Teaching Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos for Beginners

We describe a course in Nonlinear Dynamics for undergraduate students of the first years of Chemical Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Computer Sciences. An extensive use of computational tools, the internet and laboratory experiments are key ingredients of the course. Even though their previous background in physics and mathematics might be limited, our experience shows that an appropriate selection of the contents with the use of some conceptual introductory ideas and multimedia techniques are an excellent way to introduce Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos for beginners. The active participation of the students and the extraordinary interest arisen in them has been surprising.