The second half of the first unit tackled tools in regards to statistics using TI calculators and Desmos. Initially, I was absolutely in awe from all the features that I have never known about, because I have been using both TI and Desmos for at least a half decade. Especially, knowing that you are able to create tables on Desmos was purely revolutionary. I must say my life would have been so much easier in the past two years–if I had known these skills.
The statistics features in Desmos are extremely impressive and easy to utilize; sum, average, standard deviation, etc. are just at your fingertips. Only statistics software that I have experience with is Rstudio, which to be quite honest, made my semester a rollercoaster ride, so Desmos stats felt like an oasis in the Sahara desert.
Obviously, these features are suitable for teaching statistics. Nevertheless, the regression section stood out to me, because it was one of the most visual part of this course so far. Not only that, but I think that having a visual graph is an excellent way to teach middle schoolers in Algebra I, where they learn a best fit graphs. Of course, it will undoubtedly be helpful for those in statistics or mathematical modeling course, where concepts like best fit, standard deviation, and R squared are constantly showing up.
To be more specific, a possible example lesson could be on R squared. We know that the closer R squared value is to 1, the better fit the graph is. Being able to plot points and graph the regression could help the students understand the concept with visuals.
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