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- Use of Desmos to engage students in calculusPublication . Bastos, NunoIn the Spring of 2020, Portugal was one of the countries that experienced the first lockdown at all their school levels system and it resulted in a new challenge also for teachers. During the second semester of 2020/2021 a new lockdown was imposed and, with a variety of tools available to teach, it was important to try different approaches at classes. From one hand it is desired to use digital tools accessible through the devices that students are most familiar with and, from another hand, that those tools were able to create a stimulating environment. Desmos, a free platform, was used in a different way since Desmos combines features of graphic calculators and classroom activities (Activity Builder). This platform was initially thought for use in mathematics, there are already many activities carried out on this platform ranging from the area of history to the area of languages. This platform allows the creation of free digital activities that are elaborated according to a pedagogical philosophy. One of the ideas behind that philosophy is the fact that students can be right or wrong in different ways since not all responses in the learning process need to have the usual "right" or "wrong" label. This platform allows students to give personalized feedback (and the quality of feedback can allow students to remain motivated); allows anonymous sharing of some student responses in a sequence created by the teacher, and it can enhance the debate of concepts and opinions. Compared with several quizzes platforms (e.g. Kahoot!, Quizizz, etc) Desmos have the possibility of writing mathematical expressions by the students in their answers and, in fact, facilitate students' answers during that semester. In this paper is presented some activities in calculus topics such as integration, sequences and ordinary differential equations using some of the Desmos Activity Builder tools. One of those tools is the “card sort” that transpose to the digital the easy activity to stack cards. Some analysis is made about the students' responses. At the end, the students considered the Desmos environment as dynamic and attractive, and mentioned that it facilitates learning.
- An experience with Desmos in the study of the quadratic functionPublication . Dias, Lucília; Oliveira, Paula; Bastos, NunoAt a time when students have multiple demands in terms of technology and the resources and tools available are more and more varied, the school must respond with more attractive activities. It is, therefore, essential to provide students with digital tools accessible through the devices they are most familiar with, mobile phones and computers. By using these tools, we are creating a stimulating environment capable of engaging the students, providing them with the means to build their knowledge. In this paper we present a didactic experience in the subject of Mathematics carried out in a distance learning context, on the topic Quadratic Function, using the digital and free platform Desmos. Desmos has a very intuitive interface where you can create sets of interactive activities and tasks that facilitate learning mathematics, in order to make it more meaningful. The use of this tool was determinant for the teaching and learning of quadratic function since its teaching took place in distance education and students didn't have, at that time, a graphing calculator or any simulator in their computers. Ten activities on the quadratic function were constructed, involving various parameters so that the students, observing the changes on the graphs, were able to understand the concepts underlying this subject, namely vertical and horizontal translations of the graph, domain, range, injectivity, zeros, monotony, extremes, axis of symmetry and coordinates of the vertex of the parabola representing the graph of the quadratic function. This didactic experience was applied to two classes of 10th grade in Portuguese Educational System, involving forty-seven students, 76.7% of whom highlighted the fact that it facilitated learning in the study of functions, followed by 74.4% who considered the environment dynamic and attractive as well as the feedback given in the answers to the exercises. The use of digital tools should always be complemented with the teacher’s human component. The profile of each student is unique and specific, and the pace of learning differs from student to student. A tool like Desmos, which students are enthusiastic about using, allows monitoring of individual performance and timely and appropriate intervention by the teacher. In a pandemic context, the use of tools to gauge student learning was a necessity, but practices such as the one described in this paper should be incorporated into a normal classroom environment, promoting discovery through graphical and algebraic manipulation.