Brendan Fitzpatrick
Dedham High School
BC MATH NEWS
Vol. 1 Issue 3: Check Out These Cool Math Apps! | Desmos | Symbolab
Desmos’s Design
The distinctive colors make it very
easy to distinguish the different
graphs for each equation.
Unit Circle
The image here shows the unit
circle for (cos(90), sin(90)), an
important math fact for
trigonometry students.
Contact Info: September 9, 2019
fitzpabk@bc.edu
Desmos - Graphing and More!
Desmos is by far the most accessible, well-designed, and easy-to
learn graphing application! It provides detailed tools that can be
used by any student, whether learning graphing for the first time
or taking a calculus course. Upon first glance, Desmos is a
graphing tool that allows students and teachers to gracefully plot
equations, lines, conics, polar graphs, and other mathematical
expressions, and has a built in calculator too!
Clicking on this icon on the
top left of the screen opens up
a whole list of Desmos-made
interactive graphs to help
students learn and better understand the relationships between
an equation and it’s corresponding graph. We will be using these
in class to help learn about different graphing transformations, as
these graphs update live as you change their equations! There are
sections for each high school math courses with helpful
descriptions of what each topic the graph represents. There’s an
interactive graph of the unit circle where students use a sliding
number line to learn about the different important angles for sine
and cosine. From the main website, teachers and students can
find pre-built lessons to help explain different math topics,
anywhere from Exponential functions to Conic sections.
Students can download this app on their phones too!
 Brendan Fitzpatrick
Dedham High School
Topics available on
Symbolab include:
• Pre-algebra and Algebra
• Pre-calculus and Calculus,
• Functions
• Matrices & Vectors
• Geometry
• Trigonometry
• Statistics
Helpful List of Rules
Symbolab also offers a variety of
different lists of math rules! These
are all available as a helpful
reminder to students as to how to
apply specially each of the rules
we’ve learned in class!
This includes rules concerning:
• Fractions
• Factoring and Expansion
• Exponents
• Trigonometric identities
• Properties of Limits
• Divergence criterion,
• Derivatives and Integrals rules
• Commonly seen Derivatives and
Integrals
Contact Info: September 9, 2019
fitzpabk@bc.edu
Symbolab - Step by Step
Calculator
Symbolab is a useful tool for teachers to give to students so they
can receive step-by-step help for any questions they might have
whenever the teacher is unavailable. One can either enter their
question directly into the search bar, or look through the
extensive list of topics and problems that the calculator has
explanations on how to solve. Whether a student is looking for
help with taking derivatives, learning about functions, solving
systems of equations, or any other high school topic, Symbolab
should be able to help. And all of this for free!
Symbolab also has a paid option, which unlocks personalized
practice problems for all of the types of questions it can help
solve, as well as quizzes and progress reports to help monitor
mastery. It also removes ads and gives students an unlimited
number of digital notebooks, which they can access either online
or through the Symbolab mobile and tablet app, to take notes in
whenever they need to! With a clear and easy-to-use engine,
Symbolab provides quick instructions for students that are
struggling with a specific type of problem. Students should be
using this as an at home supplement, only when they feel they
are stuck on a problem or cannot remember how to do a specific
part of a question. During school hours, I hope to be as available
as possible to answer any student’s questions! They can email me
anytime, but I want to provide this resource as a quick, well-
formatted fix to help students better understand what they need
to do before addressing their questions in class the next day!