Geogebra

GeoGebra is free dynamic mathematics software for upper primary and secondary school, connecting arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus.

GeoGebra was created to help students gain a better understanding of mathematics. It is an interactive geometry system where teachers and students can do constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. On the other hand, equations and coordinates can be entered directly and so deal with variables for numbers, vectors and points, find derivatives and integrals of functions and offers commands like Root or Extremum. What Geogebra expresses in the algebra view corresponds to an object in the graphics view and vice versa.

Teachers can use it for both active and problem-based teaching, it fosters mathematical experiments and discoveries both in classroom and at home. Geogebra projects are a great way for students to demonstrate their understanding of mathematics in a creative way, and are a useful way to inform assessment – and many can be used afterwards as instructional aids in the classroom. GeoGebra can also be used to create interactive web-ready materials, or dynamic worksheets. This feature has enabled the sharing of thousands of user -created online resources on the GeogebraWiki.

You can also save your file as a HTML flash file, so anyone who wants to view your work does not need to have the program on their machine. You can find more information on the technical side on the Geogebra Help page.

The New Zealand visual arts curriculum can be supported with the use of Geogebra to investigate for instance patterns, symmetries, proportion, and perspective. (See the ‘Teacher Support’ section below for illustrations to support this concept.)

It is recommended to use GeoGebra WebStart which guarantees that you are always running the latest version of GeoGebra. (Although network users should look first at the Geogebra download page).