We have so much we want to share with you this month but hate to interrupt your summer break, so we’ll keep this one short. We’ll introduce a few new friends, share some activities, challenge you a bit, and let you get back to you.
New Faces
The Desmos Classroom Computation Layer team added two new members this month: Schuyler Alschuler and Leah Simon.
Schuyler Alschuler
Favorite Interaction: Floats and Anchors
“My favorite Desmos interaction is Floats and Anchors because of the way it allows all students to start thinking about operations with integers. Plus… it’s just plain cool!”
Schuyler has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area for about four years while working as a classroom teacher. Outside of work, you might find him playing the guitar, skating, or messing around with electronic bits. We’re very excited about the technical skill he brings to the team and his keen eye and creativity in interaction design.
Leah Simon
Favorite Interaction: Rigid Transformations
“My favorite interaction to date is this screen from a rigid transformations activity I made. It invites students to explore and learn about rotations through an interactive sketch component and visual feedback. I really enjoyed making the screen as I always love a challenge.”
You might know Leah as the winner of last year’s Desmos Graph Art Contest, and we’re so excited to see her weave those amazing graphs into delightful screens using CL.
Leah used Desmos a lot in her classroom and jumped in feet first to start learning CL during the pandemic. Outside of work, she facilitates a wide variety of Girl Scouts programs and goes on outdoor adventures of her own, even taking her cat on short walks!
Bonus Activities
Last month, based on your votes, we shared three of our CL Day activities. We want to keep sharing with you, so over the next few months we plan on releasing a few at a time. This month, check out two activities from @rilesblue and one from @MrJohnRowe.
The multiple choice component is more than a question tool. It can also be used to toggle between different environments. For the pinwheel screen, the multiple choice component allows the user to view their design in both the ombre and color-wheel effect.
This adaption of the popular word puzzle, Wordle, uses a multiple choice component to simulate buttons on a simplified calculator keypad. The graph uses a ticker to record the selected multiple choice option, and the resetOnChange sink in the multiple choice component “unselects” the option, allowing it to function like a button. A help button explains how the game works and what the different colored tiles mean, and the settings button allows students to change to hard mode, dark mode, and switch on high contrast. Students are also able to see their statistics and share their result using initialText in a text-input component.
A Challenge for You
Our second cohort of Design With Desmos is already full! If you’re interested in joining us for a future cohort, we really encourage you to click the “Get Notified” link on the course page.
In the meantime, try this summer design challenge from Dan Meyer:
