What the Trig? Using dynamic graphing software for inquiry learning.

This blog post looks at improving a lesson plan by embedding ICT in a constructive and meaningful way. The lesson examined is a Year 11 Mathematical Methods lesson on Transformations of Trigonometric Functions (Topic 3 in Unit 2) (QCAA,2018).

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My initial lesson was not completely devoid of technology. I prepared digital notes for the students and distributed them via OneNote. During the lesson I worked through the examples using a Surface Pen on my Surface Laptop 3, projecting my screen using ViVi. However, aside from receiving the information digitally, students were not required to really engage in the use of technology in any meaningful or mathematical way. When I initially planned the lesson, I delivered explicit teaching of the transformations of Trig Functions.

Summary of Transformations of Trigonometric Functions

To the right is a screen shot of summary notes distributed to students via OneNote. The transformations were explicitly taught at the beginning of the lesson, followed by worked examples. Below are screen clips from OneNote of my worked examples. I used guided questioning to encourage students to construct their own knowledge about manipulating trig functions.

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My reworked lesson takes an inquiry approach to Investigating (with ICT) transformations of trigonometric functions using dynamic graphing software, Desmos (Goos, 2017). Instead of commencing the lesson with explicit teaching of transformations, students are given instructions on how to operate Desmos (Managing and Operating ICT) to set up the trig functions in order to conduct their investigation. Students were encouraged to work in pairs or small groups and were given inquiry prompts to encourage them to construct their knowledge of the concept. The pdf below contains the worksheet with instructions and inquiry prompts (A. Simmers, personal communication, June 15, 2020).

DilationsofTrigFnsInvestigation.pdf

Download PDF • 2.80MB

Left is a digital artefact to show what students created with Desmos, and then manipulated to investigate the properties of trig functions.

Following the inquiry, I used guided questioning to lead a class discussion to check the knowledge that the students have constructed. A summary of concepts is then provided via OneNote. The lesson concludes with a Kahoot! (Samhunter, 2017) which gamifies a formative assessment (Cassie, 2016; Roblyer & Doering, 2014).

#teachingtrigonometry #desmos #dynamicgraphingsoftware #inquirylearning #mathteaching