Rationale

As a secondary math and science teacher, I am always looking for ways to meaningfully engage my students. Even before Covid and the shift in learning, I was always looking for ways to integrate technology into my classes. Once my school purchased enough Chrome books so that I had full-time access to a class set, a challenge was to find a way to use them for math. The fact that my students often have trouble drawing and transforming graphs led me to search out applications to assist students better understand these concepts. My school also has graphing calculators which can be used by students. These calculators are expensive to replace, cumbersome to use, and quite frankly nearly obsolete - yet another reason to search out other graphing applications.

The major draws to Desmos over other applications were its focus on graphing, its ease of use, and its cost, that is, it was free to use. The one major drawback for me is that my students are not yet able to use online graphing tools for their government Diploma exam at the end of grade 12 math. For now, we continue to use both Desmos and a graphing calculator, just so they are not at a disadvantage when it comes to the exam. My belief is that once students use Desmos to learn about and understand graphing concepts, they will be successful on their exams.