Sharing Intro to Linear Inequalities Desmos activity

Discussion
1

I have put this together for my students and thought I would share here.
I used a lot of help from the discussions on here to figure out the CL stuff, and the code is sort of a mess in many places, but it works.

I had a hard time coming up with calculation tests to make sure the students input the correct inequalities–that part can still be improved, but I believe I have it set so that most inequalities will give the correct feedback to students.

Also, I was wondering if there was a check I could so that slides 6 & 9 would provide feedback in case a student accidentally enters an equation instead of an inequality–is there something like a parseinequality is undefined check, and then I could give student feedback reminding them that we are looking for an inequality and not an equation?

Also, the last 3 slides are from another Desmos activity–I put that in there to give my fast workers something to do when they finish early. Those slides won’t activate until they get so many parts of the activities correct.

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2

Ok, I know this hasn’t been up enough for any real feedback, but I was playing around, and I figured out how to give a warning in case students enter an equation instead of an inequality. Here is the code I added to slides 6&9

(The inequality parse was already there.)
equation=parseEquation(i2.latex)

test=when isDefined(equation) 5 otherwise 0
test2=when isDefined(inequality) 10 otherwise -1
I didn’t use the second line, but I have the code in there for future reference.

Then include this variable to share as a variable on the note:

msg2 = when test=5 “:cold_sweat::scream:CAREFUL! This requires an INEQUALITY, NOT an equation!:fearful::weary:” otherwise " "

3

If you update (and publish) an activity you share, it will update. It’s not a different link as it is for assigning activities to students. So the code you’re describing should be there.

4

Thank you! I was aware of that–I just included the CL code in case anyone searched for a similar question on the forums, so they wouldn’t necessarily have to go through my activity.

I appreciate your help, though, as well as the assistance you provide on here!

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5

Is this based on an MVP lesson?

6

Not intentionally–I had to Google what MVP is as a program. I now remember that I have looked into it briefly. The school where I currently work would not have the teacher support to use such a program. I love my colleagues, but they are pretty traditional in how they teach. They will incorporate some of my activities, though.

I made the lesson up myself. I have a similar lesson that I used to introduce a linear inequalities a month or so ago. After the work I put into this lesson, I will be updating that activity next year to provide more feedback.

I have been teaching for 25 years out of different programs (University of Chicago School Math Project, Core Plus Integrated Math, Key Curriculum’s Discovery series, Paul Foerster’s Calculus, as well as many traditional type textbooks.) So I have had a great deal of exposure to many different types of curriculum.

I teach a course for students who struggle with math, and I have been slowly building some Desmos activities that fit with my curriculum to use with those students. Honestly, I have a curriculum outline to which I adhere, but I have a lot of leeway when it comes to the course details. We covered voting methods for 2 weeks last month because I decided to add it this year, I have some statistics coming up next semester. A little graph theory might be on the horizon next semester. Those “little breaks” from traditional content provides a change of pace for the students, and also helps those students who struggle with the algebraic part of the course recover some grades and be successful in other parts of math.

I have been building activities on Desmos for a few years now, but
I finally dipped my toe in the CL part of Desmos this year (maybe last spring?!?), and so I am now putting together activities that I think help math “make sense” for my students who struggle with it.

I have been teaching such courses my entire career (I also teach AP/Dual Credit Calc), so it feels that with tools like Desmos and MyOpenMath (online homework system in which I have also learned to code problems), I can truly create courses that reflect my ideas on what is important.

So I offer my thanks to the Desmos team for providing such wonderful tools for us to create content. And thanks to you, as well, if you work for Desmos or just volunteer your time helping people on this forum.

I tend to follow this lesson up with a Desmos project on Linear Programming (we use Desmos to graph, but we have to write the inequalities and analyze the results ourselves), but we are close to the end of the semester, so I do not have time for it this year.

I am sorry I rambled a bit here–I don’t get to talk curriculum much with people. I hope you stuck around until the end.
:smiley:

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