Fractals? I had never heard of fractals until I was in my mathemathics education classes here at UGA. Everyone was shocked. I wish that I had been at least exposed to fractals when I was in high school. Fractals are beautiful, fun aspects of mathematics. Mixing art with mathematics gives fractal geometry the potential to change the negative mentality students' have with mathematics. When a student is interested and intrigued, he/she becomes motivated. As educators, we should use any means possible to motivate our students to want to learn about mathematics. An interesting way of introducing fractals to high school students, or any students for that matter, is to talk about how fractals model what we witness in nature. For example,

* Coastlines

* Mountains

* Clouds

* Trees

* Leaves

Also, I was fascinated to find that fractals have modeled soil erosion, the stock market, and have been used to analyze seismic patterns.