Dear {{custom.firstName}},

 

The first two screens of From Squares to Roots offer you an opportunity to tell your students a message that many of them are eager to hear:

 

Start with your senses.

 

Math offers us a language for our senses and a voice for our intuition. But many students have been asked to suppress their senses and intuition in math class. In this and other lessons, you have the chance to emphasize to students the importance of their senses.

Students might stress on this screen.

 

There’s a grid. It feels like maybe we should be calculating something here. I forgot the formula. Where am I? What’s my name? I don’t know my name!

 

Consider encouraging students to start with their senses. If estimating the correct answer is stressful, you can ask students to tell you about a wrong answer. What’s an answer that’s too large?

 

In doing so, you may help students reconnect mathematics to their intuition, the abstract world to the sensory world, and students to mathematics itself. What a job!

 

Happy math-ing!

 

Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team

PS. Please give us feedback on the last lesson.

Use the feedback form or just click your answer below then click "Submit" on the form!

 

How likely is it that you would recommend this lesson to a friend or colleague?

Great advice from other teachers.

 

Chicago, IL

 

Have a chart that students can fill in with perfect squares. Students find it super valuable.