Param based examples from docs do not update after changing inputs

Newbie user of Panel, trying to learn how to use it with Param.
Playing with the “Param based apps” in the docs, none of them seem to be reactive to the inputs.
Other non-Param based examples seem to work.
I have tried switching browsers and machines, and also running the sample notebooks locally in recently updated conda env.

For example: the Reactive Plots example allows me to change the X and Y variable but the graph does not update.

Versions:
python 3.8.3
panel 0.9.7
param 1.9.3

User error: my conda env was missing the Jupyterlab extension.

The reactivity still does not work in the VS Code IDE notebook, but will run/test with Jupyterlab for now.