BUILDING DIGITAL

ACTIVITIES USING DESMOS

RAYMUND R. MOLANO, Ph.D.

Education Program Supervisor
Session Objectives:
At the end of the session, the teacher-
participants are expected to:

1. create a mathematical task to foster the

learners’ problem-solving skills
2. represent a mathematical problem-
solving task to Desmos environment to
give clear visualization to learners
Session Objectives:
3. use dragging feature in developing
Desmos-based task to provide dynamic
object for learners to explore
4. select a classroom activity from Desmos
to enhance learners’ understanding on
mathematical concepts
Session Objectives:
5. develop a classroom activity using
Desmos activity builder that is suitable
for learners’ context
6. investigate the properties of linear,
quadratic, and exponential functions
using Desmos
DESMOS WORKSPACE
• Desmos graphing calculator can be
accessed through desmos.com.
• However, the first overview of the website
does not automatically show the
workspace. Instead, it displays all the
supporting features of Desmos in one
place.
DESMOS WORKSPACE
DESMOS WORKSPACE
• Teachers can access Desmos workspace
by clicking the Start Graphing button.
• For convenience purpose, we will split
Desmos workspace into four sections. They
are the top banner, the list, settings, and
main space, as shown in the image below.
DESMOS WORKSPACE
DESMOS WORKSPACE
• Teachers can use Desmos as a guest
(without having an account), but having
account is suggested because teachers
can go back to their graph easily or to
retrieve their activity.
• To do this, simply click the Create an
Account button. Teachers can also join with
their Google account.
DESMOS WORKSPACE
• The Share button will generate a link that
teachers can share online. There are also
options Export Image, if teachers want to
use the graph somewhere else or in other
software, as well as Print and Embed.
DESMOS WORKSPACE
DESMOS WORKSPACE
• In the Setting section, at the top right corner of
the screen, is where teachers change and adjust
the display of their graph. Here, teachers can opt
to show or hide grids, axis labels, and minor
gridlines, as well as changing the range of x and
y- axis.
• Teachers can also switch between different
coordinates systems, whether it’s Cartesian or
polar.
DESMOS WORKSPACE
EXERCISE 1
1. Create account on Desmos and use it to log
in.
2. Draw a graph of your own choice and make
it in color blue.
3. Change the language to English (if
necessary).
4. Change the name of the file to My
Amazingly Cool Graph.
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
DRAWING & CUSTOMIZING GRAPHS
• Teachers can customize their graphs by
clicking the Edit List icon at the top of list
section.
EXERCISE 2
1. Draw one graph from each type described
above.
2. Create a quadratic equation and give it a
label.
3. The interesting thing about Desmos is it can
be used to challenge the students to create
art using mathematics graph. The
following is one example.
EXERCISE 2
VARIABLES & SLIDES
• Entering the equation will only give
teachers a static graph, but teachers can
make their graphs more dynamics by
adding parameter instead of constant and
use slider to define the value of the
parameters.
VARIABLES & SLIDES
• For example, teachers can write 𝑦 = 𝑎𝑥2 + 𝑏𝑥
+ 𝑐 and use sliders to see the difference in
the graph when the value of a, b, and c
change.
VARIABLES & SLIDES
LIST & STATISTICS
• In Desmos, a string of numbers written
inside square brackets is called List.
• List is particularly useful if teachers want to
enter a series of data or to create a function
but with different constant or coefficient.
The following image show the graph for 𝑦 =
𝑚𝑥 + 3 for different values of m.
LIST & STATISTICS
LIST & STATISTICS
• If the numbers have certain patterns and
too long to be inserted in the bracket,
teachers can create the list with the help of
dots.
• For example, [1, ..., 10] is a list of integers
from 1 to 10. On the other hand, [2, 4, ...,12] is
a list of even numbers from 2 to 12.
LIST & STATISTICS
• Teachers can write statistics function like
mean, median, and STDEV in front of a list
and it will return a result.
• The same can also work with columns of a
table. Other commands can be retrieved by
clicking Functions button on the keyboard.
LIST & STATISTICS
OTHER FUNCTIONS
• As teachers may noticed, the functions
button in the keyboard hidden a lot of
additional functions. They are divided into
Trigonometric, Statistics, and
Miscellaneous.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
• As teachers may noticed, the functions
button in the keyboard hidden a lot of
additional functions. They are divided into
Trigonometric, Statistics, and
Miscellaneous.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
EXERCISE 3
1. Use Variables and Sliders to explain the
concept of gradients in a line graph.
2. Create a dynamic graph to show the
change in the tangent line of 𝑦 = 𝑥2 from 𝑥 =
0 to 𝑥 = 2.
3. Use Desmos to explain transformation of
trigonometric functions.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Desmos classroom activity can be
accessed through
https://teacher.desmos.com.
• The activities are sorted to popularities, as
in activities that are the most popular
among teachers.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Teachers can also have them sorted from
the upload time frame, so teachers can
have the most recently uploaded activities
on top.
• Search feature is available if teachers want
to search for activities with certain
keyword.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Other useful feature is Bundles, which are a
series of activities which has been
sequenced by Desmos for certain
mathematics topics, for example Functions
or Exponential.
• Bundles are located at the left side of the
screen of the Classroom Activity page.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Each bundle has been equipped by
learning objectives and guiding questions
to link each activity to the other.
• To use classroom activity, simply click on
one of the classroom activities provided.
• Bear in mind that teachers would have to
sign in to their account or Google account
first.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Teachers will be directed to the page of the
activity, which displays information
teachers need to know, including learning
goals, supported devices, and the scenario
of the activity.
• It comprises sections called The Student
Experience and The Teacher Experience,
which describes the activity from the
perspective of teachers and students.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Desmos also makes two different interface
for teachers and students. This is apparent
in these two features, Class Code and
Student Preview.
• Class code can generate a specific code
that teachers can give for students when
teachers want to start this activity.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• For students, they will have to open
https://student.desmos.com and enter the
Class Code given by the teacher.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• They will be directed to the student
interface of Classroom Activity, which is
different from teacher interface teachers
have on their computer.
• The students can join without signing in by
simply inputting their name.
DESMOS CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• But what if teachers want to see and
experience what students will do in this
activity?
• Teachers can scroll down and click the
Student Preview button that is provided in
the Student Experience section, as shown in
the image. It will give teachers a preview on
how the experience will look like for their
students.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• Desmos provides two different interface for
students and teachers. Therefore, as the
students are doing the activity, teachers
will not be looking at the same screen that
they did. Teachers will be looking at
Teacher Dashboard.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• Teachers can access it by clicking the View
Dashboard link, which is available right
away after teachers generate Class Code
for their students.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
TEACHER DASHBOARD
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• Teachers can think of Teacher Dashboard
as a control room for teachers. In this page
a list with the name of the students is
showed at the left side of the screen, while
the top part of the screen displays each
stage of the activity.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• The dashboard will show the progress of
each students by showing a dot if the
activity is done correctly or a punctuation
mark if there is an error in the student’s
work. The little blue icon signifying how
many students are currently at that stage.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• In the teacher dashboard, there are some
features which are really helpful for the
teachers to organize their class. Those
features are Anonymizing, Pacing ̧ and
Pause, which can be found at the top left
side of the screen. The use of each of these
features are the following.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
ANONYMIZING
• If teachers activate this feature, students’
name will be changed into the names of
famous mathematicians. This is
particularly useful to encourage the
students to focus on the mathematics
instead of whose answer is correct.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
PACING
• The problem with student-centered activity is
sometimes more gifted students will be way
ahead while the others are left behind. Teachers
can keep this from happening using Pacing
feature. Simply click the icon, then teachers can
choose which stages teachers want students to
work on and prevent them from accessing the
other stages.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
PAUSE
• If the students are too immersed in their
activity. If the teachers
• want to capture the students’ attention,
they can use this feature to stop the
activity temporarily and start again
whenever
TEACHER DASHBOARD
At the top part of the screen, there are also
three tabs: Summary, Teachers, and
Students.
TEACHER DASHBOARD
• Three of them provide different
perspectives to the teacher’s dashboard. In
the Summary, teachers can view the
summary of the entire class as a whole.
• In the Teachers tab, the teachers can view
the individual student’s progress at each
screen. In the Student tab, the teacher will
view the activity as how it is displayed to
the students.
EXERCISE 4
Go to Desmos and search Central Park. Play it
with your group members and try to
familiarize yourself with all the features.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
GRAPH
• This is Desmos most notable component
and the one that appears most frequently
in their classroom activities. Teachers can
use them alone or combine them with other
components.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
TABLE
• This component allows students to play
around with relationship between different
variables, as well as multiple
representation.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
SKETCH
• With this component, the students can
sketch or draw freely.
• Desmos offer three background: blank,
graph, and custom image. It is a good way
to examine the students’ informal strategy
in solving problem.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
MEDIA
• Teacher can add images or video to their
activity using this component. It is a good
way to spice up their activity.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
NOTE
• Note is an important feature for teachers to
add their own instruction or explanation
into the activity, whether to explain context
or to emphasis features of a graph.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
INPUT
• This component makes it possible for
teachers to gather the students’ responses.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
CHOICE
• This component makes it possible for
teachers to gather the students’ responses
in the form of multiple choice.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
MARBLESLIDES
• Marbleslides is also one of Desmos most
notable features, which is present in some
of their most popular activity. It is an
excellent playground for students to
explore relationship between graphs and
equations.
ACTIVITY BUILDING COMPONENTS
CARDSORT
• This component allows the students to
move, arrange, and categorize cards.
Desmos offers three choices of card: math
or text, image, and graph.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• The following is the sample of activity
created using Desmos. The topic of activity
is about Equation of a Straight Line. To
make it simple, this activity only contains
five screens.
• Teachers will be guided to recreate this
activity through Desmos Activity Builder
feature.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Open your browser and go to
https://teacher.desmos.com.
• You can also access it from Desmos main
webpage (https://www.desmos.com) and
click the Classroom Activities button.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Choose Create Account, then enter your
user name, e-mail, and password, then
click Create Account.
• If you already have an account, simply
click Sign in or use your Google account.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• First, you will be directed to the main page
of Classroom Activity that exhibits all the
activities designed by Desmos team.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Notice that the activity we are going to
create feature Marbleslides. This feature
has to be activated first.
• Go to the top right corner of the screen,
click your username, and click Desmos
Labs.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Make sure the option for Marbleslides is
already checked.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• After you saved the settings for Desmos
Labs, go to Custom at the left side of the
screen and click New Activity.
• Add the title of your Activity, in this case it
is Straight Line and Its Equation, but you are
free to modify it to your liking.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Click Start Building when you are finished.
You will be directed to a blank page of the
Activity Builder section. Now you are ready
to build your activity.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• On the first screen, we will add a little
welcome note for the students. To make
your welcome note more interesting, you
can also add media (image or video) that
is suitable to your topic. Simply click the
Media and Note icons at the top of the
screen. When you are done, click Next
button.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Afterward, we will create screen 2. Click
New Screen icon which is located at the
right side of the screen.
• Write down the title at the top of the screen.
You can also leave it blank if you prefer.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• In this screen, you will feature Marbleslides.
The students will have to fix the equation
such a way that when they click Launch
button, the marbles will eat up all the stars.
• It is best to start with simple equation, for
example like the one we use here, 𝑦 = 2𝑥 − 3.
• Click the More icon at the top side of the
screen and choose Marbleslides.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Next, we will have to determine the position
of the stars. The aim is for the students to
explore gradient by changing the x-
coefficient. Therefore, we will place the
stars on an invisible line with different
gradient than y, for example m = 1⁄2.
Therefore, we will place our stars at the
coordinates {(0,1), (-2,0),(2,0)}. Put the
coordinates at the top of the screens.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Next, set the location of the ball too. Put it
somewhere at the top right corner
• of the screen, above the line, for example
coordinate (5, 15).
• Click Launch to test. If your ball falls along
the line without hitting any or all the balls.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• The students might be unfamiliar about
Marbleslide, so you will need to give
• some instructions.
• The list at the left side of the screen here
works similar to the List section in Desmos
main space.
• Therefore, we can add notes to the screen.
Simply click the ‘+’ icon and add note.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Click Preview to see how the screen will
look like to your students. Once you are
satisfied, we can create the next screen.
Click New Screen.
• If you think your students will benefit from
more explorations with different equation,
you can add more scene with Marbleslides.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• In screen 3, we want to know the students’
understanding on the exploration they just
did. Therefore, you will need to add a
question and a space where the students
can give their answer.
• Click Note to write down your question and
Input for the students to write down their
answer.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• You can add mathematical notation by
clicking a little green ‘f(x)’ icon at the
bottom right corner of your note.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Add more screen when you are done.
• For the next two screen, we will provide
assessment for the students in the form of
a quiz.
• For the first one, we will use Card Sort. Click
More and choose Card Sort.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Make sure that you have three pairs of
graph and equation. Write down the entire
equation card using the Math or Text icon,
and all the graph cards using the Graph
icon.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Before finishing your screen, create the
answer key by clicking the Answer Key
button.
• Match each graph with its equation and
click Done. Click Preview if you want to see
how the screen looks like to your students.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Forthelastscreen,wewillgiveasimplemulti-
choicequestiontothestudents. They have to
determine which graph has the given
gradient (in this case, 5).
• Click Choice. You will be directed to a
platform where you can insert your
question, graph, and provide all the
options.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Click graph and insert four (or more)
different graphs to the list. Make sure one
of them have gradient 5.
• To assign label to the line, choose one point
near the line, assign label to it, and make
the point disappear while the label remains
visible. For example, for line 𝑦 = −3𝑥 + 3, the
label is located at point (-2,8), as shown in
image below.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Click Done when you are finished.
• To add option, click Add an option at the
bottom of your screen. You can add graph,
image, or mathematical notation to your
options.
• Notice at the top of the screen there are
three options: Explain, Simple, and Multi-
Select.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Add Note to write down your question. If
your question is not too long, you can write
your question at the title description at the
top of the page.
• Mark the correct answer by clicking the
little circle at the right side.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Your activity is done.
• Click Next, where you will be directed to a
preview display of your activity.
• Click Done if you are satisfied with
everything.
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• After you are done, you can edit your
activity by accessing your account and
clicking the little three dots located at the
top of the screen (near Teacher Guide
icon).
CREATING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
• Through this option, you can share your
activity via e-mail or to social media
platform such as Facebook or Twitter by
clicking Share Activity option.
• If you want to create another activity based
on your current activity, it is best to make
another copy and editing them by clicking
Copy and Edit option.
USING YOUR ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
• The activity created by teachers are still
inaccessible by the students. There are
steps teachers need to do in order to make
their activity ready to use, which are the
following.
USING YOUR ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
• Create Class Code. In order to do this, the
teachers need to access their activities in
Custom section of the page and clicking
whichever activity they wish to use in the
classroom.
USING YOUR ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
• Create Class Code. In order to do this, the
teachers need to access their activities in
Custom section of the page and clicking
whichever activity they wish to use in the
classroom.
USING YOUR ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
• Class Code can be generated by clicking
Create Class Code. Desmos will generate a
6-letter key consisting of numbers and
capitals.
• Have your students access
https://student.desmos.com in their
browser.
USING YOUR ACTIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM
• The easiest way to do this is simply by
clicking View Dashboard and a pop up
page will appear with instruction about the
URL and the Class Code.
• Ask the students to input the Class Code
and name.
• Your activity is ready to be started.
APPLICATION
MAIN OUTPUT: Create Problem for Desmos
Connecting Two Villages
• There are two villages and a highway. The
local government wants to connect those
two villages with a road that must crosses
the highway. What is the minimum length
of the road?
APPLICATION
THANK YOU!