MPM1D1 - Day 15 Desmos Intro & First Assessment

We started the class by revisiting Hula Hoop Relay. I had a set of Chromebooks and we made our way to Desmos. This would be our first use of Desmos. We had a few password hiccups and a couple of network issues but they were fairly easily sorted out.

I demonstrated how to create a table, adjust the scale and find the equation of the line of best fit. I used a group's set of data to demonstrate. As it turns out the slope and y-intercept had the same absolute value. What an unfortunate and potentially confusing coincidence. The potential was there to dive into expanding and factoring binomials, but it wouldn't serve the purpose for today's lesson so I let it go. We talked about how we could find how long it would take for 43 people to do the challenge. We discussed how we could use the graph to extrapolate and how we could use the equation. It was a nice link between the graph, the equation and what was really going on. We did it both ways and some students seemed surprised that everything matched up.

As a result of our Desmos introduction I felt as though some students would be able to do it on their own while many would need a little more practice. There will be plenty of opportunity for more practice.

We put the computers away and did the mid-cycle assessment (using the term mid very loosely). A couple of students seemed really worried about how they were going to do. I told them to do their best as it would give them a sense of what they needed to work on for the test at the end of the cycle. This is our first real assessment and I intend for it to be formative. I'm hoping it will provide students with some feedback on what they need to work on. It will also give me a chance to see if there is any particular topic that we need to revisit.