Teach 180: A Powerhouse in Math Tech (Day 81)

A few weeks ago, I gave my students a project called the "Birthday Polynomial".  This is a project I found on Twitter when I first started using Twitter a few years ago.  Students create a polynomial based on their birthday and that means each student has a different solution to the assessment.  They used word and copied and pasted images from Desmos into their work.  It was not as easy for students to do this as I thought.  If only I had waited until now to give this assignment.

Why? Today I got an email today with the following title "Desmos graphing now fully integrated into EquatIO".  What is this?  I read the email more closely.

Writing math in google docs and inserting desmos graphs in those docs easily?  No more screenshots?  When did this happen???  I clicked on the link that took me to a blog by texthelp that was dated January 8th.  So, a recent development.  But then I read further.  "Back in September, we announced a partnership with Desmos..."  This partnership happened 4 months ago!!! That's a lifetime in the world of technology.

But on a closer read I see, "Today, Desmos graphing has been FULLY integrated into EquatIO across all platforms - EquatIO for Google, Windows, and Mac, and the web app, EquatIO mathspace."   So cool!  In fact, I told my students this news and they equated it with the draft of a valuable football player.  A powerhouse had been born, they said.  Their next question for me was "Now can we use desmos on tests?"

Looks like I have some work to do.  I sense more open-ended questions, like graph two lines that are perpendicular and explain how you know from the slopes that they are perpendicular.  Students can confirm their answers are right with the graphs, but still need to explain their thinking.  We have exams coming up next week and I'll have some time to think about how to begin to integrate this new tool.