November 19, 2013

Desmos Investigation

Remember this tweet? From November 6th? Gulp...two weeks...so sorry!

Better late than never?? :) Right??

Background: We have been doing a lot tasks and investigations that form linear functions, the kiddos just don't know that's what they're called yet. They think we're just saving money, changing temperature, renting ATV's etc. They were catching on about constant rate of change and initial values, though, and we started writing equations and drawing graphs that represented our scenarios...

Then, I did this one day.

Students set up their interactive notes pages like this...


Then they paired up with a partner and got a laptop.
I gave each group the following directions:



Glorious and wonderful mathematical investigation followed...




We then debriefed as a class. 
The ideas of slope, y-intercept, slope-intercept form, horizontal lines, and vertical lines all came together wonderfully!! I even had at least one student in each class that remarked something similar to "I can't make a vertical line because it isn't a function, right?" Oh yes, dear child, you are right. 
Thank you for making this math teachers day!!!! :) 

What is your favorite use of Desmos so far???? Please share!

6 comments:

  1. This post is right on time! I was just thinking...How can I use Desmos to get my Algebra students to explore linear and exponential functions? This is a great start for my group and will help to review what they should already know about linear functions. I am working on adding a Part 2 to this to focus on exponential functions. Thanks for posting!

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  2. I have only one question. Can you share a picture of a student product after they completed the investigation?

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  3. Brick House Project, I would love to see your exponential part 2! Please send it my way whenever you have it. I didn't snap a picture of any student work; I will soon and post it.

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  4. How about email? MrsHestersMath@gmail.com Also, can I post it as an update to this post for others use?

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  5. Did you end up posting a picture of the completed Desmos project? I'd love to see what a completed one looks like.

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