A Great Conics Project Using #Desmos

I have assigned conic picture projects wayyyy before Desmos. My students did them by hand in the old days, and even on TI-83's (not easy) after that. This is the first time I ever did the project using Desmos, and it was a huge success. My students exceeded my expectations. Here is the project, some of which I got Mr. Sumerton.


Not only did students make great pictures, they did some pretty awesome math in the intersection part. And they told me that they really understood translating and conics so much better! Here are some pictures of their work.

What was even cooler is that some learned about trig curves and polar curves and how to rotate conics, even though they did not learn that in class.

And my other students, who saw the projects on display, were so impressed with their work! They wanted to know how the graphs were made, etc.

Above are parts of projects--I didn't take every picture because it would have been a lot.

Below is one full project, with the graphs made on Desmos colored in, the equations, and the points of intersection shown on Desmos and done algebraically. 

And here is a close-up of one student's intersection work. 

*Note: if you see any of these projects already online, please let me know, as we have a strict honor code on plagiarism. In addition, my students worked super hard on their projects and have gotten very upset when they see their projects copied online after I showcase their work on this blog. Let's keep sharing ideas and encouraging students to come up with their own  :)