4/29/08
Craig Kutil
On April 25 th
-26 th
I attended the 12 th
Annual Recreational Mathematics Conference hosted by The California Mathematics Council of Community Colleges in Stateline,
Nevada near Tahoe. I attended several interesting talks involving game theory and the mathematics of tying knots and folding paper. On the 26 th
I gave a talk on fractals, primarily focusing on their dimension, perimeter, area, and volume. At least 40 people attended my presentation, and were so into the subject matter that we went 20 minutes overtime. The experience was quite different than what I expected. The attendees were also community college mathematics instructors, and they were very enthusiastic about learning about the fractals. I have never taught mathematics to such a large audience, where everyone was really interested in learning what I had to say – they weren’t doing it to satisfy a requirement for a degree, etc. After the presentation I had several people stay and ask me questions, including a couple from Russia who asked about my graduate thesis, too. Overall, I had a wonderful experience, and I gained a level of confidence in my own teaching abilities.