Banana Parabola

As I was working out the plan for a final project, I was playing with the Desmos app and wondering/worrying how students would react to the Parabola in Real Life idea.  This is my second year teaching Algebra II so I feel as if I am still learning a lot along side the students and I was apprehensive to even begin introducing new technology.  My concern was that I may give too much guidance and not allow the students to struggle and learn, or to give too little and have a room full of frustrated teenagers.  

I had the dreaded Foundations level Algebra II students that Friday before February break and was contemplating what to spend 80 minutes working on.  It had to be something I was willing to reteach a week later, as they were going to forget it all, or something that would engage them enough but still be meaningful.  I finally talked myself into attempting an activity with Desmos to test drive their understanding of the app and how much guidance I would have to give when I eventually start assigning projects.  

I figured this was the perfect class to test.  They would feel like we were doing something different and hopefully not feel like time before break was never going to pass.  I airdropped everyone a picture of a banana I had taken at home (I got a lot of comments about how many brown spots it had and how I need to eat my bananas earlier), and I walked them through the steps they would need if I were to assign the project I have been working on. 

I found they needed less help with the basics (cropping, rotating, and inserting) which was expected as they do this everyday with their personal phones, but they did needed more help with the conceptual skills like how to not alter the dimensions of the banana but still make it to fit the scale.  (1 box = 1 inch)

We talked and explored our way through the creation of a parabola and they filled out a "fill-in the blank" worksheet to help with the calculations to create the equations.  I then had them go online and find a photo of a real world parabola to test their new skills.

My goal will be for the students to create their own images in the future, but this activity gave me a little insight to their abilities  when working and problem solving with technology.  I was able to alter certain directions after seeing what they stumbled on as well. 

In the end I found this be to a great plan for the day before break.  I have a lot of ideas for next year and how to change and enhance the lesson.  The students seemed to enjoy the activity, but I'd like to give them more opportunities to be creative so it doesn't feel so foreign to them.  It seemed they didn't like the freedom at times and kept looking for more exact guidelines where I had asked them to be creative on their own.