Spreading Some Desmos Love

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17 years.  That is how long I have been teaching for.  When, I think back to how I learned math, how I taught math, and now how I currently teach and think about math there are vast differences.  While at home in Waukesha, Wisconsin over Thanksgiving I found this gem inside my mom’s cabinet. I remember spending lots of time punching away on this electronic tool.  I then realized that my love of doing math, started from a very young age! When I went high school I had a wonderful teacher, Ms. Merkert, who at the time also worked for TI-Graphing calculators.  We beta-tested many TI-Calculators prior to them being marketed and I was amazed at the functionality of them. Even through college I was a strong advocate for technology as a tool and presented at a T^3 conference my senior year.  Fast forward to 6 years ago, when I was introduced to Desmos — and my world of mathematics has forever been changed!

If you have never been introduced to Desmos, let me give you a very short bit of background.  The flagship of the company is the graphing calculator which is FREE and accessible from many different devices.  Besides this, they also have a 4-function and scientific calculator that are also free.  But, this is only one side of the Desmos platform.  They also have an Activities site and they have a geometry tool.   

Part of the beauty of using Desmos is the connections that can be seen immediately.  For instance, when I am graphing an equation of the line, I can type the equation and see the line show up on the same screen.  As I modify the equation, I can also see how the graph changes. This connection between the symbolic and visual representation makes the learning so much more understandable.  All 3 types of calculators are intuitive to students and they pick up the inner-workings of them quite easily.
Of interest to some math teachers was the announcement this fall from NWEA, that the Desmos scientific calculator and the 4-function calculator will now be the embedded calculator on the NWEA MAP Growth assessments.  If you want more information about this be sure to check out this link from NWEA.  If you have never played around with the scientific calculator, I would be sure to check out the calculator, allow your students time to experience it and how it works, and if you are looking to learn more about it, check out the site www.learn.desmos.com.

A few things to note about the scientific calculator:

  • Division automatically works like a fraction
  • To obtain a negative value, use the minus (-) sign
  • If you need a mixed number like 1 and ½ you need a space between the whole number and the fraction
  • There is an “ans” button that will recall the answer from the previous entry
  • The calculator can calculate the mean of a list

The flip side of the calculator portion of Desmos is the teacher activities page.  There are hundreds of activities for teachers to use with students. If you know nothing about this tool, visit www.learn.desmos.com or if you live close to the metro, let me know and I would love to meet up with you and explore Desmos together.

My favorite “new-ish” type of activity that Desmos has started to create more of, are activities that end with what is called a “Challenge Creator”.  Challenge creator, allows students to create their own “problem”, similar to what has been going on in the activity, prove that their problem works and is correct, and submit it to a class gallery.  Then, once in the gallery, students can solve each other’s submissions. As a teacher I was always looking for ways to increase creativity, student discourse, and buy-in. Challenge creator seems to hit each of these for myself and the students I have worked with.  Here are a few different activities that have the challenge creator embedded into them.

Exploring Triangle Area w/Geoboards Parabola Slalom

Land the Plane Functions and their Derivatives

Match my Exponential  Adding Whole Numbers

If you are looking for more, go to www.teacher.desmos.com and search for challenge creator.  Try one out with your students and let us know how it goes.  Tweet pictures to @mctm_mn or post to our Minnesota Council of Mathematics Teachers Facebook Page.  We would love to hear from you!

Jessica Breur

Mounds View Schools

Middle School Instructional Coach

Desmos Certified Presenter