So, the challenge this week was to pick a collaborative site and … collaborate! So, I chose DailyDesmos for a number of reasons. Years ago, when I was a student again for a glorious time, I fell in love with GeoGebra. For the past few years I have been preaching to my students and colleagues about the wonders of GeoGebra. I reached out to a colleague from Lawrenceville and had him come out and do a workshop for my school teammates. Fun has been had with GeoGebra. Recently, I was introduced through the wonderful blogger world to Desmos and I am in the process of falling in love with it as well. Recently, with my precalc honors class we had a triumph using Desmos. I blogged about it on Sept 10 and included this link ( https://www.desmos.com/calculator/nvinc8pwdh ) when my kiddos wrestled with creating a trig function to match the daily average temps of my old, beloved hometown of Gainesville, FL. This morning I dove in and took on challenge 201a ( http://dailydesmos.com/2013/09/23/daily-desmos-201a-advanced/ ) which was presented by the awesome Michael Fenton. Here is my crack at a solution to that one ( https://www.desmos.com/calculator/zmuvzpmvti ) and it is probably not as dynamic as it could be. I still need to learn about leaving traces behind rather than simply having the slider generated graph be new at each stage. I am imagining a sort of spirograph and I am certain that Desmos can handle that. I still love my GeoGebra – especially for individually rescaling axes as I go – but I am finding room in my heart for Desmos as well. As my school inches toward greater tech integration, I am seeing a day where my students would be spending time in class (on their own or in their pods) where they are tackling these daily challenges now and again. I am also dreaming of a time when I feel that I have time and energy on a regular basis to tackle these challenges.
I have thoughts about these graphs that I need to organize and make coherent. Another post for another day.
I love Desmos just for throwing a quick graph up on the board to talk about, but I’ve never tried one of their daily challenges. It looks like something that would be fun for students to try, although finding the time to do it on a regular basis might be challenging. I sure know what you mean about time and energy…
Great post! If you ever figure out the secret to having time and energy on a regular basis to tackle the Daily Desmos challenges, please let me know. I too am seeking the elixir of infinite wakefulness and attention. 🙂
– Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf)
I’ll make sure to notify you as soon as I solve this seemingly intractable problem. Maybe the secret is to figure out how to survive without sleep.
I’ve used Desmos before, but like Elizabeth, haven’t delved into the daily challenges. You’re another educator that’s highlighted the positives of the challenges. Maybe I need to take a second look at that specific resource. I also need to check out GeoGebra. I keep on hearing enthusiastic statements about how teachers are using GeoGebra in their classroom. I’ll have to carve out some time to review these resources. Thanks for the post and for joining the #MTBoS learning community.
GeoGebra is a lovely free resource. It looks and feels like Geometer’s Sketchpad but I find it to be more intuitive. There is also a great support community for this program.
I like the idea of integrating daily challenges as a way to let students exhibit standards mastery or hone their skills.