Exploring the Impact of DESMOS on Students’ Understanding and Learning of Transformations

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-660-4_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Geometrical transformations; DESMOS; learning experience; visualization; secondary mathematics; 5 E model

Abstract

Understanding abstract or complex mathematical concepts is challenging for students. Disinterest and trouble understanding the subject can be due to teaching strategies that don’t suit the student’s learning style or an ineffective presentation of the content. Manipulatives, both real and virtual, are teaching aids that help students to explore and comprehend the content. Although visualization of abstract concepts can be effectively supported by manipulatives, maintaining student attention and fostering their knowledge of abstract concepts require an organized pedagogy. The 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) framework provides a foundation for teachers to develop a structured pedagogy. DESMOS is an online graphing calculator and a virtual manipulative tool. It enables educators to create inquiry-based lessons that facilitate students’ deeper understanding of mathematical expressions.

This paper presents research on the integration of technology in secondary mathematics classes. The focus of this study is to investigate how secondary students’ understanding of Geometrical transformations is impacted by the web-based graphing tool DESMOS. Lessons were planned using the 5E mode as a part of a design-based research methodology. This study was conducted in a secondary school. Students used the tool and graph paper to solve questions on geometrical transformations. Pre and post-assessment questionnaires helped to examine the effectiveness of the pedagogy. The data shows that most students’ ability to analyze transformations and validate their results through visualization improved with DESMOS. Accompanied by proper pedagogy and assessment, integrating DESMOS into the classroom has the potential to impact student learning significantly.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Anita Dani
AU  - Daliya Ashok
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/02/26
TI  - Exploring the Impact of DESMOS on Students’ Understanding and Learning of Transformations
BT  - Proceedings of the HCT International General Education Conference (HCTIGEC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 71
EP  - 87
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-660-4_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-660-4_6
ID  - Dani2025
ER  -