Chaos is a favorite topic of mine for a number of reasons: its development is recent and current research questions aren't too far removed from everyday experiences; a wide range of mathematics is used (from algebra to calculus to real analysis and beyond); the associated fractals are beautiful; and the philosophical content is interesting. This is a topic that can genuinely excite a variety of people. In one month a few years back, I gave a fractal talk to my daughter's third grade class, gave a chaos talk to a local high school group, used chaos as the topic in Roanoke College's Math Senior Seminar, gave a chaos talk at the regional Mathematical Association of America conference and gave a lunch talk on chaos to the Roanoke College faculty. All of these groups found chaos accessible and interesting . Below are some basic statements about chaos theory. You can follow the links to get more detail about each one, or visit one of the listed web sites.