Best Desmos Conics Projects of 2022 - 2023

 

I'm finally getting around to posting these projects! Here is the link to the assignment and past projects.

Unit Circle Project 2022-2023

 Here are the best projects from 2023 along with the instructions and links to prior years.

Desmos Alternate Assessment Project 2021 Conics and Parent Functions

One of my favorite projects to do with my Honors Algebra 2 students is the Desmos alternate assessment that brings together everything students learned in the first semester. Students know how to graph all of the parent functions and conics, and their task was to create a drawing on Desmos that puts it all together. I love this project because it incorporates student identities and interests, which is essential according to Self-Determination Theory and Culturally Responsive Teaching. This year, I shared all projects in a Padlet so that students could easily see everyone else's. Students had to use their knowledge of domain and range to limit the functions and also had to think about how to create the perfect size and shape by, for example, figuring out the center, "a," and "b" for an ellipse. Many incorporated different colors and animations. 

Here are some of my favorites this year:

Here is the Padlet of all of the projects.

Here are my students' 2020 projects, 2019 projects, and 2018 projects. Here is the project outline, based on a project by Mr. Sumerton. If you do incorporate this project, please be sure to include an Honor statement that attests to the fact that students have not copied any of the equations or pictures. I am blown away by the number of projects I see online posted by their teachers that are blatantly copied. Please be aware of this; if there is no statement or discussion about this, students may be tempted to take the easy way out. The critical part of this activity is each individual's unique learning opportunity to create something from scratch using math. They are so proud of themselves! As they should be!!

Desmos Conics projects 2020 with Animation and Short Video Explanations for Students including how to change colors

Well, some good came from 2020 this year, and that is my student Desmos projects. I've posted my students' conics project in 2019 and 2018, but what turned out great this year was that they couldn't be printed, so students actually worked more on discovering animations. Below are some of the best ones. But first the rules...Students must have at least one ellipse, circle, parabola, hyperbola, and another parent function as a minimum. 

What did students learn/solidify? The student was able to:

• Plan a unique design from start to finish using what they learned about graphs in an Algebra 2 Honors class
• Predict shapes and locations based on the transformations of the graphs we learned in class
• Generalize what they have learned about transformations on graphs to what they haven't yet learned, such as y=asinbx + c.
• Construct pictures by analyzing and synthesizing their own piecewise shapes 
• Illustrate knowledge of domain and range by limiting their graphs 
• Demonstrate knowledge of inequalities through shading and domain and range restrictions

For some more than others:

• Infer from examples of how to apply animation 
• Explain how to animate and use shading arrangements (see student video links at the end)

Twin artists first drew their concepts and then "desmofied" them. 

The shoes had 199 lines of equations and the skater had 378 lines of equations/points.

Some animations, with the help of Twitter!

From @quantgal67: Okay, I was doing something similar, trying to make water move. So I played around with this and here is a link to a little how-to video and a @Desmos graph:
video:https://t.co/nUQK998QPK
desmos: https://t.co/DXpCtRa6Kj

— Laurie Hailer, M.A., M.Ed. (@quantgal67) December 13, 2020

This student recreated a painting of a bird that she did. The first picture is the overlay and the second picture is without it. 

Finally, here are some short student-made videos that you may want to use for your classes.

• Student made video on how to animate in the shape of absolute value.
• Student made video on how to arrange order of shading on Desmos (so one object pops in front of another) 
• Student made video on how to shade between two graphs
• Student made video on how to rotate an ellipse
  
• Student made video on how to add different colors to DESMOS
  

 

How I'm Organizing My Class Notes for Distance Learning

I am just finishing my first year as an Applied Learning Sciences Ed.D. candidate at the University of Miami. For my course, Design for Workplace Related Learning, I designed a 3-day professional development on the transitioning to distance learning, specifically for math teachers entitled Finding the Remote Control in the Math Classroom. After hours of research, getting Google level 2 certification, and meeting with a focus group of math teachers from my school who told me what they needed, I curated three days of professional development on the following objectives (note, if it's in italics, it means it's specific to math teachers):

Math teachers should be able to:

o   In Google Classroom, create a class template, add topics, schedule announcements to be used in the math classroom.

o   Create a Jamboard, Whiteboard.fi  and Padlet assignment for math collaboration

o   Create a math quiz using Google Forms and Equatio to be used on the first day of class for a check for understanding.

o   Use the laptop to type or speak an annotation (using mote) without error.

o   Scan multiple documents and upload them as one PDF to Google Classroom using the Notes App so that homework and quizzes can be uploaded with one document only for ease of math grading.

o   Annotate a “math quiz” using the iPad and Apple pencil and return it to a “student” without error.

o   Upload a video in EdPuzzle and include three questions to check for understanding, incorporating the math feature in at least one.

o   Create a Bitmoji virtual classroom with at least one interactive activity relating to math.

o   Choose one of the building relationship activities from this choiceboard and tailor it specifically to the learner’s own classroom and post it in Google Classroom for the first week of school.

o   Create a digital choice board for students that includes at least four virtual activities in math.

Now, after doing all this research and using an instructional systems design (ISD) approach to create professional development for my teachers, it was time for me to put my money where my mouth is. How was I going to design my notes for my students who are all starting remotely?

In comes Slidesmania. You have to know I've created my notes twice already for just the first day...thinking about how to open, creating a bitmoji classroom to mimic my exact in person classroom, thinking about UDL, meeting with our learning specialist, etc., etc., but these digital notebooks using Google Slides won out anything else I've researched. 

Why? Look how cool it is! 

Note that the first page of notes is my bitmoji classroom, with a plexer puzzle that will be on the board each day as well as the topic. This will be on the screen as students sign in, just as if they are walking into class. 

Also, I've shown my first 24 pages of notes...I can add to them as I want, can give students a PDF version with links and slides hidden that they are not ready for so that they can print or use on Notability, if they have it. 

What are you doing that will make Distance Learning organized for your students? Please share in the comments below!

Unit Circle Projects 2020, Quarantine Edition!

Every year, my students create a unit circle project. It's all described here, in a previous blog post with lots of links to former projects as well. However, this year, due to COVID-19, the rules for the project was not to buy anything for the project itself (i.e., posterboard, markers, etc.), but to ONLY use what you have around the house. The results were amazing. I also normally don't allow baking for the projects, but this year, that was fine...and boy did I get some delicious looking projects! I clearly I have some artistic and creative students!

Here they are:

This student made the pizza from scratch!

The Unit Volcano "China Quarantine Edition" (my student is back in China.)

Student made unit circle through Mine Craft

Student programmed unit circle app through Khan Academy

Disclaimer: The projects below were from first semester and were NOT done during Quarantine...but I was saving these pictures to post all at the same time: 

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Which one(s) are your favorite?