Des-blog

Next week Team Desmos takes to San Diego for the International Society for Technology in Education conference (ISTE12). It’s our chance to share how math is fun and desmazing with desmos.com! If you’ll be at #ISTE12, be sure to visit us at booth #4543 – meet our team, learn what we have in the development pipeline, and grab one of these awesome new shirts:

Can’t attend ISTE but you REALLY want one of these cool t-shirts? Read on.

Since our calculator was released last year, we’ve received a ton of feedback from users worldwide on features they’d like to see us develop. Parametrics, more color options, tables - you name it. Well, we listened, and we’re happy to announce that many exciting updates are just around the corner!

But not so fast…

While Team Desmos is offsite at ISTE, we’re sending you on a top-secret mission to uncover new calculator features. Your Des-mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find new calculator updates and share them with us by:

• • Sending @DesmosInc a tweet with the hashtag #Desmazing
• • Posting a message on our Facebook wall, facebook.com/desmosinc
• • Snapping a screenshot of the feature and sharing it on Instagram or Pinterest with the same hashtag, #Desmazing

The first 10 people who share their #Desmazing discoveries with us will win a prize package, complete with a t-shirt of their choice.

The contest begins Sunday evening. Stay tuned for more information!

-Team Desmos

Last Tuesday we brought you the story of Bob & Kevin’s Algebra II classroom conics project. Since then we’ve received messages from teachers across the country who’ve shared how Desmos has also made learning math a more enjoyable experience for their students.

Take Stephen Fast for example, a Calculus and Trigonometry teacher at Pennsylvania State University. We first heard from Stephen back in April when he dropped by our support page to say, “Best calculator ever…finally somebody who ‘gets it!’” Thanks Steve : )

We followed up to learn more about Steve, his students, and get some feedback on how he thought we could make an even better calculator. Here’s what he had to say [answers abridged]:

Q: How have you used Desmos in your classroom?

A: I teach Calculus and Trigonometry at PSU. I often share content in and out of class and encourage my students to use it.

In Calculus I have used the calculator for the sections of the syllabus where one uses 1st and 2nd derivatives to graph functions. It is interesting to be able to see the relationship between the attributes of the graphs of the function, the first derivative, and second derivative all three superimposed.

Q: What is your students’ reaction to the calculator, and why did you choose to use Desmos with your students?

A: I find it is useful to illustrate physical and mathematical principles. The students mostly use it to check their work. It also allows us to have units of pi for axis labels. After discovering all of its features, we never looked further [than Desmos].

Q: What is your favorite Desmos feature?

A: I like to be able to share graphs. I also like the way I can “program” various graphs within the UI. That allows me to put together some very complex graphs and easily change their characteristics.

—–

Over the summer Steve plans on developing more Desmos course content for his students. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

-Team Desmos

A sample of Stephen’s graphs created at www.desmos.com - view his equations here: http://goo.gl/ZLQiZ

As we’ve said before, there’s nothing that motivates us like hearing from real users. Last week we received a note from Bob Lochel, a Philadelphia teacher who combined Desmos, a conics lesson, and his students’ creativity in an artistic Algebra II project.

Thanks to Desmos’ ability to save graphs for users to return to later, his students were able to begin their projects in the classroom, but then really let their ideas fly when they revisited their work at home, at their own pace.

Read Bob’s story below and follow him on Twitter, @bobloch

Reblogged from mathcoachblog

One of my favorite math projects takes place during our unit on conic sections in Algebra II. In the project, students are challenged to manipulate equations of conics and graph them using software to make pictures. I started with this project 12 years ago when a colleague, who has since retired, introduced me to his ideas. Back then, we used a DOS program which could only graph in black, cyan and magenta. We were happy if we saw a tree made from a hyperbola and a parabola leaf line.

The project grew new wings with a program called Math Toolkit, which allowed for finer graphing and the ability to save work. Later, we started using Print Screen to grab the graphs and move them into MS Paint. The projects grew more intricate, and many kids took off with their creativity.

This year, the Desmos online calculator brought the project to a new level. Students this year could work on their equations at home, save work, and work with their teacher during time allotted in class. Thanks to Kevin for working with his class to share their creations.

First up is Kristin. Her project moves from Desmos to Paint. Then un-needed pieces are removed, and the final product emerges.

Next up is Matt. Here are his graphs after the axes and grid were removed….

Any ideas what the finished product will be?

Did you guess yet?