the Math Circle at the University of Trier offers the perfect opportunity to delve deeper into the exciting world of mathematics and look beyond the boundaries of school mathematics. Further information can be found at www.math.uni-trier.de/~devries/Mathezirkel/.
Prof. Dr. Sven de Vries
Mathematics