Exploring Desmos

Jackie, Melissa, Tiffany, Traci ,Paul, David H. The issue: The basic issue is that students need to use technology in the math classroom. Not every student has access to a graphing calculator, which typically costs about $100. Our findings: I found a great basic tutorial to help anyone navigate through some basics (Traci). Desmos Tutorial Here is the homepage for support. It seems to start with the basics and has other sections dedicated to more advanced users. (Jackie) Desmos Support http://support.desmos.com/home Spent some time playing with functional carnival. This would be a great project in Algebra 1 to get students to better understand functions and what a location/time function means. Desmos blog shows a good video to describe it, but I thought playing with it was the best. They even have it set up so that you can create a class and see everyones graphs in real-time so you know which students to work with or know which graphs to present for a class discussion. https://class.desmos.com/carnival) (Tiffany) The Desman project is a cool one too where students are to make a face with parabolas and lines. Its a good way to get them to restrict domain and range and to learn how to create the equations. I created a face and it was really fun! I would love to try this when my class gets to quadratics to help them have fun seeing how changing the expression changes their graphs. Go here to use the student view (https://class.desmos.com/desman/student/demo) (Tiffany) I agree, I like the Desman project. (Melissa) Here is a great Desman picture with high level mathematical equations Desman (Traci) There was also a post on using demos to teach graphing for factoring. I had never seen this or thought of it, but since Im teaching factoring later this year, I may try it to get students to see a more graphical way to think about it! (Tiffany) Interesting, do they do this by graphing the equation and finding the zeros or do they graph two equations and find the intersection? For example y , or y - and y (Traci) Traci - they graph to find the 0s. It doesnt seem that it would actually help them factor, but rather help them understand conceptually what factoring means. (Tiffany)

Using desmos to create art is a good practice when teaching conic sections in Algebra II. We are going to get into this soon in my class so I am not sure if it fits in 100% but I think so! See blog at http://mathcoachblog.com/2012/06/06/channeling-creativity-in-algebra-2/ for example. I do not like how the students take the graph into the Paint program to clean it up, I feel that is unnecessary. I found a reflection from another teacher at http://pumphreysmath.wordpress.com/category/algebra-ii/ One more with a rubric at http://pumphreysmath.wordpress.com/category/algebra-ii/ (Melissa) I really like this project idea. Students really show their understanding of conic sections (and Desmos!). I see where you are coming from regarding the Paint program. I am thinking that some students may really benefit from seeing the final product (and was helpful to me for the Batman e ample.) Also, this is a great extension to the Desman project. (Jackie) Desmos also has other applications for understanding relationships between variables. In physics there are so many relationships that are often hard for students to visualize. However, Desmos has created functions whose variables can be adjusted which shows the relationship between these components. Here are a few. (Paul) Trajectory of a Projectile Acceleration vs. Applied Force Impulse and Momentum You can also make your own created functions by adding letters as variables, then adding sliders so that you can see what happens as you change each variable. This can be used to demonstrate ideas such as what m and b represent in y=mx+b. (Slope and y-intercept, respectively) Additionally, you could have students explore this themselves, or expand it to more complex functions, i.e. what happens when you manipulate the exponents in y=(x^n)*(b^c)? (David) Our plan: Desmos: Online graphing calculator After initially looking at Function Carnival, and other polished creations we were a bit overwhelmed in how to create this type of application. We decided to start at the beginning with just exploring the calculator and learning the basics. We have watched several online videos on YouTube instructing us how to perform basic operations, graph equations, create sliders and even insert pictures as the background. Our group created a this google doc to share information we have found including: Function Carnival, Desman, tutorials, and a factoring lesson. After our initial exploration we all think we are able to include Desmos in a lesson plans for both demonstration use and student consumption.