This page is a companion to the Exploring Patterns in Nature Curriculum Guides (see related pages) developed by the Center for Polymer Studies. It represents several basic Java Applets which illustrate basic concepts in statistical mechanics and fractals. Note that these programs do not necessarily match the software instructions in our curriculum guides. The guides were written to correspond to standalone software developed in the early 1990s. Since Apple Macintosh computers were most popular in schools at the time, we developed for that platform. Those programs were all Mac System 7 compatible and obviously are not OS X compatible. We have plans to breathe new life into these programs and curriculum.

Related Pages:

• Exploring Patterns in Nature Curriculum Guides
• Patterns in Nature Student Activity Guides developed by teachers attending our "Patterns in Nature" workshops

Unit 1: Monte Carlo Estimation of Pi

Unit 2: Can You Beat Randomness?

Unit 3: One-Dimensional Random Walk

Unit 4: Two-Dimensional Random Walk

Unit 5: The Anthill and Molecular Motion

Unit 6: Diffusion Limited Aggregation

Unit 7: The Self-Avoiding Walk

Unit 8: Fractal Coastlines

Unit 9: Forest Fires and Percolation

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. MDR-8955041, ESI-9353500, and DUE-9555194. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.