It’s been impossible for me to ask one particular question about everyone’s graphs, because the answer has been scattered in pieces across everyone’s papers. Until now, it’s been impossible for me to have one particular conversation about the tasty-easy graph. Then it’s up to students to bring those two representations into alignment, bringing their understanding of both representations up to the same level.Ĭreate objects that promote mathematical conversations between teachers and students. So when the student then graphs her fruit, on the next screen we don’t say, “Your opinions are wrong.” We say, “Your graph and your checkboxes disagree.”
Now we know the quadrants where we should find each student’s fruit. So watch this! We first asked students to signal tastiness and difficulty using checkboxes, a more familiar representation. Maybe this student really thinks grapes are gross and difficult to eat. After a student graphs her fruit, we have no way of telling her, “Your understanding of the coordinate plane is incomplete.” This is because there is no right way to place a fruit. It seemed impossible for us to offer students any automatic feedback here. So there isn’t a single numerical coordinate or gridline in Pomegraphit.ĭelay feedback for reflection, especially during concept development activities. Students should first ask themselves what it means when a point moves up, down, left, right, and, especially, diagonally. The gridded plane allows for more power and precision, but a student’s earliest experience plotting two dimensions simultaneously shouldn’t involve precision or even numerical measurement.
Here’s the top Google result for “coordinate plane explanation” for example.Ī gridded plane is the formal sibling of the gridless plane. I’ll wager $5 that the first coordinate plane students see includes a grid.
Here is how Pomegraphit reflects some of the core design principles of the teaching team at Desmos.Īsk for informal analysis before formal analysis.įlip open your textbook to the chapter that introduces the coordinate plane. But I’ve never been happier with those experiences than I was when my team at Desmos partnered with the team at CPM to create a lesson we call Pomegraphit. That single comic has put thousands of students in a position to encounter the power and delight of the coordinate plane.
#Desmos graphing project ideas professional
Eight years ago, this XKCD comic crossed my desk, then into my classes, onto my blog, and through my professional development workshops.
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