Desmos Geometry
An exciting space to watch! Chancing upon this tweet I saw that indeed we have an exciting possibility here as Desmos does Geometry! Early days right now and this is still in early beta.

Have a play – it’s very easy to use. There are some examples to investigate. Excellent to have vectors as an option in the line tool and I like the way that once a line or segment is drawn construction options are available.

See the Desmos blog post The Desmos Geometry Tool. Such a thoughtful post. Reading it reminded me why this is one of the few websites I use on a daily basis to help my students learn.

First, our goals are different than those embodied by most of those other tools. When we design products, we design first for students who struggle with math and we assume they may also struggle with technology. We strive for a student’s first creation with our tools to feel effortless and joyful. For that reason, our geometry tool has a far shorter list of features than some of those above. We will carefully expand that list over time, never trading power for ease-of-use.

I have always said that what I like about Desmos is the ease of use. A young student can just ask for a graph of a straight line and my Year 13s can play with Polar Curves for example.

With revision for examinations very much in mind at this time of year, have a look at Tying it together, a bundle from Underground Mathematics which looks at efficient revision for mathematics; to quote Underground Mathematics: “The resources in this bundle encourage students to bring together their experiences in multiple areas of mathematics, helping to reveal and reinforce connections between a variety of mathematical ideas and problem solving strategies”. (And note the free webinar on April 19th looking at revising effectively and sharing resources for AS revision.)

Being very conscious of our first students aiming for grade 9 GCSE I particularly like the fluency exercise Pick a Card which will be a great way to revise Quadratic Functions, linking together many student experiences in Algebra, functions and graphs. What’s the shared area for these two circles, another resource  in this bundle illustrates so well how a good diagram can help.

Pick a card is a Fluency Exercise, Note that you can search resources in many ways including by type.
(More on Underground Mathematics).

Staying with the subject of exam revision, The Learning Scientists have an important post here on studying with Retrieval Practice. For further valuable resources to support study techniques see the excellent downloadable materials on study strategies. Note how each strategy is backed up by research.

MEI Maths Item of the Month example

From MEI this curriculum mapping for their Maths Items of the month resources is a great resource, both for GCSE and A Level. (This has been added to the A Level Resources page.)

See all Mathematical Miscellany compilations.