March 3 Day 360: Success!

Sometimes, things work out better than imagined. Now that the talk has been given, I am a Desmos Teacher convert. So much so, that I am wondering how to incorporate it into future talks (and classrooms activities) when we return to in-person interactions.

The planned activities went smoothly. Each person individually selected an item that was unlike the others and the provided their reasoning. We quickly realized that there was no wrong answer to any problem and the question expanded to try and find a reason for each item.

Showing the results from one of the activities (original problem to me, inspired by WODB.ca)

Since nobody likes to be excluded, especially from mathematics, we decided to rename these puzzles “What makes it unique?” And then we sought a unifying principle—what did all four items have in common. I really enjoyed the letter puzzle because its reasons ended up being the most mathematical—symmetry, topology, graph theory, and matchings.

But to truly embrace one’s mathematical self requires not only answering questions of others but creating questions of one’s own. Participants where given a blank form and asked to create. This is a sampling of their quick inspirations. It was amazing and Desmos made it effortless. (Click on an image below to see it enlarged.)

Perhaps the best part of giving a Zoom talk are the thanks and congratulations that get recorded in the chat.

Thanks to Jeanette Shakalli and FUNDAPROMAT for the opportunity to share my passion for mathematics with so many people from Panama and across the world.