So I think many people have been asking for this feature on @Desmos activities for a while and I don't think it could have better timing. Being able to give direct feedback to students right in the activity is the perfect thing needed right now as we are out from our schools. Keep in mind, ideally, it would always be better to be able to talk to students directly while doing an activity with your students but given the situation we are in, this is a nice addition.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/Desmos/status/1242283303970861056
Resource LinksTonight, we're rolling out a beta version of our distance teachers' #1 request:— Desmos.com (@Desmos) March 24, 2020
✨ WRITTEN ✨ FEEDBACK ✨ IN ✨ ACTIVITIES ✨
Turn it on at https://t.co/6u3MZaJe8E.
And see how it works right here. 👇 pic.twitter.com/oblsWwQjtH
If you like Skyscraper puzzles then check out these two resources. Firstly @MarkChubb3 has created some new ones that you can download from his site. And as well, this Brain Basher's site has randomly generated ones that you can download as well. Now of course, you could do these by just placing the numbers 1-4 in each row and column so there are no repeats in either but it's way more fun to actually "build" the skyscrapers with snapcubes or legos.Curriculum Tags: All
https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2020/03/22/skyscraper-puzzles-printable-package/
https://www.brainbashers.com/skyscrapers.asp
I have been finishing up and creating some new @Desmos activities to help with the distance learning dilemma. A lot of the new ones I have been creating are self checking so that students know how they did right away. These two are for adding and subtracting fractions and they both are organized in a progression of simple to more complex questions with visual and numerical representations. And both end with a Challenge Creator for students to create their own questions for the rest of the class to do.Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5c93cccc84b46a0cafcc679d
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5c78137e58f4090c399f4a5a
I also created a quick activity that deals with composite areas created with rectangles. Students see areas in the contexts of parking lots, roofs, parks and farms and then have a Challenge Creator where they can create their own composite area for the rest of the class to solve.Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5e14cbb238612b178ae126c9
Finally I created a beginning fractions activity that is rooted in pattern blocks. Students have to start by saying how much of each shape is made of each shape or colour. Answers start as whole numbers and then move to fractions. Then the questions become more challenging. All of the slides are self checking.Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5e7b53690da10b6877aacb2d
Opinion Links
Everyone is talking about assessment now. That is, how do I assess in a distance learning model? Though this post is from a month ago (before our current situation), I love the suggestion of allowing for students to choose the difficulty of questions they do on an assessment.Curriculum Tags: All
http://modelthelearning.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-art-of-questioning-on-math.html
Video Links
And seeing as I have been making a lot of self checking activities. And so with that in mind I have made a collection of all of the activities that have that self checking feature. But on top of that I have created a two slide template so that if you wanted to create your own self checking activity you could. And to help out, I created a video on how you could do that. Now I know that many of these activities only ask surface and basic questions but sometimes we need our kids to practice and these are ways they can do this while still knowing if they are doing it correct. You can get all of my self checking activities, including the template here.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4uAWT8Nnag
In the area of Covid-19 based videos, this one from @numberphile is a deep dive into both the calculus of exponential growth and a real time Geogebra tutorial.
Curriculum Tags: MCV4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nLfCbAzgo
And you may have seen a lot of sites with mathematical models of the spread of Covid-19. Many of those are based on some sort of exponential relationship (like the one above) but @3Blue1Brown has done his simulations all based around probabilities and made them all delightfully visual.
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAaO2rsdIs
I mentioned this mathematical mistake a couple of weeks ago but I like how @StandupMaths reiterates the idea that when put on the spot, it's quite easy to make math mistakes. But he also goes through some more specifics about why people make this particular mistake
Curriculum Tags: All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egeUxIEQnM
Image Links
I love this image from @MonaChalabi. Have your students take a look and ask what they notice and wonder. So interesting to connect what countries are doing/have done and how their Covid-19 data looks
Curriculum Tags: MDM4U
https://twitter.com/MonaChalabi/status/1242512097986125825
spot the difference pic.twitter.com/ZSWIeDwUeQ— Mona Chalabi (@MonaChalabi) March 24, 2020
And of course it's always good to have a bit of mathematical surprise
Curriculum Tags: All
https://twitter.com/DonFraser9/status/1241764289955926017
A simple fun trick to brighten your day ! Surprising result ....If algebra is your fun, show why it always works ! Please pass on .... #MTBoS #iteachmath #mathchat @Mathgarden @MatthewOldridge @davidpetro314 @paul_math @TracyZager @stephen pic.twitter.com/Ny2rhrT03g— Don Fraser (@DonFraser9) March 22, 2020
