CL Byte #3: Give Card Sort Feedback

In this video I talk through how to use Desmos Computation Layer to give students feedback about the accuracy of their card sort. Here is the Desmos Activity Builder I used in this video. Enjoy!

 

CL Byte #2: Giving Feedback on Table Entries

In this video I talk through how to use Desmos Computation Layer to verify if the values entered in a table are correct and then give feedback. Here is the Desmos Activity Builder I used in this video. Enjoy!

CL Byte: CL note with input

This year I facilitated a Desmos Computation Layer PLC for teachers in my district. It has been a great opportunity to learn with and from my colleagues as we develop our CL skills! To help teachers learn more about CL, I am curating a collection of CL things and also plan to create a series of short tutorials for various CL elements. These ‘CL Bytes’ are meant to be bite-sized tutorials for those who may not have any formal programming experience from the perspective of someone who is trying to make sense of it all herself. 🙂 So here you go, CL Byte #1.

In this video I talk through how to use Desmos Computation Layer to create a CL note that changes based on an input. Here is the Desmos Activity Builder I used in this video. Enjoy!

 

Desmos Snowglobes

My Algebra 2 students have been studying function transformations. To give them an opportunity to apply their learning, we are creating Desmos Snowglobes!

The inspiration came from a tweet by Joanna Stevens and I created this activity based on a Desmos Activity by Julie Reulbach. In Desmos Snowglobes, students start off with some tutorials about circles, ellipses, and some Desmos features such as domain/range restrictions and using inequalities to color graphs. After completing the tutorials, students view some Desmos snowglobes created by others before using the Desmos graphing calculator to create their own. Please visit student.desmos.com and use code SA974 if you’d like to try this activity as a student! If you’d like to use this activity with your students, just click “Create Class Code” to get started.

If you would like help finding/creating a Desmos Activity for a particular topic or using a Desmos Activity with your own students, let me know! I am happy to help you plan a lesson, teach a model lesson, or co-teach a lesson with you. 🙂

What I Love About the Desmos Graphing Calculator

Desmos is a free online graphing calculator tool that is available through any web browser or as an app for iPad or mobile devices. It has most of the functionality of a TI with some added features that I love.

• Desmos is INTUITIVE: The Desmos graphing calculator is very user-friendly and intuitive. There aren’t many special commands to learn or to find buried within menus, like on some graphing calculators. If you want to trace a graph there is no special button, just click and hold on the graph to see the coordinates.
• Desmos TABLES: Desmos supports function notation, and tables link to function values. Type in the x-values you want, and see them appear on the graph.

• Desmos SLIDERS: Sliders are my absolute favorite feature! Sliders allow me and my students to easily see how a parameter affects a graph. It takes just seconds to build an interactive demonstration for your classroom! Visit learn.desmos.com/sliders to view a quick video tutorial or to take an interactive tour. 

Sliders are also a great way to animate graphs, which can be used to model a situation over time. I used sliders to create this animated Ferris wheel to model the distance of the rider from the ground over time.

• Desmos lets me SAVE & SHARE: Users can work on a problem, save their work, and share it with others. That means you can create a graph and then share the link with your students for them to access it. They can save their work and share it with you, or go back to their work later to add to it or revise. It also means that teachers can share graphs with each other instead of reinventing the (Ferris) wheel!

 

If you would like to learn more about the Desmos graphing calculator, please visit learn.desmos.com/calculator.

I’m lovin’ Desmos Classroom Activities!

I began using the Desmos graphing calculator with my students at Maryknoll in 2012 and have LOVED it, but I didn’t really explore the Desmos Classroom Activities in-depth until this year. It all began at our Northshore School District Summer Institute this past August with Dan Meyer when he had us do the Central Park activity. I was hooked.

At a district PD session last week, teachers started off with a quick Desmos graphing calculator overview and learned how to create sliders. Next we explored the iPhone 6s Opening Weekend Sales activity to see an example of a task that was adapted using the Desmos Activity Builder, and we read Dan Meyer’s post, Desmosify Your Worksheet. Then teachers choose a lesson of their own and turned it into a Desmos Classroom Activity. Here are a few examples:

• Graphing in Slope-Intercept Form!
• Absolute Value Graphs
• Conic Section Exploration (this one is mine 🙂 )

Teachers used these activities with students this week and were very happy with the results. One of the reported advantages was that graph windows are preset for students so they could focus on the mathematical concepts being studied rather than getting sidetracked by technical issues.

The sliders also made exploration MUCH easier. In the past, using these lessons with a standard handheld graphing calculator meant that students had to enter several equations to explore the effect a coefficient has on the graph. Now the sliders allow a student to view numerous graphs instantly.

If you haven’t yet explored the Desmos Classroom Activities or tried out the Activity Builder for yourself, I highly encourage you to do so!