As an end of unit assessment, I had students complete the Parabola Slalom on Desmos. This was my first time using one of the pre-made Desmos Classroom Activities, but it won’t be my last.
The activity was a good balance of challenging & achievable. The students were frustrated in a way that spurred them on to seek out possible solutions. The activity was great for consolidating student learning thus far about quadratic functions, and in particular using both standard and vertex form.
I liked that there was a section where the students needed to create an impossible challenge. This helped to reinforce what defines a function, as well as the possible characteristics of quadratic functions.