The COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers into all sorts of new ideas and innovations. In the stats classrooms, many teachers turned to Desmos as a strategy for doing online instruction. While Desmos is a great tool for teaching in a remote environment, we are left wondering:
How do we use Desmos as we return to in-person classrooms?
We believe that technology should not replace teacher instruction (EFFL for life), but should definitely be used as a supplement where appropriate. Based on this thinking, we created the Stats Medic Desmos Collection with the following goal:
Goal: To provide teachers with a collection of Desmos activities that can be used to enhance instruction and improve student understanding.
To help us build this ALL NEW collection, we searched the Internet far and wide to find the world's best AP Stats Desmos creators. We call them the Dream Team (Bob Lochel, Leigh Nataro, Juan Gómez, and Nate Novotny.
What Do I Need to Know About These Activities?
These activities are ALL NEW -- developed just for this project!
These activities can be “dropped in” to an already existing curriculum.
These activities leverage Desmos features, such that the technology enhances work that might be done with paper-and-pencil.
Each activity focuses on a specific set of content or skills (aligned to the CED).
Each activity has estimated timing (from 10 minutes to 40 minutes).
You can use these even if you have never tried Desmos before!
How Should I Use These Desmos Activities
As a warm-up activity to start a class.
Introduce a new concept and generate conversation before formal instruction.
As a way for students to practice with a concept you taught in class.
Extra support for struggling or absent students
Sub plans for a substitute teacher (with teacher follow up the next day)
Review days before an assessment
Where Do I Find These Desmos Activities?
The overview document shows alignment between the activity and the CED Topics and estimated time.
Go to the "Resources" tab on the top menu of Stats Medic, and click "Desmos".
Or just click the red button.
Check out this video for a sneak peak at two of the lessons from Unit 1.